Why does rock concert sound suck?

Thank you @wolf_garcia ​​​​@panzrwagn for sharing and validating that yes, it can be done.  

@sparksgja "Lots of washy echo, clear yet layered guitars, keyboard synths and a bass so firm my mid chest vibrated (and I kept telling myself to buy a subwoofer). It sounded for all its loudness completely involving and visceral."  - sounds like you got the War on Drugs exactly as you should have.  Love that band.  
 

Honestly (and not to be mean) the rest of this thread should be followed up with a "Get off my lawn" type of complaint.  Know the venue, know your band, and set expectations accordingly.  

Sincerely, fellow grey haired gentleman.  

I put my money on the venue/structure and the design/build in the bad acoustics. Where I come from is a great example, in Edmonton Alberta, Rodgers Place(home of the NHL Edmonton Oilers), is perfect venue for concerts in its design and sounds awesome. When they built the building concerts/music was part of the design/build. Now go south down the highway to Calgary Alberta, and the Saddle Dome(home of the NHL Calgary Flames), the building is shaped like a "saddle" and every concert I've been to there, the acoustics suck...bad, really bad! 

Blaming Class D phased array speakers is silly...a good sound mixer can make nearly anything work well. Also, now that in-ear monitors are nearly universally adopted, the on stage levels can be anything. A little history: Piles of Altec A7s or similar JBL boxes were standard (often with Mac amps) until maybe the mid 70s when Clair Bros. boxes (or similar) were introduced. They could have JBL 15s with other JBL horns and tweeters in a single box often stacked or flown)..often powered by piles of Phase Linear amps...anybody think those amps sounded better than modern Class D arrays? No they did not...the days of super loud crowd blasting sound had arrived.

’electronic manipulation’, wolf, in this case...means ’dsp based acoustic redress’, or some similar meant set of words. But the paragraph,and half the post’s intent was that it as all about DSP based attempts at acoustic manipulation so for me to say it in that specific sentence was not required.

You CHOSE to quote it out of context.

When others say something you don’t have to go out of your way to misinterpret what they say, so you can put a chip on your shoulder about them, and then attack that thing you created. It’s disingenuous. then you proceed to lambaste that person as uninformed an an idiot in a smarmy round about condescending way.

Grow up child. You attempt to appear as an adult; Then show yourself to be one.

IMO it’s a large part of why your commenting PO’s a notable number of people. It’s missing critical aspects of human integrity in the idea of sharing space on a forum and relating.

I PO people for different reasons. To each their own ability to PO, I guess.

An entirely different genre, but last night I went to a rave held in a 100 year old warehouse in Detroit. Not surprising that such a venue not at all conducive to good sound. Concrete floor, high ceiling, metal beams. Highly reflective surfaces everywhere. The sound engineers always crank the bass at events like this, and 24 18" subwoofers in a relatively small space pressurizes the room. The treble was the worst part. On multiple occasions it became ear piercing. Attending such an event and expecting good sound is foolish. Best to set aside critical listening and indulge in the experience.