Jason Aldean Thinks That Encores At Concerts Are Pointless & I Couldn’t Agree More

This is a movement I can get behind.

By now everybody goes to a concert pretty much expecting an encore from the headliner. We all know the moment: The artist walks offstage without singing their biggest song, the house lights stay down, the crowd cheers, and a couple minutes later they reappear on stage and sing a few more songs. It happens at pretty much every concert.

And it’s totally pointless.

An “encore” is supposed to be a spontaneous moment when the crowd demands it because they enjoyed the show so much, not a planned part of the concert that everybody expects at every show.

Apparently even Jason Aldean agrees with me.

During a recent interview, Aldean was asked whether he does encores at his shows, and he revealed that he thinks they’re as pointless as I do:

“I’m not a big encore guy. I hate when artists kind of bait ’em into that. It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to play one of my biggest songs so that you guys cheer when I’m done for me to come back out and do this.’

And I always tell ’em, ‘Listen, I’m gonna just play you guys everything we got, and when it’s over it’s over.’ Like, that’s it. I’m not going to go offstage for five minutes and wait for you guys to cheer for me to come back out. Let’s just play everything we got, and when we leave the stage it’s done. 

So I’ve always kind of done it like that.”

I mean, he’s right. Does anybody actually think Morgan Wallen’s going to end his show without playing “Last Night” or “Whiskey Glasses?” Of course he’s coming back out, and that’s why the lights are still off.

Of course it seems like artists are starting to get the memo that encores are dumb. More and more headliners don’t do them at all, with artists like Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson both skipping the ritual of an encore on their latest tours. And Eric Church usually mixes things up: His band does leave the stage, and he’ll come back out on stage with just his guitar to play a few acoustic songs, often deciding what to play in the moment or playing something unique for that particular show.

There are ways to do it right. But there are also way too many artists who simply do them because it’s become the norm, not just in country music but in concerts of every genre.

Another thing that makes them pointless: Most shows are scripted down to the minute due to curfews and time restrictions on the venue. Artists know exactly when they have to be off stage, and build the encore time into their show. But that time spent walking off stage and coming back on could have been spent throwing another song into the setlist. It’s quite literally a waste of time when a show has to end at a certain time anyway.

An encore should be something special. If you see a show that’s so amazing that the crowd refuses to leave until the artist returns to the stage, that’s an honor for the artist and a unique moment for fans.

But having the same encore at every show, and going through a pre-scripted routine just because you’re expected to do an “encore,” is completely pointless.The post Jason Aldean Thinks That Encores At Concerts Are Pointless & I Couldn’t Agree More first appeared on Whiskey Riff.