Live shows are supposed to be faster, it helps make up for the loss of extra production you get in an album. If you play at the exact same tempo, then it's just the same, but... less. That's why all the bands are piping in extra tracks and rhythm guitars, and it just becomes some quest to recreate the album exactly. Which is what some people want, I suppose.
Wow I so disagree with this post. Live shows are not "supposed" to be faster, there's no doctrine set by the musical community that demands this. Metallica rushes the bajesus out of For Whom The Bell Tolls live and it sounds awful because that midtempo marching feeling is completely lost and that adds to the atmosphere of the song. When they rush it it sounds like they just want to get it over with ASAP. Tempo is every bit as important as anything else in a given song and I for one would rather have bands play the songs in the tempo they were written originally unless they're playing the song in a completely different style/genre. Just taking the same song and speeding it up ruins it imo.
Yeah, this is the most essential aspect of the question for me too. I mostly agree with the first comment though. Note that I’ll be talking mostly about live albums here, because, when you’re at a show, you’re caught in the moment and all of this is way less important, if at all noticeable.
When I was a kid and was discovering rock music, putting on a live album and getting hit by that “wow, this is so ENERGY, so POWER” - feeling was the best. Just think about hearing Victim of Changes off of Unleashed in the East (
https://youtu.be/8J9zyviTTmQ) for the very first time after only being familiar with the studio version for years (
https://youtu.be/EKSU1W0ZUmQ). It kicks ass (and balls) like nothing else. For me, that’s what live albums are all about. That’s why I loved Deep Purple, they always took their songs to strange new places live. And overall I still prefer the studio version of Victim of Changes, but had they played live to a click, I would never even listen to Unleashed in the East.
Dream Theater has become too sterile in the Mangini-era. JP’s muddy tone, the jarringly odd-sounding backing vocal tracks and the stiffness that comes with playing to a click haunt their latest live releases.
It’s especially noticeable with songs like As I Am, which just screams for a faster tempo live. Live Scenes, Budokan, or Score, while none of them are perfect, have a much greater replay value than any live album DT released in the last decade. When I put in Breaking the Fourth wall, I feel like I might as well just pop in the better sounding studio versions of the songs. Live albums need to offer something extra in exchange for sounding way more rough. With playing to a click, you take away a big chunk of the chance to end up with something different and interesting.