RON RINEHART On Why DARK ANGEL No Longer Plays Encores: 'To Me, It's Like Making The Fans Beg For Another Song'

DARK ANGEL frontman Ron Rinehart has weighed in on the encore ritual at live music events.

Returning to the stage for the encore has become all but a formality at almost every concert, whereby a band will finish its regular set, walk offstage and then come back a few minutes later and play another couple of songs. In fact, the encore — which comes from French and means "again" — has become so automatic that musicians know before a show even begins how many encores they'll play and what songs they'll include.

Speaking to Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, Rinehart expressed his dismay at the prospect of the auto-encore, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "A thing that we started, I think, maybe a year or a year or so ago, I told the band, 'I don't wanna do encores anymore.' They're, like, 'Wait, what?' I'm, like, if we're gonna do songs, let's do all the songs we possibly can within our time limit. Let's not waste time. Walking off stage — no, no, no. I told 'em, 'Let's not do that.' I'm, like, 'These people, we got them for X amount of time, and they don't need to hear me B.S. So kind of tune as fast as you can, 'cause I hate talking, and let's just bust out as many songs as we can.' And so we started that to where I'm, like, 'Hey, we're not gonna walk off stage. We're not gonna waste time. You guys didn't pay to see me babble on about whatever I'd babble on about.' It's, like, 'Here's the last two songs. We're gonna play 'em back to back.' Let's just try to get everything done because you don't get a lot of time and you don't know how much time you have… To me, it's like making the fans beg for another song. It's, like, 'Hey, we're gonna go out and you guys are gonna do this. If you don't do this, we're not gonna come back.' It's, like, no. You are here. I'm here. We're in the fricking octagon called the fricking pit, and we're gonna fricking go until one of us passes out. It'll probably be me first, 'cause all you punks in the front look super young, but let's do this."

Other bands, such as THE STROKES and the ARCTIC MONKEYS, had previously refused to play encores.

Encores are generally thought to have been popularized during opera performances in the 19th century, when singers would repeat arias if the audience enjoyed them enough.

Back in 2018, a California-based indie rock band said a man threatened to kill the members of the group for not playing an encore during a show in Houston.

In 2021, KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch told the "Bringin' it Backwards" podcast about playing encores: "We never have been an encore band, man. We would debate about it, saying, 'It's so cheesy, man. It's so cheesy. They want it so bad, but…' We don't do encores. We would tell people in the press, 'We don't do encores. We give it our all, and then we're done.' And then fans started getting mad, especially fans in different countries. They're, like, 'It's disrespectful if you don't come back out.' So we had to do it. And to this day, we don't really love it. 'Cause everybody expects it, and they don't really cheer for it now. They're just, like, 'Okay.' … It's, like, you wanna be done, and then the crowd to demand you back out with applause. That's what the encores were meant for. But that's all gone to shit now."

DARK ANGEL's first new album in 34 years, "Extinction Level Event", was released late last year via Reversed Records.

DARK ANGEL released two albums with Don Doty on vocals — "We Have Arrived" and "Darkness Descends" — before he exited the group and was replaced by Ron Rinehart (after a brief stint with Jim Drabos in 1987). The band issued two more studio LPs — "Leave Scars" and "Time Does Not Heal" — before calling it quits in 1992. Following DARK ANGEL's initial breakup, and first reunion from 2002 to 2005, the band reunited a second time in 2013 and has been playing sporadic shows ever since.