Is it me or does this sound a lot like a TV show/film plot? The whole idea of a band pretending they're more popular than they are and then performing to an emp

Is it me or does this sound a lot like a TV show/film plot? The whole idea of a band pretending they're more popular than they are and then performing to an empty theatre feels like something from a zany sitcom... Still, I'm not too surprised it happened. It's quite common for 'influencers' to fake their popularity online, and I've seen thousands of pseudo celebrities buy followers/make fake accounts to try and trick advertisers into thinking they're more popular than they actually are. Happens quite a bit with authors and books too; the likes of Robert Stanek and Gloria Tesch relied almost entirely on shills and paid marketing in an attempt to make people think their works had an actual fanbase/were going to be the next big thing. Still, guess it's the logical extreme for the whole 'fake it till you make it' thing. If you can't build a real audience after doing that, this is what you're left with.