Encores

[Guest DeputyHawk]

i'm all for encores if they're spontaneous due to massive fan response, but 9 times out of 10 the encore is a planned part of the set with bands or artist's biggest hits being left off until we as a crowd go through the pavlovian motions of clapping them back on stage to play what they always intended.

 

it's just so ... false.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

When I saw Maiden, they joked about this. Bruce was like "you know we weren't fucking going anywhere, just needed a slight breather." It was cool.

 

But yeah, sometimes encores do piss me off. Especially if it's a band I don't care for.

[Guest Random Hero]

When I went to see Elton John, he was on for about 3 hours, and it was boiling hot and the guy beside me smelt really bad, and I'm a big Elton fan but I was wishing he would just get it over with. He went off on a 20 minute piano solo which completely bored the hell out of me, and it took 'I'm Still Standing' to get my attention back. Then he just went on and on, with songs noone seemed to know...then when I finally thought i might get some air, he came back for seemingly a 20 minute extended version of 'Circle of Life'...and a rousing rendition of 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' before he finally buggered off.

 

He was damn good though, and I'd see him again.

 

But yeah erm now i realise I went completely off topic a bit there and basically just gave a review of an Elton John concert.

 

Oh yeah now I get my point. Encores also suck when it's hot and your dying to get outside and the show has gone on (needlessly) for 3 hours. As well as sucking in the way my friend DeputyHawk (above) described.

[Guest Random Hero]

A good thing about encores though is when people who haven't really been to many concerts and don't really know about encores.

 

Like at Leeds Festival last year when some whiny bitch standing next to me started pissing and moaning 'cos the Foo fighters went off without doing 'Everlong'. Obviously anyone with half a brain knew that they'd saved it for encore, but not this prissy bitch. He was blubbin' so much he probably missed it when they finally came back on...so that was good for laugh anyway. Not that I could enjoy it much, being crushed to death.

 

Oh the Leeds memories come flooding back...Front row for Andrew WK!!! best moment of the festival...hahah. Some retards had a big banner that said ' Andrew WK, Wank Wank Wank' and he acknowledged it and started going....

 

'Yeah Yeah Yeah I love to Wank!!!'

 

Before bursting into Party Hard, or maybe it was She is Beautiful, it doesn't matter they're all the same song anyway.

[Guest DeputyHawk]

worst offender i've seen was elvis costello who played three encores, leaving allison until the very end of the third.

 

best were counting crows, who got a massive ovation but had played all their hits already. they came back on to do some cover versions and an alternate goodnight elizabeth and it just seemed much more spontaneous, even if it wasn't. just much classier.

[Youth N Asia 0]

ehhh...it's just part of music. It's stupid, but I think most people accept the encore as the last act of the show.

[Red Baron 0]

Motorhead did it the best when they said "We all know what you guys want to see, here it goes...ACE OF SPADES!!!"

 

killer stuff.

[Guest Choken One]

Creed.

 

They encored 3 songs twice.

 

One

What's this life for

and of course

Higher

 

It was a great concert though...I went for 3DD and left digging Creed.

 

I'm sure Coreylaz and AOO will revoke my metal license.

[Red Baron 0]

I'll revoke it for them.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I hate encores, usually (for reasons already listed), but I'll say that when I saw Sigur Ros back in March, their encore perf was the highlight of an already terrific show.

[packwingfn 0]

Saw Def Leppard on saturday

 

Encore was Love Bites and Do You Wanna Get Rocked...good encore, good stuff.

 

I dont mind encores as it gets you more pumped and excited screamin as loud as you can till the band comes out

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Choken One Posted on Aug 18 2003, 05:16 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Creed.

 

They encored 3 songs twice.

 

One

What's this life for

and of course

Higher

 

It was a great concert though...I went for 3DD and left digging Creed.

 

I'm sure Coreylaz and AOO will revoke my metal license. 

 

And I'll go ahead and kick you in the balls.

 

LOA reference won't help you this time.

[Guest Boomer Sprinklespax]

I love encores, probably because I only go to concerts for bands that I truly enjoy and/or admire. I suppose if I went to a concert for something I am only mildly interested in, and the show wasn't all that great, then the encore would probably bore me. But that has never happened, so, as I said, I love encores, even when they are planned.

 

Let me tell you a tale of the greatest series of encores I have ever been privy to. I recently saw the EELS in concert in Atlanta, Georgia...

 

The EELS had already played their hits and singles during the meat of the show, so the encores were more just for the hardcore fans. The first was about six songs long, wherein they played some old stuff and some stuff from their new album, Shootenanny. They left after the first encore, but you knew they were coming back because the lights hadn't come back on yet. So they came back out and performed the rest of a song they had played in the beginning of the show - they played the long instrumental opening at the very start of the show, and played the rest of the song on this second encore. They played a couple more songs after that and then left again. You could tell the third was coming once again due to the lights not going off. So E, the lead singer, came back out and performed a piano song solo from the EELS first album (the song Beautiful Freak from the album Beautiful Freak). E left, the lights came back on, everyone figured that was it. My friends and I stuck around to see what we could get, y'know, like a set list or drum stick or something. About ten minutes after the third encore ended, a roadie came onto the stage and said, "Ladies and gentleman, the EELS have left the building......no, just kidding, here they are!" You've got to understand, this place was more than 75% empty at this point. The band came out and went berserk, playing an insane cover of a ZZ Top song whose name escapes me at the moment, all with the lights still on and the place still pretty much empty. It was very funny to watch people run back in and try to look nonchalant doing so. This went on for about 5-10 more minutes.

