Maroon 5 Wants to End Encores at Concerts: “I Know We’re Coming Back Anyway, So It Doesn’t Matter”
Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Audacy Reading Time: 3 minutes
Over the weekend, Maroon 5 took the Prudential Center stage as part of Audacy’s 10th Annual We Can Survive concert. During their headlining set, they surprised fans when explaining that they would not be going off stage before their encore set. Here’s what leader singer, Adam Levine, said at the concert.
Maroon 5 Wants to Change How Concerts Run, No More Encores
Everyone has been at a concert jamming out, until their favorite band finishes the song, and walks off stage. The band’s exit from the stage promptly encourages fans to clap, until they come back out. Encores originally started as a surprise portion concerts. Now, it’s become an expected portion of the concert format, rather than a surprise.
Maroon 5’s lead singer Adam Levine has clearly had enough of this format, since he discussed it on stage at Audacy’s 10th Annual We Can Survive concert. After the group performed “Girls Like You,” they paused the concert to talk about their encore.
While discussing encores, Levine explained that the original reason behind this format was to amp up fan excitement: “Maybe they’ll be so f*cking excited that we’ll come back or something like that.”
“I know we’re coming back anyway, so it doesn’t matter. So I think we should start a new trend at concerts, no more encores, just play as long as you want,” he said. “That way when it’s over, you know, everybody knows it over.”
SEE RELATED: KELLY CLARKSON, ONE REPUBLIC, MAROON 5 ROCK AUDACY’S 10TH ANNUAL WE CAN SURVIVE CONCERT
The band was open in admitting that they know what songs their fans won’t leave without hearing. The conversation regarding encores was a perfect segway for the band’s iconic hit, “She Will Be Loved.”
Should We Banish the Modern Day Encore?
I think Maroon 5 is on to something here. I don’t disagree with the fact that encores have totally changed. Instead of being a surprise for super fans, where bands come back to the stage and sing another song or two, it’s turned into an entirely expected phenomenon. Some bands even plan their encore to be their biggest hits and play the same encore night after night.
Nowadays, concerts average around 2 hours, sometimes less. Bands aren’t always given the longest set, so it doesn’t make sense for them to do the typical encore format. In some instances, leaving the stage does pump up the crowd. But, if an audience has openly sang along to every song, and has had energy the entire time, leaving the stage is just giving the band less time to play music.
The excitement behind the concert is the surprise of what each artist is going to perform, or not. Fans love to guess which songs will be on the setlist, as well as the encore. With the same exact encore every night, the surprise aspect of the concert is truly gone.
