Back in the day when No Control/Generator/Recipe were still popular, Bad Religion used to have a strict no-encore policy. Greg, the lead singer, would always remind the audience that they weren’t rock stars and that encores were for them. However, during the Stranger Than Fiction Tour in Santa Monica, they played their “last” song and Greg announced that they wouldn’t be doing an encore because that’s what rock stars do. But then, to everyone’s surprise, they came back on stage and played three more songs before leaving. This became the norm for the next six years, with no encores at their shows. I even witnessed a whole crowd in Granada, Spain, shouting “bastards” in disappointment when they didn’t come back for an encore after only playing for 50 minutes. I personally asked the band to do an encore, but they stuck to their no-encore rule. Brian, one of the band members, referred to encores as a throwback to vaudeville. However, in a show in Sao Paulo on March 3rd, 1999, they surprised everyone by playing an encore, performing “Fuck Armageddon”. They even turned on the lights and everything. Greg explained that they usually don’t do encores, but they decided to play one more. And from the year 2000 onwards, they started playing encores regularly again. Greg jokingly mentioned in a show on April 13, 2000, that they used to not do encores in the 20th century, but since time was running out in the 21st century, they might become extinct before they even get a chance to do an encore.
This content was originally written by the badass contributors of thebrpage.net, the best superfan resource and website that exists for any band, let alone the best band in the whole entire world. I’ve been lurking on that site for over 20 years and if you’re into Bad Religion as much as I am, I’m sure you’re familiar. If you are not, go there right now and never come back to this site again. You should, and I totally understand.
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