 

And it was fucking GREAT.

[Rendclaw 0]

Of course encores are planned. It is the first time the entire band can get offstage for more than five minutes, and yes they usually save their most popular songs for last.

 

The only time I hated an encore was when I went to see Suicidal Tendencies a couple years ago... They played Send Me Your Money as the encorce when it should have IMO, "You Can't Bring Me Down"... I was so pissed because that was the popular song they didn;t play, and I wanted it.

 

And Redbaron, no offense my man, but you need to be quiet about Maiden. I'm still bitter.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I went to go see Billy Joel a few years ago, back when I was a full-on hippy, and was so amazed that people were talking about how everyone chants "Piano Man" before the encore because that's what he was going to be playing as the encore song. It was amazing that after seeing so many Phish shows, which have spontaneity and are unpredictable in terms of what will be played and when, that people would be stoked to know exactly what the encore was going to be. Kind of takes the fun out of it, in my eyes at least.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

When did Choken get his metal liscense?

 

Encores are kinda there. They're nice when they're warranted, but that's it.

 

Nasum did this really well, actually. They did their set (which was as short as their music), and started walking off, leaving me and the people I went with going "Oh what the fuck..they're not playing Inhale/Exhale?" Because none of the other bands had time for encores, or really needed them, you see..Well, they get about halfway off stage, and turn right around and rip everyone's face off. The most violent one minute and thirty eight or so seconds ever.

[notJames 0]

Bad Religion are one of the only music acts to get it right. The last time I saw them, Greg Graffin went on a little rant about how encores are just masturbation, and that they didn't need the audience to beg for them to play more songs. So he said that they were ending their set with 5 or 6 songs all in a row and that would be the end of it. The crowd ate it up, and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

[Mole 0]

That is what I love about Phish; there is NO telling what they are going to encore with.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

If I'm paying $50-60 for a ticket (U2, Radiohead), they damn well better give me an encore. Favorite encore I've seen, though, was when the Rollins Band came back out and sent us home with some Ramones covers. Good, fun way to end things.

 

There are some shows where an encore just doesn't make sense. Tool, for example--at the 2 shows I hit, they ended their set with the three-part suite from Lateralus and the song "Lateralus." It was just too huge and spectacular a finish--about 40, 45 minutes of interconnected mastery. Coming out 5 minutes later to play "Prison Sex" would have diluted a lot of the grandeur of the experience.

[nl5xsk1 0]

If I'm paying $50-60 for a ticket (U2, Radiohead), they damn well better give me an encore. Favorite encore I've seen, though, was when the Rollins Band came back out and sent us home with some Ramones covers. Good, fun way to end things.

 

There are some shows where an encore just doesn't make sense. Tool, for example--at the 2 shows I hit, they ended their set with the three-part suite from Lateralus and the song "Lateralus." It was just too huge and spectacular a finish--about 40, 45 minutes of interconnected mastery. Coming out 5 minutes later to play "Prison Sex" would have diluted a lot of the grandeur of the experience.

Even though Radiohead is rather hated on this board, I have to say that they did a great job of encoring (unsure if that's even a word) ... 2 different times they left the stage only to come back to play another 2 songs each time. All told, the encore was about 20-30 minutes long.

 

And I have to disagree with the covering of the Ramones songs as a good encore ... I saw when Rollins and Morris played the Black Flag songs to raise money for the West Memphis Three, and was super-pissed that they only encored with the Ramones songs. I paid money to see Black Flag songs, not the Ramones. If anything, they should have encored with Rollins Band and Circle Jerks songs. As someone that hated the Ramones, I was pretty pissed. (of course, you only stated your opinion and I have to give you that, you didn't say it like a fact ... I just have to give my opinion of disagreeing)

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Yeah, I would have liked some Rollins Band stuff too, but Ramones were good enough for me. It was just such a nice, upbeat shift after all the liquid aggression. Also, I would have avoided any Circle Jerks songs after the initial Kieth Black Flag salvo, because he looks sorta like a zombie-mummy and I think I might have gotten nightmares had he persisted.

[Guest Shaved Bear]

Ive only seen Slayer do a spontaenaous encore, because i saw them 4 times and they only did it once

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

That's because Slayer's playlist has barely changed in the past decade.

 

EDIT:

Choken, you did NOT have a metal license. You had a metal PERMIT, boy.

[Damaramu 0]

Well at the Rancid show they just walked off stage and everyone cheered for them to come back...it took the drums getting taken apart for everyone to give up.....so not everyone encores.

I don't mind them. I just hate it when they know they're coming back but they make everyone yell for 20 minutes. I shit you not that Disturbed had the arena yelling for them for 10 minutes.

[rising up out of the back seat-nuh 0]

The only bands I've seen who did an encore like they meant it were The Mars Volts (who went through their entire album, then encored with a random e.p. track) and Aphex Twin (who just returned with some random techno to send people off happy).

 

With Radiohead, you know they're gonna do a couple of encores, but Everything In It's Right Place, while a great end of show song, isn't the kind of song to send people off happy with. Best to save that for a single.

[Guest Choken One]

I also recall an Aerosmith show where they played the stage and left after about 50 minutes...the crowd chanted AEROSMITH! for like 10 minutes and then outta no they emerged in the Lawn and ripped it there for another 30 minutes...