Encores

I always assumed that the formulaic encore had to do with tech and house demands. That is, if the crew is doing lights or something even more elaborate, you need to have that planned out. Or, the venue wants/needs the show done by a specific time.

I've seen authentic encores from The Roots and The Dismemberment Plan. The former was a one-off show, though, which sort of lends itself to such spontaneity. The latter was from the next-to-last show of the farewell tour, where they were taking requests all night and doing whatever they wanted.

I've been to several shows where they obviously trotted out because they had to, but didn't have the whole encore scripted. That half-counts, I suppose.

We all know encores are bullshit, but if you think about it honestly, you'll have to admit that it's a great structure. You get two (or more!) climaxes instead of one. Especially if it's the kind where they end with their big hit and then come back and play a couple covers. And some songs seem like they were just designed for encores. Like Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills." Is it not awesome seeing the band come back on stage all sweaty and shit, and then hear BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOMBOOMBOOOM BOOM BOOM BOOMBOOMBOOM... Would it be anywhere near as cool anywhere else in a set?

In fact, why am I even using the word bullshit? It's showbiz. It's a performer on stage putting on an act. What sense does it make to complain that any of it isn't "real?"

I'm pretty sure I've seen more than a few genuine encores -- they're just usually "bonus" encores. The first encore's a given these days, but the second and third (or, yeah, even the fourth) are often a lot more off-the-cuff. You can usually tell it wasn't planned if there's deliberation over which song(s) the band will play.

Springsteen's the king of multiple encores, but I'm pretty sure the crowd convinced him to come out for the fourth time or so to finish up with "Ramrod." I've seen Pearl Jam shows that were almost half encore, and I'm guessing that the band didn't plan it that way. The Drive-By Truckers seem to be pretty spontaneous with their encore selections, but they play pretty fast and loose with their setlists throughout.

I've actually played a legitimate encore or two, but I think it's different on a local level and there aren't any "hits" to withhold for encore material.

Plenty. If you only go to big shows with union crews that the house doesn't want to pay overtime, computerized lighting cues, big stage sets, etc, of course you're not going to get much spontaneous performance. There's no room/time for it.

But small gigs will have 'real' encores all the time. I've seen loads of bands play songs they obviously hadn't planned to play (new, unrehearsed stuff, semi-spontaneous covers, etc) and certainly play a lot longer than planned, based on how angry some of the house staff seemed to be.

Favorite 'real' encore was a small show by Gentleman Jesse, a great Atlanta band. Guys blasted through all their stuff, were leaving, room is howling. Jesse gets up, explains they literally don't have any more songs. Room keeps howling. "Um, we can play something again?" Room loves it, band obliges, great time is had.

EDIT: Flyarz beat me to part of my post while I was typing.

Honestly, encores annoy the piss outta me. You've played for 90 minutes, do you really need to walk off stage and take a 10 or 15 minute breather before playing another 10 minutes? All it does is cause the drunken, sweaty masses to yell and scream "ENCORE! PLAY <song title>!" Just play the damn songs, wish us a good night, and have at it.

The last Megadeth show I went to, they asked us to excuse them for a minute, they took a 5 minute break, came back and blasted 3 more great songs, then we got the awesome "You've been great, we've been Megadeth" line, and everyone went home happy. Another reason I love Dave Mustaine, cutting through the tired encore bullshit.

Elvis Costello came back out six goddamn times the first time I saw him. Fortunately, I didn't have anywhere else to be, so I was cool with it.

Like Dave said, I've seen Pearl Jam do extended encores that obviously weren't always in the plan and I've seen them come out and do a rare 3rd encore after the lights were up and the house music was playing just because the crowd was still going wild. The best, and maybe only real, encore I've ever seen, though, was Wilco in Chicago this past February. They were playing five shows where they planned on playing every song off their studio albums and on the second night (saturday) they played a great full set and then said goodbye, the lights came up and house music started playing but the crowd just would not give it up. The whole place was going absolutely nuts, so the guys came back out and rocked out a totally sloppy cover of hoodoo voodoo. It's one of my best concert memories.

Fifteen minutes? What the hell kind of bands are you seeing?

When I saw Wire in October they impressed the hell out of everyone with their new material, so after the crowd went nuts and brought them back out twice, they played Pink Flag and a super-fast version of 1 2 X U, which I'm sure were not planned.

Reverse Encore!

1987. Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. The beginning of U2's "Joshua Tree" tour. As is customary, popular music of the day is playing over the PA system. House lights are up, crowd is in good spirits, and Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", enjoying a heavy rotation resurgence thanks to the film the previous year, is blaring over the speakers. So eventually the whole crowd is singing along to the recording. With the house lights still up and their gear not all plugged in, the band wandered onto the stage and joined in the crowd's singing. It was a pretty cool moment, after which the lights went out and they "started" their show.

It was a nice contrast to the ridiculously theatrical extravaganza they put on at the end of the tour in nearby Giants Stadium, where Bono proclaimed to my teenaged dismay, "I feel like Frank Sinatra!"

I've seen a couple of real encores. The last one? Nick Cave last October. The 2nd encore wasn't planned at all. The tech crew had to replug nearly half the stuff before Cave had to start again.

The only band I've seen not do an Encore were the Arcade Fire who played for about two hours and ended with Rebellion. People were stood around for about twenty minutes waiting for them to come back on, no dice.

