Glasgow Barrowlands 1992 (don't quote me, my ticket stub has fallen off my pinboard) Downward Spiral tour - 1hr 50mins of brutal in yer face noise rawk.
Off.
House lights up.
Punters file out.
I looked at my mate and said "well ye cannae really dae anything else efter that"
He shrugged, like a man who'd just witnessed a plane crash and filed out with me.

But sometimes encores are dead cool, didn't The Pink Floyd encore with Echoes?

... we all find it cringingly embarrassing, too - especially when playing on the kind of stage where you can't make a 'proper' exit off the side or back into some backstage area. Instead we just end up huddling at one side of the stage hoping the applause won't die down within 10 seconds, before we get a chance to shuffle back on and pick up our instruments again... We don't know why we do it, but it seems somehow to be 'expected'!

When the lights go down at a concert and the intro music begins (if they have it) I love it. I'm like a kid waiting for them to walk out. Again all part of the theatre.

This is a case of damned if they do and damned if they don't I'm afraid.

...reading a review of a gig from one of The Sex Pistols' many 'reunion' tours which said John Lydon had to ask for an encore!

But yes I agree, after a few gigs I got quite bored of this ritual as well to be honest.

said that you dont expect the newsreader to come back after the adverts, so you shouldn't expect an encore form the Wedding Present.

I saw a band once where the singer said "Well we've reached the point we're supposed to go off and come back again but we're just gunna keep playing"

The applause he got was louder and more heartfelt than if they'd gone through the charade of making us beg for more. There should be more of it.

As Scottie says above; damned if you do...

Not that this is the sole reason for not doing 'em, but the notion that not doing an encore confers some sort of authenticity to proceedings seems rather sanctimonius. All art is by necessity artifice at some level. Where does one stop in the quest to "keep it real, maaaaaaaan"? You might as well argue "tunes are emotionally manipulative".

On the other hand, sometimes the encore is a chance for the band and audience to have five minutes to get their breath back or it might provide an opportunity for a shift of gear. It tells the audience, 'This is it, so put yer back into these last couple of numbers'.

Also, bands may work on the principle that an encore forms an part of the standard show that they expect to play under normal circumstances, but if the show stinks, they're also an opportunity to get out earlier.

the ritual of encores and bows and clapping is pure nonsense. i hadn't been to one in while and went to the proms and by the time we had ritual applauded the baton waver after he came back from his "gasper" and then the lead fiddle player I was all for going home it wasn't even that good a performance.
As to rock concerts the only time it's forgiveable is when they encore with a surprise guest or extra players and need to time to switch about. Alot concerts are too long already 70-90 mins tops then get off we can all get the bus/kebab/swift half jobs a good un.

Worst Encore abuser Mr "and another thing" himself Elvis "kill me now he's got his banjo" out Costello, he maanged to make tedious gig 4 times worse by "encoring" 4 times it was hidious.

The worst moment must be when they expect to do an encore but the audience have gone home instead. The best experience, for band and audience, is when the house lights have come up, the exit music is playing, the roadies are unplugging things and yet the audience want more. So the bemused and grateful band come back on for one more song.

I saw Jonanthan Richman play loads of encores until the audience simply threw in the towel. Then he came straight back to sit on the stage and chatted to fans. Spontaneity.

It winds me up when I see band's set lists before a gig with the encores written down in advance, where's the spontaneity in that?

You don't expect a waiter to ask for a tip before he serves you...

