In the concert business, nothing compares to the awful, disheartening embarrassment of a nearly empty room, and this is especially true when few people show up for someone who deserves better. But I have never experienced anything quite like the Fiona Apple concert Oct. 27. She got hit by a tepid storm, in which fewer than 1,000 people showed up at Norman 's Lloyd Noble Center .

Organizers set up the "theater seati...