Why Live Shows Still Beat Everything

By Araz Shahbazian

I love a good playlist as much as anyone, but nothing streams like a live show. No matter how good your speakers are, they can't reproduce the way a band feeds off the energy in the room. When I get the itch to see something live, I've learned to just go.

Part of it is the imperfection. Live, a song is never exactly like the record — a longer solo, a different arrangement, a moment where the singer drops out and lets the room carry the line. Those little deviations are the point. You're seeing something that happens once and never exactly again.

And it's a once-only moment. For a couple of hours nothing else is competing for attention, and that's the whole point. I bounce between a lot of genres, but whatever it is, I'll always choose to hear it live if I can.