Stop the Scripted Encores, Already!

The encore thing is one of my biggest pet peeves. If I had my way, enxores would be very rare and usually unplanned. The most ridiculous thing is when an artist with one hit plays a set of album cuts and then the lights go down and everybody “wonders” if the artist is going to come back to play the one song that people will recognize. Encores should be reserved for shows that are truly remarkable, but it seems to have become an obligatory part of the concert. Everybody does it.

Whoever wrote that Gary Allan thing is a damn genius!

Was the Gary Allen interview done before his “speaking out” on oprah like 8 months ago?

My favorite encore at a concert was Trisha Yearwood at Westbury a few years ago. She finished the standard set list with “How Do I Live”, and then she said, “So, I’m feeling a bit lazy. Can we all just pretend that we left the stage, you cheered, and I came back, and we’ll just do three more songs for ya right now?”

My pet peeve with “encores” is artists who force one by not singing their biggest hit, so the crowd is still waiting to hear a big one.

If a headliner didn’t do the encore, everybody would be ticked off.

Opening acts don’t need one though!

Oh yea, and what about “I Got Stripes” or “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” for the Cash cover? I say anything but “Folsom Prison Blues”.

The encore story reminds me of a NY Times article from a few years back that stuck with me: “The Tyranny of the Standing Ovation”. It’s about the theater instead of music venues, but the parallels are strong:

“Whatever the motivation, the effect of the rampant increase in standing ovations has been accompanied by — as with any other form of inflation — a decrease in value. If almost every performance receives one, then it ceases to be a meaningful compliment — and actors who don’t get one cease to be able to console themselves.

“Have we really reached the point in this crazy mixed-up world where even thunderous applause means nothing unless delivered from a standing position? Even actors — who never met a fan they didn’t like — say that in an age when everything is worthy of the highest accolade, it’s hard to tell how much an audience actually likes you.”

Staged encores only work for me if there is something dramatic to usher the encore in. I was a big hard rock/heavy metal fan growing up in the 80s and attended a ton of arena shows. So even though you knew AC/DC was going to do their three-song encore set of “Hells Bells,” “Highway to Hell,” and “For Those About to Rock, We Salute You” the drama was that with the lights down and the crowd going crazy that first peal of the bell in “Hell’s Bells” would drive you completely insane. Similarly, when Judas Priest came back for their first encore it would be “Hell Bent For Leather,” with the revving of Rob Halford’s Harley signaling the crowd.

What’s completely unecessary with an encore is when the act leaves the stage and then just returns with no fanfare. The band just puts their instruments back on and cranks into a hit. For some acts this is ample enough because of the nature of the encore. It might be an anthemic number with a signature opening riff. But more often than not, with that type of lazy, ambling back onto the stage, the act denies the audience a sense of “I am so high from the music - TAKE ME HIGHER” where that act can leave the fans awestruck, instead of just happy. The act doesn’t take the invitation from the fans to give them a moment even higher than the one when the lights go down and the crowd roars in anticipation of the opening number. Not only are the lights down and the crowd aching for more, but they’ve heard your entire show and they are begging to be thrilled AGAIN. The audience is at least owed some kind of drama at that stage of the evening.