An Empty Concert - Shook Emotions
On Friday night, I saw Warrant, FireHouse and the Bulletboys at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio.
The venue holds just over 4,000 people and I’ve seen many packed shows there, including Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Ringo Starr.
This show was not packed.
In fact, it was so empty it sort of gave me the creeps and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The lack of people really got in my feels.
The weather was perfect for an outside show, so that wasn’t a factor. My two tickets were just over $150 for good seats, so not cheap but also not highway robbery like most shows right now. The bands were competing against the World Cup and America’s first match, so maybe that had something to do with it. Ticket prices were reduced a day before the gig. Overall, I think the low attendance was a mix of blue dot fever and over-touring. The same package came through the area a couple years ago at a different (slightly bigger) venue and I was there, too. That show was very well attended.
Eric and I both kept turning around, expecting to see more people fill in the seats and lawn and it just never happened. The show had to be a big financial loss for the venue. Probably one of the worst-attended shows I’ve ever witnessed.
For their part, the bands performed hard and with lots of energy. It was cool seeing the all-original Bulletboys back together again. Singer Marq Torien kept dropping F-bombs until he was told to knock it off by the venue. The cussing pretty well stopped after that for the whole night.
Nate Peck always does a good job fronting FireHouse. It’s crazy how much he sounds like original singer C.J. Snare. I give him lots of respect for taking on such a hard job. During this set is when I noticed a woman that could be my mom’s age. She was standing, screaming every word and punching her fist in the air. It was freaking fantastic. She was wearing a FireHouse shirt and clearly they are her favorite band. I sort of wanted to talk to her but I didn’t want to intrude on her night and I’m too shy anyway. She might be my spirit animal, though.
Warrant played all the hits and a guy dressed as 1988-era Poison was in front of me. He brought a play microphone and belted out every song. He was wearing an original Cherry Pie tour shirt, so he was legit and not mocking. Dude also had a Poison tattoo.
I wonder if the age of resurgence for our beloved bands is rapidly coming to a close? Our heroes are not getting any younger and many of them are sick of touring, anyway. It’s a hard life to be a road dog – especially in 2026 when everything is so expensive and people don’t have as much spare income for fun things like shows. I can’t imagine playing empty gigs feels good from the band’s perspective, either. Not that these guys haven’t seen it all at this point. They’ve played in empty clubs and full stadiums and everything in between… but I do worry the demand for live Glam bands is waning. After all, Rocklahoma was a full 20 years ago now and that was a major catalyst to the “hair metal” live resurgence we’ve all lived through the past few years.
I know some of our favorites will always play live as long as they are physically able but man, thinking about “the end” of some of these bands really has me shook.