Conversely Owen Pallett, of Arcade Fire fame, played a set that was almost half encore and felt like very much a real encore. He actually tried to convince the crowd they didn't want to hear Please Please Please because he couldn't play it live on his own, and then said 'told ya' when he proceeded to fuck it up. He spent most of the night just chatting with people and doing requests, really cool.

In actuality that version Please Please Please is here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvgJP-1G3Jo

Almost all of the encores that I've seen have been obviously planned. The only one that I can think of that felt random was for Robert Plant. I saw him for 'Now and Zen', and he came out for a second encore with the lights up. He played 'Back in the USSR', and it felt fairly random; we had been wild during the encore, so I'd like to think that our enthusiasm brought him out for that little bit of extra effort.

Spontaneous encores are cool but I don't mind planned ones. In fact my favorite encores are planned. There are always three encores at the Vienna Philharmonic's New Years concert and you even know what they're gonna play in two of them. I would still give up large parts of my anatomy to be there once.

As far as Pearl Jam goes, usually only the third encore is spontaneous (the first two are on the setlist - though sometimes they scrap the lanned songs and do whatever), and even then it is usually only Yellow Ledbetter. The Eddie Vedder solo one song (sometimes two) pre-sets seem to be more of a "I feel like winging it" type situation.

If memory serves, Tool doesn't do encores as a rule.

The Pixies didn't either for a while. I can't remember whether they did on the reunion tour, but I think they did.

When I first started getting into the Pixies, I remember reading that they regularly did weird things with their sets, like playing them in alphabetical order. The sets I saw (once for Trompe Le Monde, once on the reunion) seemed to be pretty straightforward, though.

At the show I went to, they did kind of a non-encore. When the show "ended," they stayed on stage, gathered together and jokingly measured the amount of applause the crowd gave. They started the encore without ever actually leaving the stage.

As others have mentioned, I've seen Springsteen do a few "extra" encores after the planned ones-- my favorite was one where he called for "Little Latin Lupe Lu," had to remind the band what key it was in as it started, then vamped on the ending because he couldn't remember how it was to go (laughing apology to the crowd that "we haven't played this song in about fifteen years"), before telling the band to "follow me, boys," and launch into "Twist and Shout." I've also seen him come back out after the house lights and taped music have been going for a few minutes.

Saw The Replacements attempt an encore that degenerated into drunken giggling before a half-hearted attempt at "Whole Lotta Love," and finally ended with Paul shrugging and walking off while the rest of the band seemed to be laughing at him.

I once saw a Faces show where, near the end, Rod said "OK, we're going to play Maggie May, Stay With Me, and Twisting the Night Away, and that'll be the end, no encore." And they did.

Worst non-encore I can remember was T. Rex, who (somewhat to my surprise) absolutely killed, and had the crowd going insane. The place was completely pumped, stomping, and screaming... and then nothing. Houselights came up, and it was like a balloon deflating.

Seen Manson four times, never once did he do an encore. I think at least one encore is a nice thing to do, even if it's part of the setlist (for example, if THE song is still missing).

I've once been to a Rammstein concert where they played about EVERY song they ever had in encores (I think it was when they had only two albums out). Once they got out of german language songs, they switched to US and english covers and played on for another 40 minutes. Awesome.

I dunno. They did those two (and Reuters) as encores when I saw them in October too. Great show, though!

I'm not sure how many of the encores I've seen have been planned or unplanned but Public Enemy kept returning to the stage and played on for almost an hour past the alleged curfew when the played all of "A Nation of Millions..." a few months ago.

Similarly, at the last round of Pavement concerts in '99, the crowd wouldn't let the band leave which led to a bonus encore of Conduit for Sale - which was probably planned - and covers of Creedence's "Sinister Purposes" and Devo's "Whip It" which almost certainly weren't because the house lights were brought up during the former and the sound was cut before the end of the latter.

I always loved James Brown's act and I'm sure other old school performers had similar schtick:

At some point James' handler would come out and throw a cape over James' shoulders, then start carefully escorting the "obviously" exhausted Brown off stage while the band played it out. James and his handler would almost be to the wings and James would hesitate for a moment, look towards the (deliriously screaming) crowd, and suddenly come alive, throwing the cape off and leaping back center stage to work out 2 or 3 more songs. When I saw him in Greensboro in the early '90s the the handler tried to take him home probably 3 times before he finally "hit it and quit." So fucking fantastic.

Funny you should mention that. When I saw them they played for about two and a half hours plus three encores. The second encore was clearly planned ("Heart of Rock and Roll") but the third was not. They did an a capella version of Bad is Bad with the house lights up and only one mic while the stage crew took apart everything else.

I saw a weird encore in Saskatoon. Robert Cray was playing at the local "larger" venue. It was a great show. He played for about 90 minutes plus a couple of encores. After the concert we all went to Bud's the local Blues bar where he played an acoustic set in between sets of the other act playing that night (Big Dave McLean, I think). Kinda awesome.

I worked for Cray's record label for a few years, and had the chance to meet him a couple of times. Great performer, and incredibly classy guy.

And I had a sort of similar experience, though it wasn't spontaneous-- many years back, saw Rockpile open for Elvis Costello at Hollywood High School. After the show was over, we went down to the Whiskey A Go Go where Rockpile was playing their own midnight set.