You only have to look at set-lists. There is the main set, a line across the page and then a couple of encore numbers.
I never saw Cat Stevens, but I understand he never did encores and I think that was a good thing. Similarly The Who, but that of course came about because in the days of stage wrecking, they couldn't come back. But once they gave that up they continued not to do encores.
One of the few times I've seen a genuine encore was Emmylou Harris at Shepherd's Bush Empire on the Wrecking Ball tour. They did the set and the encore and then went off, but it had been such a great night that when the lights went up we still bayed for more. They came back out and said they didn't really have any more to play but said they'd do a thing they did at soundchecks. It didn't have a name but in style was more like something from Sly Stone than Emmylou's catalogue.
John Martyn now points out the futility of the ritual because of the difficulties he has getting on and off, so he now says something like that was the set and this is the encore
By way of contrast Working Week in the mid 80's were climaxing their national tour at The Dominion in London. The band was augmented with extra musicians. The problem was Juliet Roberts, who rather than doing her job of singing kept on demanding that we applaud her. The upshot was they were booed off stage by those still there; people started leaving in significant numbers at least half an hour before the end. But they still came back for an encore!
So I'd prefer to forget the ritual and if a return to the stage is justified, we'll ask for it.

'til the band line up front of stage, arms round each other, bowing like demented nodding donkeys. Who else hates that. Much prefer it when they applaud the audience, throw out drumsticks or, better still, money...(c) Steeleye Span

I saw Dave Allen many years back in London and just before he closed the show he explained how he never did encores. When he did leave the stage the audience was on its feet immediately crying out for more. Dave then walked back on stage, picked up his glass of whisky and kept on walking until he exited stage right.

http://thechroniclesofmc.blogspot.com/2006/11/greg-dulli-bringing-encore...

The band is like the car, the audience are like the petrol...or something like that...

Jackie Leven always introduces his last song by telling you it's the last one he's playing.As the big man says"encores are for Robbie Williams"

I once went to a horrendous Eric Clapton gig at Earls Court, and Mrs T and I decided after half a dozen numbers that we were out of there at the first encore.....which we were, straight onto a tube and into the night. I heard later from a mate that EC then played for another hour, the tube station was closed as everyone tried to exit and the old Bill filtered people out two by two. They finally got home in the early hours!

Last year I saw Billy Bragg as he attempted to play his entire first album in the 17 minutes he had for the encore. He didn't quite make it, but we all enjoyed the effort.

at the Royal Festival Hall - Pete Entwistle had passed away that week. They played a storming set, went off. They came back and said this is for Pete and launched into 'my generation'. Was a great unexpected moment until I saw them again several years later and they played it again as an encore.

Oh, reference the ChrisG Costello comments above - I doubt that it was a banjo - pretty sure it was a ukulele for the song Scarlet Tide. I do agree that he has been known to string out the encores though. I have seen him on a couple of occasions where the encores have been longer than the show itself.

Daniel Kitson came on and as way of explaining the way the evening went , he would " be on for about 2 hours there will be a brief interval and then, at the end I will leave the stage and do what you do when you finish work . Go home ." Brilliant !

Is it something new or is it just the old fogey bands I see these days? Having a 15-minute interval in the middle of the set. Can they not hold their bladders or do they need a shot of Lucozade? I thought that's what long noodly solos were for.

Doesn't it? I liked The Undertones early shows when they went off, came back on, off and back on with "we haven't got any more" so went on to repeat songs they'd already done. Really exciting for the audience and how it should be done.

Oh, come on guys, don't tell me there isn't some excitement left, midway thru' a steaming show, wondering how they can top this, and beginning to wonder what will be kept in the bag for the encore. But thats the rub: there aren't that many shows good enough, or showmen brave enough to hold one back for a voluntary extra, which is what it should be, like the tip allegory above. Sadly, the encore in now more often the "service charge included". Stevie Wonder, interestingly, didn't do one on his tour, but I defy anyone not to have felt satiated by his performance, bar old mealy mouth Kitty Empire in the paper.
My favourite is when there is a change of pace and style, to send you home gently glowing, rather than bursting with adrenalin. 10k Maniacs knew this, when their encore would be a solo Natalie Merchant performing Verdi Cries.

Until your last sentence I was worried it was maybe me.... Obviously I'm disappointed that you didn't enjoy as much as did I; I even thought he was great on Jonathan Ross, and that isn't something you hear often, even if the hosts sycophancy knew no bounds.

