Irwin's Lamp Theatre reschedules pandemic-postponed concerts

Beginning in August, the Lamp Theatre in downtown Irwin will be rockin’ and rollin’ again.

Shows that were postponed due to the pandemic have been rescheduled, starting Aug. 6 with the 1980’s music tribute band, Mullet.

“Everything listed on the calendar right now is just those postponed shows,” said general manager Bill Elder. “We’re trying to get those off our dockets first.”

Other open dates are filling up fast.

“We only have three or four Saturdays to the end of the year not scheduled,” he said.

Tickets from originally scheduled shows will be honored for the same seat purchased. Ticket-holders who can’t attend the makeup date will be offered a gift card for another available show.

Not all postponed shows have been rescheduled at this point, so Elder asks those ticket-holders to have patience.

“As more states open up and allow for more live entertainment, more concerts allow for travel and generate new dates,” he said in a release. “We will do our best to schedule those shows promptly.”

Seats are still available for most of the makeup concerts, although the Sept. 26 show by The Outlaws is down to a handful of open seats, Elder said.

In addition to Mullet, the August slate includes acts paying homage to Johnny Cash, The Doors, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac.

Bread and butter

Though the Lamp hosts a good number of tribute and nostalgia acts, that wasn’t the plan when the historic movie theater, closed since 2004, reopened in 2015 under the auspices of the nonprofit Lamp Theatre Corp.

“We didn’t have that idea at the beginning, it kind of just happened that way,” Elder said. “When we first opened, nobody trusted us to do good shows. But this area didn’t have a big tribute market, and they were willing to take a risk with us.

“I said, if we’re going to do tributes, we’re only going to do good tributes,” he said. “A bad tribute act is a sin, you shouldn’t have to be put through that.

“These bands are good musicians and they’re super-fans themselves, and now our bread and butter is the tribute act,” he said.

“We have a really active calendar through the rest of the year, so that’s good news,” said board president John Gdula. “We’ve all read about some of our sister venues, and you get a terrible feeling for those who couldn’t weather the storm.

“We saved for a rainy day, and we have our patrons and people who really believe in us,” he said. “We have a very active fundraising committee that really stepped up for us, even selling popcorn outside the theater a couple Saturdays a month to make a couple hundred dollars.

“They helped us get through the tough spots, so now we can get back to what we do best.”

Information on upcoming shows is available at lamptheatre.org. The box office at 222 Main St., Irwin, also is open 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekdays.