How to get away with being loud at small clubs (doom metal/harsh noise

Have you considered a reactive load like the Two Notes Captor X? This way, you can route your tube amp head into a safe load that'll keep the amp functional while allowing you to go direct to FOH. This will allow you to crank your amp at the most optimal volume setting while letting the sound guy do the work in volume matching.

I use two Captor X's in my guitar rig in stereo with my Fryette 2902 power amp (Captor X #1 being the left side, and Captor X #2 being the right side), and so far it's worked wonders with the Ownhammer Friedman IR's.

And just in case you're asking, yes, you can use the Speaker Thru to go to your cab for onstage volume.

You have to understand that the sound guy is trying to get the most optimal volume that works for that particular venue. Yes, certain situations may allow for amps to be cranked up without the need for micing up the amp; however, NOT ALL VENUES ARE CAPABLE OF THIS!!!

A good practice is to meet up with the sound guy a day before the show if possible, and discuss how the sound is going to be set up for the night. This way, you can make a decision on that spot with no confusion whatsoever.

This is why more and more guitarists are going for either the modelling route or the reactive load route. This way, the sound guy doesn't have to worry about balancing the stage amp volume with the PA volume, and eliminates the trial-and-error factor during soundcheck.

I highly recommend you check out my review on the Captor X. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FuJFadhZBQ&ab_channel=BillPrimo

Lower sensitivity speakers help a lot too. For rock with British amps I strongly recommend the 60s and 70s celestion g12s. It's a less efficient g12m greenback. No longer made. The early ones have pulsonic cones but the kurt Mueller cones sound great too like a black back or 90s greenback reissue. They have a smaller magnet than the M size but larger than the S size ferrite magnet that tends to produce a somewhat weedy tone. These speakers will attenuate your level a good 2 or 3 dB. If you also use a power attenuator you can get a pretty reasonable level with the amount if power tube distortion you want without under driving the speaker.

The captor X is a really nice product but I've not used it outside of my home studio for anything but demos.

Personally I prefer to be oppressively loud whether I'm playing guitar, keys or bass. I've been in more controlled bands where I had to tame that a bit. I still want to be as loud as permitted, it's part of the experience. Rock music is loud. How do I get away with it? I've been as round a long time and no FOH mixer would dare touch my gear because I've worked at all the venues in town when I was younger. Get to know the soundman at the beginning of the gig and talk to him about your need for stage volume to do your thing! These people do thus because it's fun. Make the FOH person complicit and try to work within any nouse ordinances he's aware of while having enough spl for feedback manipulation and a big smile on your face at sound check.

But speakers with a sub 98dB sensitivity rating will also help... incorporating an attenuator knocking off an additional 2 or 3 dB will hrlpeven more. You'll still be loud of course, but no one will whine about it if you crank ups 100watter and shave off 5 ir6dB with speaker selection and a squinch if reactive attenuation between the head and cab. Hide the attenuator behind the can so people don't know it can go lower lol! Too much attenuation will take the speakers outta the sweet spot and the tubes don't like it so much... even a reactive losd isn't the same as abox fulla speakers... a small inductor is a differe transducer and a speaker motor without the cone doesn't behave the same... anyway. Hope thise suggestions help. I always had decent tone on Marshall's with a 16 ohm hot plate. For speakers trygoogling. I like the old g12s but there's lots of low sensitivity options with good sonics