Biggest Encore Disappointments

[spectoremg]

This started as a thread about tonight's Brit Floyd show in Portsmouth but I thought I'd broaden things a bit.
It was all going so well; all the usual stuff - a huge chunk of Dark Side, the usual suspects from Wish You Were Here, See Emily Play and an excellent updated version of Set The Controls etc., even the mahoosive bum note the bassist played in Another Brick gave me (and him) a grin. The musical director/guitarist introduced the band before playing the last few songs, 'in fact we're gonna finish with a whole side from an album.'
I licked my lips and waited with baited breath for the effects laden piano note from Echoes....... hang on a minute.... side four of The Wall? The Gilbert & Sullivan of the Floyd back catalogue? Are you kidding me? I was going to put this in the recent Encores thread but I thought it deserved special attention as possibly the biggest encore let down ever.

[Mykesbass]

Alice Cooper at Guildfest - held back all the hits for the encore and didn't believe stage management when they said power would go off at curfew. Finished the main set just on curfew so had to come back out in the dark to take a rather sheepish bow

[bassbiscuits]

I approve of the view taken by singer songwriter David Ford.

He completely opposes encores because of the whole contrivance that goes with them - i.e. pretending you've finished the set, waiting till the audience has cheered for the regulation amount, and then re-appearing to play the two or three biggest hits that have been suspiciously missing from the set.

A genuine encore is fine, on those marvellous nights when you really won't get away without playing more.
But not the in-built one that you deliver regardless of whether anyone wanted it.

[Agwin]

Pendulum, believe it or not.

Me, Mrs Ag, the Agdaughter & her mate went along to the O2 Academy in Brum a few years back, it was a very hot May evening.
Serious moshing (yes the family Ag moshed too) had already started with the support act (Sub Focus) so when Pendulum came on the place just erupted.
It was so hot and humid that the venue was dishing out drinks of water to any one and everyone.
Despite chanting and clapping for what seemed like ages the band didn’t return to play any encores – the lights came up to plenty of boo-ing and we all grudgingly left, soaking wet, emerging into cool fresh air.

We found out the following day that the humidity was so great that various bits of equipment started failing during the set so the band were muddling through hoping to at least finish the set before performing became impossible.

So “technical problems” was the reason but we weren’t told this at the time – hence the disappointment.

That aside it was a cracking night and full marks for completing the set without any of us having a clue things were getting desperate.

[ubit]

I liked Dave Grohls attitude. He said we ain't gonna go off pretending we ain't coming back, just so you can shout for us. We are just gonna play a bit longer. The Foos have the greatest attitude towards their fans.

On the other hand, way back in the 80's, Diamond head kept going off but kept coming back because the crowd were going mental. They came back on 4 times! Even after the lights came on, they still did another song. One of the highlights of my gigging career.

As for disappointments , the only time was when bands didn't come back on!

[tauzero]

With a former band, the guitarist/singer always put an encore on the set list (well, you should be prepared), and always insisted on playing it, regardless of the reception we got.

My current policy is to have an encore number lined up. If it doesn't look like we'll get an encore, then we either play it as the last number of the set (we have got other songs just in case we get asked for an unexpected encore) or leave it out.