Most encores at a music concert

Robert Smith’s The Cure (UK) set the benchmark for concert encores by returning to the stage five times at the end of three shows in 2004 and 2005. The “Friday I’m in Love” hit-makers treated fans to five encores at the Everett Events Center (now the Comcast Arena) in Washington, USA, on 31 August 2004, the Palacio de los Deportes (the “Palace of Sports”) in Mexico City, Mexico, on 6 September 2004, and Hezarfen Havaalani (Hezarfen Airfield) in Istanbul, Turkey, on 3 September 2005, giving a whole new meaning to their US Alternative Songs chart No.1 from 1990, "Never Enough". The Washington encores comprised three, three, three, two and one song (12 in total) and took the total number of tracks performed at the concert to 29. The show was part of a tour titled An Evening with The Cure. The Mexico encores comprised four, two, four, three and one song (14 in total) and took the total number of tracks performed at the concert to 32. The Istanbul encores comprised four, two, three, five and one song (15 in total) and took the total number of tracks performed at the 3-hr 4-min concert to 36. The show was part of Istanbul’s Rock’n Coke Festival (also featuring Korn and The Offspring, among many others) and The Cure’s own European Summer Festival Tour 2005. The Cure are famed for their encores and regularly perform two or three (and occasionally four) for their fans. They traditionally conclude their concerts with “A Forest”, “Killing an Arab” or “Boys Don’t Cry”. See set lists at cure-concerts.de for further details. In August and September 2004, The Cure consisted of Robert Smith (lead vocals/guitar), Perry Bamonte (keyboards), Jason Cooper (drums), Simon Gallup (bass) and Roger O’Donnell (keyboards). In September 2005, the band was made up of Smith, Cooper, Gallup and returning founder member Porl Thompson (guitar). Bamonte and O’Donnell were fired from the band in May 2005, before the start of the band’s European Summer Festival Tour. Rock band Boston and singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett are also fans of encores, but Elvis Presley rarely returned to the stage (“Elvis has left the building”) as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, preferred to leave his fans wanting more. Arctic Monkeys and Laura Marling have also spoken out against the concert tradition.