Yeah, Les, I would find that annoying too; a suitable entry in DougR's "musical pet peeves thread," perhaps. It seems to me that, if someone is going to get by with just his own guitar as accompaniment, he should learn to play it well enough to handle the instrumental breaks himself. That may take some thought and rearrangement, but what the hell, that's what we get paid for. Humming in place of the band might be amusing once, or even twice, but beyond that it would certainly wear on me.

I also thought that encores were supposed to be reserved for those times when the audience demanded more after a truly stellar performance. But I've been going out to see live music concerts for most of my 43 years, and in almost all cases the act comes out for an encore (or multiple encores). It's a silly development, I think.