Boone's Cigarettes @ Sunset step up to The Orange Peel on March 19

The High Country "possum rock" band last played Asheville at The Outpost in 2024. Now signed to Lost Highway, they headline downtown's biggest club on Friday, March 19, 2027.

When Cigarettes @ Sunset last played Asheville, on Sept. 7, 2024, it was at The Outpost. Their next visit is on a much bigger stage. Cigarettes @ Sunset headline The Orange Peel on Friday, March 19, 2027, at 8 p.m. Tickets are on eTix. The date was announced Oct. 27.

The jump to a 1,050-capacity room in two and a half years sums up how fast this band has moved. It's also a homecoming of sorts. Cigarettes @ Sunset come from Boone, a Western North Carolina band headlining one of the region's best-known rooms.

The band formed in 2021. According to Red Light Management, the lineup is Garrett Dellinger on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Wells Whitman on bass and backing vocals, Ethan Moore on drums, Sarah Vann on violin and vocals and Ryland Bagbey on lead guitar. Dellinger has said the name came from a moment of impulse while smoking on a mountain at sunset. Their name for their sound is "possum rock," a mix of Americana, indie, Appalachian folk and rock.

They call it "possum rock," and it was born on a mountain in Boone.

The biggest change since 2024 is the label. The band's debut for Lost Highway Records is the six-song EP *Possum Rock*. The singles have kept coming. "Appalachian Raised" landed on Spotify's Indigo playlist. In July came "Gasoline," a song about post-breakup destruction, and in late September "Carolina Shakedown," as BroadwayWorld reported. Each release has leaned harder into the band's mountain roots.

The road has grown too. Cigarettes @ Sunset have opened for Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and last month they played Australia's Strummingbird Festival. They've gone from a Boone band to one playing festivals on the other side of the world in a little over five years.

That's why the Orange Peel booking matters. A band that sings about Appalachia gets to headline a room in the middle of it, in front of a crowd that knows the places in the songs. Sarah Vann's fiddle line will mean something different here than it does in Brisbane.

The show starts at 8 p.m. on a Friday, which leaves time for dinner downtown. Spring weekends in Asheville get busy, so book early. A band moving this fast may not play a room this size here again.

If you saw them at The Outpost, you already know. If you didn't, March 19 is your chance to catch a High Country band while you can still say you saw them early.

Sources: Cigarettes @ Sunset (Red Light Management) (redlightmanagement.com); Cigarettes @ Sunset Releases New Single 'Gasoline' (uDiscover Music) (udiscovermusic.com); Listen To Cigarettes @ Sunset's 'Carolina Shakedown' (uDiscover Music) (udiscovermusic.com); Cigarettes @ Sunset Release New Single 'Carolina Shakedown' (BroadwayWorld) (broadwayworld.com); Cigarettes @ Sunset Release New Single 'Gasoline' (BroadwayWorld) (broadwayworld.com); Cigarettes @ Sunset at The Orange Peel (eTix) (etix.prf.hn)