A Booming Live Music Industry Looks for Its Next Workforce

Lasers beam onstage, while Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” blares from the state-of-the-art soundsystem. As the chorus builds, sparks shoot from above and below. From a hidden platform, a brunette woman wearing a leather jacket rises into view, arms raised in triumph. The audience — a young crowd clad mostly in black jeans, band T-shirts and Doc Martens — erupts into cheers.

This, the woman tells the group, is a safe space for weirdos. “We don’t want any a**holes here,” she says, warmly.

Whether they’re true misfits or just wearing Misfits T-shirts, the kids aren’t here for the spectacle onstage. Instead, they’re ...