Bands who don't give encores

new order. back when they were good.

this is an arsehole's trick.

The Wedding Present

I hate encores and I'll never play one.

The Strokes
Elvis Presley

Stone Roses didn't used to. But they did on the second coming tour that i saw.

huh

Bands that never do encores

Suede (at least when I saw them - '93 to '97)

I recall one Geraldine Fibbers show in particular (an unknown Cat Power opened) where the band finished their set, than Carla addressed the crowd saying "this is the part where we're supposed to go behind the curtain and wait for you to cheer, but we'd rather just stay up here and play a few more songs for you". Or something to that affect. And then they launched into another tune.

I really appreciated the lack of pretense. Encores are good for the band and the crowd, but they can be such an awkward charade.

"this is the part where we're supposed to go behind the curtain and wait for you to cheer, but we'd rather just stay up here and play a few more songs for you"

my blues-obsessed mate saw some hugely fat blues dude in glasgow the other week (sadly, i can't remember who) who basically said: "i'm not going off stage and coming back on because it's too exhausting, so just pretend i'm not here and shout for more."

Indeed the whole encore thing annoys me at gigs, I don't bother cheering etc as know they are coming out whatever.

Manic Street Preachers, early on anyway. Like everything else, we've done this before. Encores are more or less bullshit.

The problem with every band doing an encore is that the whole concept completely loses its meaning. Encores should be something that you witness twice a decade because you were lucky enough to catch an extraordinary gig. I wonder what it would be like to witness an encore back in the day (when was that day, anyway?) when they were still sort of a spectacle? "Holy shit, Cab Calloway is coming back for MORE!" I'm not sure what the equivalent would be today. Radiohead comes back for a 5th encore? The whole thing has been devalued.

The problem with every band doing an encore is that the whole concept completely loses its meaning.

this is very OTM. an encore should be something that an audience earns; a reward for, i dunno, their appreciation of the main set. certainly it shouldn't be taken for granted that a band will return. sooooo....

bands doing no encore vs. bands doing two or more?

Radiohead at Glastonbury '02 was the only instance of the latter that I've seen that didn't immensely piss me off. pls to stop the wanking on stage. thx.

How about the most number of encores anyone's seen?

I can't think of specific bands, but I'm sure that the max. I've seen is two encores. I'm sure there must be more.

The Wedding Present

Just coming here to post that. Always appreciated they did that, actually -- no waiting around being tired before you could go home.

How about the longest encores ever? I don't know how long it was actually but Led Zeppelin at Knebworth seemed to be 45 minutes long (as I was desperate for the lavatory every minute was a nightmare).

Not only did Orange Juice not do encores iirc but their gigs lasted about half an hour. I thought it was cool at the time.

Also, band sets are too long. Play 30-45 min and get offa the stage. Fuck GBV, too.

there was a time when saint etienne made a point of not doing encores.

otm libcrypt. live shows too long, cds too long, etc... whatever happened to leaving them wanting more?

I'm sure that Squarepusher's encore was just him unplugging stuff with the PA still on

whatever happened to leaving them wanting more?

This cannot be emphasized enough. It's a helluvalot better to have a riot on yr hands 'cause you didn't play long enough than to see 1/2 the audience filtering out the front door near the end.

Ween's concerts are so long that the encores are over an hour.

Wouldn't see Ween live unless you paid me.

Certainly one thing that would have to be resolved to end encore inflation is the tendency of bands to actually save their biggest hittingest songs for the encore. If you set up the set this way, the audience ends up feeling cheated without the encore, AND knows exactly what you're going to play when the encore does come around.

I'm not sure what the equivalent would be today. Radiohead comes back for a 5th encore?

Having followed the '08 USA setlists for a couple weeks recently (in advance of the Houston show), Radiohead typically play two encores. I think there was one date on this tour where they came back for a third encore, just a single song. Nice touch for that crowd.

How about the longest encores ever?

For their '08 USA tour, it seems the Cure are playing nearly 3 hour shows again. Which means 2 hour main set, followed by 1 hour/3 encores. The final one is typically 5-7 songs from Three Imaginary Boys.