Its so much more refreshing in Brum. For an arena the sound was pretty damn good too, making the NIA now a credible alternative to the aural lube that is Symphony Hall. NEC remains shite, hope even its notoriously muddy mix cannot sully Mr Cohen, my next date on the calendar.

Am also going to see Len at the wonderful NEC and am hoping that he can turn it into an intimate venue as apparently he has successfully managed elsewhere. Looking at the setlists it appears he has routinely been doing 3 or even 4 encores and to be honest it won't bother me at all and nor will I be leaving early. The week before I will be seeing John Martyn who apparently doesnt do encores these days. November promises to be a pretty good month.

Many years ago I saw Cocteau Twins at the Royal Court in Liverpool. They played their set and then an encore and then when the audience wouldn't stop clapping they came back on and played the first track of the set again because they had "nothing else on tape"! That felt like a genuine extra, even though it was just a repeat of something we'd already heard; an 'encore', if you will...

Twenty years ago as a teenage thrash metal fan I went to see some local band. They only knew two songs "Aces High" by Iron Maiden and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica.

They opened with the Metallica song, played the Maiden one, did Metallica again, went offstage to riotous cheers from their mates, came back on for an encore and played the Metallica tune again but in the style of Napalm Death, entire place fell about laughing, but it was genuinely brilliant.

I didn't see it but I was told than when Roy Harper toured in support of his Lifemask album at his Liverpool gig he came on, did the Lord's Prayer which lasted about half an hour, went off stage then did an encore for another hour and a half.

At the end of the gig, Roger Daltry said "Here's the bullshit bit where we go off stage, have a cup of tea and then come back on."

Having given the game away, there then ensued an embarrassing silence before they duly trouped back on five minutes later and launched into their encores, which included 'Won't Get Fooled Again'. Good of Roger to debunk the myth, but somehow it just didn't work out and the atmosphere died.

Speaking also as someone who spent many years playing in bands (not now tho thankfully - I've done my bit) the gap twixt set and encore was always the perfect opportunity for me to nip off to the lav. And they couldn't start again without me coz I was the bassist (and we weren't the Blues Explosion). Just so you know. There is a point to it all.

Didn't New Order decide to play an encore for the first time and come back to discover that the audience had gone home?
Encores are useful for old timers like me. We saw Radiohead at Old Trafford and they were excellent, but we skipped out during the first encore to avoid the traffic. I would never had dreamt of doing that when I was younger.

Elbow did a good trick I hadn't seen before on their last tour in April: They got the crowd to sing a 'local' song to them whilst they went off and mopped their brows, took a piss and possibly enjoyed a swift half. Or at least they did in Dublin where they had a Q&A as to what song the crowd should sing to them. Perennial Irish chant 'olé olé olé' was ruled out swftly, as was some Chris de Burgh, Joe Dolan and - mercifully - U2 and we all settled on Thin Lizzy's "Boys are Back in Town". As he and the band left the stage Guy Garvey asked us to "sing the guitar bit" and for about five minutes Vicar Street duly obliged by singing, over and over and over again, the 'doodle-dee-dee-doo' bit until Elbow came on and played a few more.

Best 'encore' I've ever enjoyed and one of the few true ones was the late Joe Strummer in the Olympia in Dublin in either 1998 or 1999, when he was so genuinely blown away by the reception and the crowds refusal to leave the theatre after three encores that he came back on and played a bucketful of Clash until they plugged him out, and he still played on after that. Now that was class.

But more acts nowadays should adopt the model that some of the classic crooners do, have a trademark bow-out song, one to unite the audience or get them all singing along and waving their arms etc. The aformentioned Joe Dolan - who died last Christmas after 50 years of hits - used to go off to a song called "Goodbye Venice Goodbye" and it was quite stirring to see. Every night for decades he did, shaking hands with the front row as the rest of the venue lost the plot singing along to a song about saying goodbye. After singing a bit and ushering in the brass section to finish it, he would march off the stage in his white suit and out the door leaving the audience in no doubt that he had left the building and they wouldn't be getting anymore. Leave them on a high, or get them involved. That's what I say.