For the sake of necroposting (my hobby) I have to chip in two cents:
I like going to see and support the good metal bands.
Invariably, I have to sit through someone's universalist rockstar dreams beforehand as local bands play. I like the idea of bands getting ahead. Somehow, however, concerts are usually a side route around recording a demo and having people realize it's good, kind of like socialization can be. "You have to hear them live, they don't come out on tape," can be true (bad production) but usually it's an excuse that means you can't enjoy this band unless you're stoned, drunk and distracted.
Then again, I feel all of rock music is a sham. The more I learned, the more I realized it was based on European popular music, not African tribal cults. Then I learned about how all the early acts were assembled explicitly as products, and how cynical the people behind them were. Then I saw how rock, jazz, blues, etc. are based around the same few ideas because they make good products: you can repeat the same structure, add formula to make it "unique," and hordes of uninformed people buy it. Rock concerts are even dumber than metal concerts.
Would I go to see, say, Averse Sefira or Demilich? Of course. Seeing the music reproduced live is a thrill. But at those shows, somehow, most people are mostly sober and paying attention. There's not much moshing. The music itself is the focus. I still don't like the rockstar aspect -- although frontmen such as Antti Bowman effectively slay it by being completely disinterested -- but there are some advantages to it.
I admit enjoying the basic aspects of performance. People come together, this loud music appears, and then energy gets synchronized to the patterns of the music. It is fascinating. It may even be awesome on psychedelics, although memory suffers. When I think of concerts that have blown me away however it's older stuff, like Slayer or Sepultura or Deicide or Suffocation.
I think, however, that every one in this thread should treat themselves to a live performance of one of the classical greats, like a Brahms or Schumann or Beethoven or Bruckner, not one of the trendy modern-classical-soundtrack artists that stupid metalheads like to bloviate on metal boards about. It adds another dimension to the performance, which does include recognition of the composer, but as a human being and not some plastic god.