COMPLETE ALBUMS LIVE

The latest concert trend appears to be bands playing complete albums live, in order, from start to finish. Here's a short list off the top of my head of some recent examples:

Sonic Youth "Daydream Nation"
Public Enemy "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back"
Sebadoh "Bubble and Scrape"
Liz Phair "Exile On Guyville"
Meat Puppets "Meat Puppets II"
Thurston Moore "Psychic Hearts"
Built To Spill "Perfect From Now On"

Those last three are all going to take place at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Monticello, New York, but also at other venues this summer. While I understand the lure of nostalgia, I'm not sure I 'get' this trend. Half the fun of a concert is not knowing what's going to happen next. Instead, this has all the drama of an iPod playlist you made yourself. While it's one thing to try to regain your indie cred (SY) or sell tickets (Liz) why would a band like Built To Spill agree to do something like this?

What is the reason for this trend? It's possible that artists are making a statement in favor of the album as a viable art form, but I think iTunes has effectively killed that notion. I actually went to a They Might Be Giants show where they performed their entire first album in order, but that was not pre-announced and was just a one-off novelty (for New Years Eve 1991, when the album was only a few years old). I haven't heard of bands doing this type of thing since then.