More than able to reproduce tone, the SM57 is also uniquely designed to deal with high-pressure sound that explodes from instruments and amplifiers. So you can turn it up without distortion drowning out the show. Your music deserves all the loud it can get.
The contoured frequency response makes it simple to engineer clean audio for a live sound mix.
Hard knocks are just part of the show sometimes, and the SM57 is built to take them on. A hit from a high kick or a flying drumstick can’t shut it down.
With a uniform cardioid pattern and a pneumatic shock mount system, you get a whole lot of tone without the background noise.