It's Time We As A Society Decide Not Every Concert Needs An Encore
Diana Scrimgeour. Getty Images.I went to a concert recently for a band I vaguely knew. Ballyhoo! is an early 2000's reggae, pop punk, 311 sounding group that had a couple "hits" I probably heard while hitting a bong in high school. But I love live music and the girl I knew who was going is hot so I thought why the hell not? I can suffer for two hours in an attempt to get laid. After all that's what being single is all about.
It was a midweek concert at a small venue in Cleveland called The Beachland Ballroom. There was probably 125 people there max. The show was an interesting mix of former frat bros and new age stoners. Lots of awkward white dancing, tall can PBRs, and weed pens being shared. The type of place you might run into your weird aunt and accidentally find out she is in a throuple with a guy named Randy and a heavyset hippie woman named Earth.
Advertisement
As I stood in the crowd, mildly entertained and watching a fan blow the receding hairline of the lead singer who couldn't quite give up his surfer blonde haircut, I couldn't help but wonder what life on the road with a band like this must be like.
Mediapunch. Shutterstock Images.This venue, while legendary, is nothing more than a small elementary school auditorium with a few steps leading to the side of the stage. The "green room" is a large storage closet where the door obviously needed to be kept open because of the lack of AC. And their early-20's opening acts were pouring shots of Jameson at a rate that would make Artie Lange wave them off out of disgust. These guys were living like rockstars if said rock was the size of those pebbles you mix in with your garden soil.
But who am I to poo poo another man's dream? So I stood there in my tie dyed shirt I bought from Urban Outfitters, trying to blend in with the poor lost souls in this room that made the concert feel like a glorified talent show.
As we drew near the end of the concert, the band played yet another song about flicking off their mom and taking shots of hard liquor despite the fact their mom is probably in a nursing home and hard liquor definitely gives them heartburn. They finished the track and said "goodnight!" as they walked off to the side of the stage and all huddled in the corner like a bunch of small children who suck at hide and go seek.
We could see the band standing at the side of the stage. Clear as day. They were no further than 25 feet from everyone in the room. Hell, I could have high fived them on the way back to the bar if I wanted. That's how close and out in the open they were.
Yet to my astonishment the entire crowd chanted "ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE!"
Now I can be a contrarian on many things. I think the Rocky movies are cringe as fuck and I never ask for autographs. I understand I'm in the minority on both of those. But why on God's earth would anyone chant "ENCORE!" to bring out a band that is huddled on the side of a stage we can all see. A band that quite obviously didn't play their two biggest "hits" yet. A band that would have to walk through the fucking crowd if they were to leave and not do an encore.
So I say it's high time we scrap the idea that every concert needs an encore. Taylor Swift, Drake, Neil Diamond? Hell any artist that has dozens of hits and is playing in an arena or stadium, sure. But Ballyhoo! in front of literally dozens of people with no green room? Come the fuck on. What are we doing here?
Just get your old ass back on the stage and sing the last four songs please. It's a weeknight and I want to catch up on Black Mirror. Save the theatrics for the 20 year old you are going to try and bang after the show.
.
.
All jokes aside Ballyhoo! was actually really good. Dudes sounded amazing still and it was a fun show…aside from the forced encore obviously. Here is my fav song of theirs…