Five For Fighting // Live @ Ludlow Garage // 5.2.25 -

Article & Photos by: Linda Carlson

Cincinnati, OH – Ludlow Garage is a cozy concert venue that is nestled a block or two from the University of Cincinnati. The concert this evening was held mere hours after UC’s year-end graduation ceremonies, so even the rain didn’t dampen the overall energy of the area.

Ludlow Garage can conveniently configure its seating arrangement, with removable theater style seating that can seat upwards of 500 guests. The ceiling is low, as is the stage, making for an intimate feeling even with hundreds in attendance.

The venue was at capacity for this night’s featured headliner, Five For Fighting. The crowd was gracious, polite, accommodating, and ready for an evening of singer-songwriter John Ondrasik’s amiable, enjoyable and endearing songs. Ondrasik was accompanied this night by a string quartet – three violinists and a cellist, and Ondrasik himself moved between piano and guitar. He learned piano in his youth – his mother was a piano teacher, after all.

Ondrasik has a performance style well-suited for the intimacy of the venue. He is highly conversational, sharing stories associated with each song, even offering a few jokes along the way. He acknowledged several local food establishments he had visited, including Graeter’s Ice Cream, an endeared Cincinnati favorite.

With an easy, soothing falsetto, Ondrasik brings a sense of delicacy to his songs. One song after the next, there was beauty amid the storytelling. “100 Years,” one of his most treasured songs, was quite powerful. The song tracks the milestones and feelings at various stages of life – a teenager, 22 years old, 33 years old… progressing through time to old age. It’s a touching song, and he confided that now that he is 60 years old, he’s at quite the farther end of the song than when he first wrote it.

Ondrasik showcased the string quartet, calling them the “Four For Fighting.” He left the stage to give the instrumentalists time to “jam” for the crowd, weaving a medley of stringed renditions of a number of recognizable fan favorites, such a “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” “Take On Me” and “Dream On.”

At one point, seated at the piano, Ondrasik shared the origin of “I Just Love You,” inspired by his daughter Olivia, who at 8 years old would speak on the phone with her father after every show on the road. She declared to him on one of these calls, “I just love you. I don’t know why, I just do.” That was the seed for the song “I Just Love You,” and he brought on stage his now 24-year-old daughter Olivia, who with her friend Caroline Lee (together as Lace and Lee), had opened the show. She and her dad sang “I Just Love You” as a duet. It was quite lovely.

Ondrasik revealed that two of his more recent songs were not pleasant; rather, they were born of recent tragedies. “Blood on My Hands” was inspired by the Afghanistan withdrawal, and “Can One Man Save The World?” deals with war-torn Ukraine (performed with accompanying video imagery behind the band of devastated Ukraine cityscapes). He calls out such tragic events in the world in an empathetic, non-political way.

The main set concluded with “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” a song that had been performed to honor the first responders on 9/11 many years ago, and more recently modified to address the remaining October 7^th hostages, in particular a current 24-year-old hostage who wore Superman pajamas when he was eight years old….

Consider attending a Five For Fighting show. It’s uplifting yet thought-provoking, heartwarming yet heartbreaking. Check the band’s website for a show near you.

More photos from the evening are in the carousel below!

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