BS: Encores that never should have been...

Subject: Encores that never should have been...
From: Deni
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:21 AM

I've just been reading the 'Nagging the audience to sing' thread. It raised a good point. Someone mentioned theembarrassing milking of 'encores'. what are your experiences of performers milking encores, or EVEN WORSE, an MC who feels it's their duty to practically drag the coats off the audiences' backs and stuff them back in their seats, declaring, 'Just one more, they'd love just one more,' when it's perfectly obvious they wouldn't.

I MC'd a concert recently, where the very large, loud and colourful dance group were conjuring up a storm. The audience were loving it. They reached their finale, then some reckless soul shouted for more. After a five minute delay while the group re-grouped, one of the performers took the mic and told us that as they'd just danced their finale they would get the audience to dance with them. They then dragged a few of the audience onstage in a conga. One woman fell over a monitor, and the theatre manager was doing his nut to see his careful safety regs being threatened.

Luckily no-one was hurt, but that taught me that you can have too much of a good thing!!! Anyone got any more unwanted or disastrous encores?

D

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 09:34 AM

As the name implies I regulary MC at Festivals throughout the UK. I've got a very basic principle when it comes to the point raised above. The 'act' is contracted to do a set amount of time for his/her/their set, I always try to talk to them before find out any new info e.g. tours, CDs etc and also 'remind' of their alloted time. I also tell them that not to save their best song for an encore because unless the audience go actually wild and I'm about to get my balls chewed off they ain't gonna get one. A few 'precious' ones object (usually those lower down the order) but as I'm in charge and my remit is to announce keep the show on schedule and give the audience value for the ticket money they've paid. On the whole I find my approach works well at least I think it does (he says knowing someone will respond !!)

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 11:30 AM

I love Alistair Brown's approach. In a performance seminar he said that the rule for an encore is that if you can leave the stage and touch the back wall of the room while they're still applauding, you're okay for an encore. "Mind you", he added, "sometimes you've got to run really fast to make it brfore the applause dies down!"

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 12:08 PM

The Encores that bug me the most is when we've (either band) been lashing 'em out to some right boolox of an audience all night and they couldn't care less.. nothin' back at all.. and then when I announce last song, they whip into a lather to hear more!!

Feck 'em I say... I refuse to do one in that situation...

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 01:12 PM

Encores are a lot like tips in restaurants these days - everyone expects one, whether its deserved or not. I'm with Clinton & MC Fat - an encore shouldn't be an audience milking the band to get their money's worth, neither should it be a band indulging their ego; it should be an acknowledgement that something special just took place and the sharing needs to continue, if just for a song.

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 02:43 PM

Unfortunately, the encore has become a cliche that is repeated over and over again at just about every show, regardless of whether it's appropriate or not. I've been embarrassed and annoyed many times by this habit at various folk events I've attended.

It's not really a case of genuine audience enthusiasm, so much as it is a case of people getting their "money's worth". "After all (they figure) we paid for this show, so maybe we can wangle one or two more tunes out of the musician/band before we go home."

It's phony and annoying.

On the other hand, I've seen shows where an encore was genuinely wanted, well deserved, and appropriate.

I think it's partly a case of people reliving their past. For example, there was the famous sing-along at the end of Newport '63, and just about every folk festival since has imitated that, getting a whole ensemble of performers up on the stage for a big finale. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be done, I'm just saying it is done because it's become a cliche, and that robs it of a lot of its magic.

Here's another cliche...in music videos...the standard shots of the audience going nuts, like they were watching the most significant artistic performance in the last hundred years or so...when in fact they are watching another unremarkable group that will be virtually forgotten in a few years from now.

One wonders whether the audience is imitating the last video they saw...or whether they've just been rehearsed and paid to act that way.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 03:01 PM

They surely haven't been paid to act that way... Too many people to pay... but they most likely got to see a free concert of a favorite band, so of course they're jumpin' up and down...

And well, who's to say what's going to be significant or forgotten???

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: paddymac
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 04:33 AM

MCFat is dead on target as to the MC's job. It'd primarily that of a traffic cop.

Subject: RE: BS: Encores that never should have been...
From: Deni
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 05:07 AM

I'd go along with MC Fat, and Little Hawk. as audiences we can enjoy things without going daft and after many quieter performances I find i am haunted for months by a voice or a particular song.

The incidents I've seen have chiefly to do with the MC massaging the performers' egos and being terrified to say goodnight in case their offended. but I've also seen top performers who just can't believe no one wants more. It happens.

The gigs we used to do with our last band were very similar to Clinton Hammond's experience. The crowd shows up late and can't dance till tanked. We've been slogging since 8pm with no JOY and at 11pm they start cheering and dancing and don't want to go home!! They've then got a maximum of 15 minutes of effort before they get kicked out.

They just need to turn up earlier or take stronger drink.

D