Yeah, this is the right way to go about it. Don’t hold onto your big hit song for the encore. I’ve been to shows where they did the fakeout standard encore leaving the stage and the crowd stayed pretty quiet; then they had to sheepishly come back onstage to little applause to play the big hits.

Artists should prepare an encore in case the crowd wants it, but don’t hold onto your big songs for that - encores should be deep tracks that are rarely played or acoustic/re-arranged versions of popular songs. One of the best encores I saw was Devildriver (heavy/death metal band) whose encore consisted of a three-song acoustic/piano medley. Super cool way to end the night!