It’s a date that comes up once in a lifetime—11/11/11. While that makes filling out the date easier for the terminally lazy—eight slashes and you’re outta here—today’s check-off on the calendar of our lives will be beloved by music fans, especially audio guys, for years to come, because as Nigel Tufnel once noted, “The numbers all go to eleven.”
Today, in the spirit of this mind-blowing observation, we present that classic rock moment from the infamous 1984 heavy metal mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap. Enjoy guys—just keep it under 111 dB today.
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don’t know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
…And because 11 is all about excess, here it is one more time, in Lego:
