Big Big Train brings 'Woodcut' to Bogart's in March

The English prog band, still new to American stages, plays Cincinnati on Saturday, March 20, 2027.

For a band that has been making records for decades, Big Big Train is still a fairly new sight on an American stage. That makes the Oct. 27 announcement worth circling: Big Big Train plays Bogart's on Saturday, March 20, 2027, with a 7 p.m. start. Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster, where the listing carries the name of the band's current tour, The Woodcut & Other Stories.

The American part of this story is recent. The band played the United States for the first time in March 2024. A year later it came back for The Likes Of Us in North America, a run that Louder reported in April 2025 and that also took the band to Canada for the first time, with shows in Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. Cincinnati in 2027 is part of a relationship with North American audiences that is only a few years old.

What the band is bringing this time is Woodcut, released Feb. 6, 2026 on InsideOut. The Prog Report counts it as the band's 16th studio album, and by the band's own account it is its first full-length conceptual work, a record that explores creativity, sacrifice and inspiration. Distorted Sound printed the 16-song track list, which opens with "Inkwell Black" and closes with "Last Stand." Alberto Bravin and Gregory Spawton walked through the album's making in a Prog Report interview, and a digital deluxe edition adds demos of each track plus two live acoustic cuts.

The band took that material around the UK and continental Europe this fall under the Woodcut & Other Stories banner, with stops such as Thornden Hall. The tour name is a fair guide to what a concept-album show tends to look like: the new record at the center, with room around it for older songs.

JamBase tags the show rock and metal, which undersells how particular this music is. Big Big Train is a progressive rock band, one that tells long stories over long songs, and a concept record is about as pure an expression of that as exists. Prog fans travel for this kind of show, and a Saturday date gives anyone driving in from elsewhere in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana a weekend to do it.

Bogart's holds 1,500, which is a real room for a band at this stage of its American life. It's big enough to feel like an event and small enough that the detail in an arrangement carries to the back. For music built on layered parts and quiet passages that open up, that balance matters.

Tickets are on sale now. March is a long way out, but this is a band whose American visits have so far been short and spaced apart, and there's no telling when the next one comes. If you've been waiting for the chance to hear these songs in a room instead of through headphones, Bogart's on March 20 is it.

Sources: Big Big Train announce shows in the US for March 2024 (The Prog Report) (progreport.com); Big Big Train announce US tour dates for April 2025 (Louder) (loudersound.com); Big Big Train announce very first Canadian live dates (Louder) (loudersound.com); Big Big Train Woodcut announcement (The Prog Report) (progreport.com); About Big Big Train (bigbigtrain.com); Big Big Train announce new album Woodcut (Distorted Sound) (distortedsoundmag.com); Alberto Bravin and Gregory Spawton Interview – Woodcut (The Prog Report) (progreport.com); Woodcut (Deluxe Edition) – HighResAudio (streaming.highresaudio.com); Big Big Train: The Woodcut and Other Stories Tour (Thornden Hall) (thorndenhall.co.uk); Big Big Train at Bogart's (JamBase) (jambase.com)