Concert encores get a bad rap. I get that it's an inherently silly tradition; we make artists fake like they're waving goodbye after the "final" song of their set, walk off stage in dramatic fashion while their roadies walk on stage and suspiciously retune all the instruments, spend three minutes awkwardly waiting in the stage wings as we in the crowd half-heartedly clap to pretend like we have any say whatsoever in the artist's decision to come back out, and then lo and behold, the artist comes back out. It's a total vestigial structure that is painful for both sides, and many concertgoers are pretty vocal about how stupid they think the ritual is.
Well it is stupid. But I like encores.
I like closure. I like knowing when I have to say goodbye to people. I like having my bearings and knowing exactly how much more time I have with an artist. Encores accomplish this. They give you a chance to breath and reorient yourself toward the show so you're primed to enjoy the last few songs to the fullest. An encore break is like a little voicemail saying, "Okay. This is it. These are the last three songs. Let's soak these in as much as possible."
It's kind of nice.
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