Am I In The Wrong Place?

As I am wont to do from time to time, I got all dolled up and hit the local Hard Rock this past Saturday for a Girls Night Out and an awesome concert.  Slash featuring Myles Kennedy was the headliner and the trip was especially fun this time around as a friend of mine hooked me and and another pal up with tickets to the VIP Suite.  While the outing was a blast (and left me slightly worse for wear the next day), I have to confess the audience demographics left me a bit confused.

You see, I’d expected to be a midlife crisis-aged female swimming in a sea of screaming twenty-year olds dressed in a variety of black concert T-shirts.  As it turns out, the screaming twenty-year olds were few and far between, we midlife folks making up at least eighty percent of the crowd.

Weird.

I mean, I know Slash has history.  (Original guitarist for Guns ‘N Roses for those of you not familiar with the rock genre.)  But no way would I put him on the grandpa rocker tour!  The guy’s got a set of guns better than I’ve seen on most twenty year olds!

Sorry, I digress.  Awesome biceps do that to me…

The event made me think back to several other concerts I’ve been to this year.  Matchbox Twenty had a mostly midlife demographic and they were at the Hard Rock as well.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers pulled in a “half young things / half mom and dads” crowd, but then they were at a major concert arena.  Nickelback’s turn out was about the same.

So, when did things change?  Maybe I’ve got the old days stored all wrong in my memory, but I remember rock concerts with only a sprinkling of people over the age of forty.  Or was it just that, in the narrow focus of my youth, that’s all I noticed?  Maybe the younger crowd can’t afford the tickets anymore?  (God knows, they’re CRAZY expensive these days.)  Maybe the younger crowd isn’t of the concern going variety?  Anyone want to clue me in?