Hairball brings its arena-rock blowout to Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium on Feb. 25

The Minnesota band that plays KISS, Queen, Van Halen and a dozen more in one night books a Thursday in Spartanburg's 3,200-seat hall.

Somewhere around the third costume change, a Hairball crowd stops pretending it came ironically. That's the whole trick, and in late February it plays out in one of the Upstate's biggest rooms.

Hairball plays Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2027, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are through Ticketmaster. The date was announced Nov. 3, and the auditorium holds about 3,244. That is a lot of seats for a weeknight, and it's the kind of show where groups of friends buy together, so the good sections tend to go in blocks.

If you've never seen it, Hairball is a Minnesota-based band that stages arena rock as a full production, according to MZ Tribute Bands. Most tribute acts stick to one band. Hairball runs through many in a single show. The Spokesman-Review covered the show's spring run this year under the headline that sums it up: Hairball brings arena acts back from the past. The catalog includes KISS, Queen, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Van Halen and Def Leppard, among others.

The band doesn't love the label it gets filed under. "To call us a cover band or tribute band is not giving us a full picture," Happy, who leads the band, told MZ Tribute Bands. Watch one and the point is clear. The vocal duties rotate among Kris Vox, Dave Moody and Drew Hart, per the band's MZ Tribute Bands listing, and each singer takes on a different frontman's look and moves. The production is built to match: reviewers describe lights, sound, smoke and pyrotechnics on the scale of the bands being honored, as Scary Monsters Music put it in a review headlined "a bombastic celebration of arena rock."

To call us a cover band or tribute band is not giving us a full picture.

That's why the room matters. A show built on arena-rock spectacle needs height, depth and a crowd big enough to sing back, and a 3,200-seat hall gives it all three without the distance of an actual arena. Hairball has played rooms of every size, from arenas covered by papers like the Post Bulletin to county fair stages. A seated auditorium is a good middle ground: you see the whole stage, and you still feel the kick drum.

Who's it for? Anyone who owned a cassette with a lightning bolt on it, anyone whose parents did, and anyone who wants a Thursday night that isn't like a Thursday night. Dress code is optional. Leather, spandex and too much hairspray are encouraged.

Get tickets with your crew and pick a section together. Thursday, Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m., Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium.

Sources: Untangling Hairball: How a Minnesota-based arena rock tribute band draws in millions — MZ Tribute Bands (mztributebands.com); Hairball — MZ Tribute Bands (mztributebands.com); Hairball brings arena acts back from the past — Spokesman-Review (spokesman.com); Hairball: a bombastic celebration of arena rock invades Henderson Pavilion — Scary Monsters Music (scarymonstersmusic.com); Rock in the arena: Hairball headlines Graham — Post Bulletin (postbulletin.com); Hairball tickets — Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.evyy.net)