The thing I'm a little confused on is why your ears would have gotten MORE sensitive over the years and that you are experiencing pain at lower decibels. All the hearing loss crap aside, everyones threshold of pain is basically the same and remains basically the same, I believe it's 140 dB. Playing drums for years aka being exposed to loud sounds for years may slowly deteriorate some of your hearing but it should never EVER change your threshold of pain. If it is more of a personal annoyance that developed cool, but if it really hurts, I would see a doctor.
A lot of people say 'always wear ear plugs at concerts', and I think that's overdoing it a bit. I would say 'always wear ear plugs if you plan to be in the first 5 rows' and otherwise you should be just fine. No sense changing the frequency content if you are there to hear the show as is from a reasonable distance from the speakers. Putting in ear plugs is like putting a huge low pass filter on everything, and you lose a lot of intelligibility. While I hate when venues push the volume to the point of DISTORTION, I do understand that you have to fill the whole venue with quality sound, so for each concert you simply have to make a choice - stand up close and wear earplugs (or don't if you only attend concerts infrequently - it really is just prolonged exposure that would damage your ears) or stand back, and enjoy the sound as it is intended. I switch off, personally, depending on the type of band or even if I am seeing a band for the second time I'll often drop back and relax to experience the concert a different way.
. It's funny, I get bagged out by guitarists for wearing earplugs, yet my hearing is so much better than theirs. I've literally had them say to me "I'll just get hearing aids".