Hmm, are they playing a UK tour this year?

Electric Six don't even leave the stage...they stand there, hands folded, looking down, wait the requisite 2 minutes, then start playing again...love it!

Clinic didn't do an encore when I last saw them...and their set was only 30 minutes...in their case, that was just about right...(not meant as a putdown)...

Badly Drawn Boy will play encores until the place is empty...

I've told myself I'd stop talking about my lol goth phase roommate on ilx, but I can't help it-- ONE TIME HE UN-IRONICALLY CALLED FOR HIS OWN BAND'S ENCORE AND THEN PLAYED THE ENCORE

after already playing a really long time

one time when i saw rocket from the crypt they all "died" on stage at the end of their set and then laid there for three or four minutes until the audience's cheering reached a certain point where it started to "bring them back to life." starting with hands and feet twitching, then limbs shaking until they slowly arose and started the encore without ever leaving the stage.

How about the longest encores ever?

Saw Joe Strummer (with the Mescaleroes, in 2001 or so) play a 45 minute set, an hour encore, a half-hour second encore, and then (after about 20 minutes of the room stomping and clapping and cheering while the house lights were up) a ten-minute final encore. They'd so exhausted the new band's repertoire that the first song in the last bit was the b-side of a 1989 single, with no accompaniment but the percussionist playing bongos.

Wow.

Ween's concerts are so long that the encores are over an hour.

I've seen them only once, on their 2000 tour for White Pepper, and though they rank highly on my list, I don't think I'll ever need to go to another Ween show for the rest of my life: There was no opening act and the band took the stage shortly after doors opened at 8 or so. As it was the first gig on the tour that had sold out, D & G loudly and repeatedly promised to reward the audience by performing until either (A) they collapsed from exaustion; or (B) the bouncers physically removed from the stage (venue closing time = 2am). Of course I thought they were taking the piss, but they then proceeded to ACTUALLY PLAY FOR SIX FUCKING HOURS and, true to their word, they did not stop when the house lights came on. It really did end with menacing skinhead Detroit bouncers gathered around the stage, beating their chests and unplugging shit.

From approximately 8:30-2:15, the following transpired:
- The crowd was more or less treated to The Complete Works of Ween
- Also: miniature Prince and Van Halen sets
- An extended disco jam
- Our feet hurt a lot (standing room only)
- Inordinate amounts of money spent on alcohol. It is hard enough to try to maintain a buzz for that long without a bog of excessive body heat causing you to sweat out your booze almost as quickly as you take it in.
- For his part, Gener singlehandedly consumed an entire fifth of Jack Daniels over the course of the evening (but nevertheless managed a strikingly convincing display of impromtu Eddie VH shredding, among other mind-boggling feats of seemingly infinite genre adaptability.
- Stinky fucking hippies
- Lots of audience requests
- After the first 90 minutes or so, the rest of the gig was divided haphazardly into "encores." Given the length of the show, they must have left and returned to the stage somewhere around 8-15 times.
- Ridiculous and exhausting but, in the end, mostly just fucking incredible.

I recall one Geraldine Fibbers show in particular (an unknown Cat Power opened) where the band finished their set, than Carla addressed the crowd saying "this is the part where we're supposed to go behind the curtain and wait for you to cheer, but we'd rather just stay up here and play a few more songs for you". Or something to that affect. And then they launched into another tune.

John Vanerslice does this as well.

Encores = mostly dud

That Ween story-- wow

the Who didn't play encores until after moon died. in a 1975 creem interview, daltrey said, "I think that it's of the utmost importance to leave an audience wanting more rather than exhausted and moaning, 'Thank Christ that's all over.' That's why we don't do no encores. They're a bloody con. You shouldn't do 'em, cos they're the biggest con ever and Led Zeppelin were one of the worst groups for starting that whole encore thing off."

Agreed

can i just clarify that up the top of the thread there i meant encores themselves are "an arsehole's trick"? gigs are long enough and usually more enjoyable in retrospect. plus everyone's dying for a piss.