[stevehiehn]

I remember chatting with a sound technician at a concert once and he told me that putting amplification in front of the performers only started happening in the late 60's (ish). Before that musicians were actually subjected to insane DB's by standing only a few meters in front of the amplification. (Don't take this is as fact, but this diagram suggests that he was correct)

[buildsjets]

Some techniques require this. Ted Nugent wouldn't have gotten the crazy howling feedback out of his semi-hollowbody Gibson Byrdland had he not been standing directly in front a pair of Fender Super Twins pushing 4 15" drivers.

If it doesn't make your pants flap in the breeze, turn it up!

[dekhn]

I believe most musicians these days achieve this using a nearby monitor speaker, for example Trey Anastasio from Phish, although I believe he may have adopted newer technology (see https://treysguitarrig.com/2023/08/31/2023-summer/ for more details). He could sustain notes for a long time with his custom hollowbody (like, minutes at a time).

[Synaesthesia]

The Beatles had to quit playing live shows because the amps and speakers were too small to compete with the crowd.

[llamaimperative]

Must’ve felt pretty amazing, at least for a little while til the injuries started.