Encore.

"An extra or repeated performance; usually given in response to audience demand"

At every concert I've ever been to, the last band (the headlining band) has given an encore song performance. It seems like it's a joke that a band wouldn't plan for it. Crowds expect it. The bands walks off stage and the crowd begins chant "one more song", but all along, band and audience know that there's another song to come. They're just going through to motions.

Why?

Why do we always expect to get another song? And why do we get it? Since we know it's coming, wouldn't it make more sense for the band to go ahead and play it with the rest of the set? Why make them walk off stage just to come back on?

I guess what really irks me here is that at the concert last night, the middle band got the "one more song" chant. The audience wanted to here another song, but I don't think they expected it. It wasn't the headlining band, they were just that good. And you know what? They didn't play an encore song. They just started hauling gear off stage so the next band could set up.


Maybe this makes sense to you. But maybe you don't see the point. And if you're the latter, it's simply that sometimes I think it's worthwhile to question why some things in the world are the way they are, and I think this needs questioning. Will it change? Probably not. But it's worth noticing.