Stereophonics at Werk II

We caught our first band in Leipzig on Friday night at a funky converted warehouse south of the city. Stereophonics are one of those bands that you've heard of and you've heard their songs on the radio and keep meaning to get the name of the band but they've never gone on to make it super huge. The lead singer has a really cool voice and they're a solid rocking out 4 piece (with occasional keyboardist) but we were fairly disappointed by how short the gig was. Just under an hour of playing until they went off. Of course it wasn't really them leaving, just the stale old standard of having a break under the guise of being done for the night so that the crowd will encore them back on-stage and they can play their last few popular songs that everyone was waiting for. I have no clue why bands still do this - it's getting really old. Either tell the crowd that hey, you've been singing your vocal chords raw giving them everything you've got and you need to take a quick smoke break, or just don't do it at all. The problem is, the crowd was more in shock that they'd finished so quickly and there had been absolutely no interaction with them at all so there wasn't much calling for encore and when they did come back they only played for maybe another 15 or 20 minutes. For the entry price we were feeling pretty ripped off when the lights came up and everyone shuffled out. I liked their sound and their songs, maybe they were having an off night or didn't think the crowd had much English (belied by the Welsh Flag waving up near the front) but I don't think I'll be shelling out any large amounts of money to see them again anytime soon.