49 Winchester bring 'Change of Plans' to Joe's Live in April

The Virginia alt-country band headlines Joe's Live in Rosemont on April 23, its first Chicago-area date since a 2024 United Center appearance, on the tour behind its new album.

The last time 49 Winchester played Chicago, it was the United Center on July 11, 2024. The next one is a club-sized headline night of their own in Rosemont.

49 Winchester plays Joe's Live in Rosemont on Friday, April 23, 2027, at 8 p.m. The room holds about 2,000, and tickets are through Ticketmaster's TicketWeb.

The date is part of the Change of Plans tour, named for the album the band released on May 15 through Lucille Records and MCA. uDiscover Music and The Music Universe both report the run starting Feb. 5 at The Eastern in Atlanta and ending May 8 at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth, with stops in Charlotte, Los Angeles, Boston and Austin along the way. Rosemont comes in the last few weeks, a couple of weeks before Fort Worth.

So Chicago gets the band late in a long run of headline nights, when the new songs are well worn in. Universal Music Canada's release lists "Oh Savannah," "Slowly" and "Pardon Me" among the singles from the record, and those are the ones to know before the doors open.

A Friday night in April, a room of about 2,000, and a band touring an album it has been living with for a year.

The surrounding calendar shows a band in demand. In the middle of the U.S. run, 49 Winchester heads to Australia for the first time to play CMC Rocks QLD from March 19 to 21, according to The Music Universe. Later in 2027 the band plays its only Danish show of the year at the Tønder Festival, which runs Aug. 25 to 28, per the festival's press release. By the time they reach Rosemont they'll have played on two other continents.

The band's description as alt-country is the label uDiscover and Universal use, but the genre tags on this show run across rock, folk and country. For a Chicago audience used to all three, Joe's Live is a good fit for a band that sits between them.

The 2024 United Center night put 49 Winchester in front of a lot of people. A headline show in a room this size is where you find out who stayed. Expect a crowd that has been listening to Change of Plans since spring and wants to hear it loud.

Joe's Live is out by the airport, so plan the drive or the train ahead of time and arrive early. Friday, April 23 is a long way off, but this is the kind of show that's worth planning around.

Sources: JamBase listing: 49 Winchester at Joe's Live (jambase.com); uDiscover Music: 49 Winchester Announces 2027 'Change of Plans' Tour (udiscovermusic.com); The Music Universe: The group supports its new album of the same name (themusicuniverse.com); Universal Music Canada: 49 Winchester release new album Change of Plans (universalmusic.ca); Ritzau: 49 Winchester giver eksklusiv dansk koncert på Tønder Festival 2027 (via.ritzau.dk)