Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue return to the Midlands at the Newberry Opera House

More than four years after a Township Auditorium show, the 2027 Shorty Gras Tour stops in a 426-seat room up the road on Friday, Feb. 26.

The last time Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue played the Midlands, it was a late-summer night at the Township Auditorium in August 2022. The next time is a Friday in February, a little up the road, in a much smaller room: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue play the Newberry Opera House on Friday, Feb. 26, 2027, at 7:30 p.m., according to the opera house's own events calendar.

That is the closest the band's new tour comes to Columbia, and it is worth the drive. The Newberry Opera House holds 426. For a band that brings a full, horn-driven New Orleans show, that is about as close as you will ever stand to it.

The date is part of the 2027 Shorty Gras Tour, announced Oct. 13. It is the band's fourth run under the Shorty Gras name, following the third annual edition in 2026, and the announcement pitches it as bringing the spirit of New Orleans to stages across the country. The 12-date run opens Feb. 12 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska, and works through the Midwest and Ohio Valley before turning south: Huntington, West Virginia, on Feb. 23, Knoxville's Tennessee Theatre on Feb. 24, Newberry on Feb. 26 and a finale at Satellite Music Hall in Memphis the next night.

The spirit of New Orleans, carried a long way from home, into a 426-seat opera house.

Turntablist DJ Logic is the special guest on select dates. The tour announcement lists him for Knoxville the night before and Memphis the night after, but not for Newberry.

Ticket sales are already well underway. Artist presales opened Oct. 14, local presales followed Oct. 15 and the general on-sale started Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. local time. Buy through the Newberry Opera House directly; that is where its tickets are sold. If you care where you sit, call or check the opera house's seating options before you buy rather than after.

Why does this one matter? Partly because of the gap. More than four years will have passed between the Township show and this one, and Shorty Gras is a format built for a party. Partly because of the room. Trading the Township for a 426-capacity opera house shrinks the distance between the stage and the back row to almost nothing, and a band that plays this loud in a room that small is the kind of night people talk about for a while afterward.

It is also a well-timed date. Feb. 26 is the second-to-last night of the tour, after two weeks on the road. And it is a Friday night, which makes the drive from Columbia easy to justify: dinner in Newberry, then the show at 7:30.

If you saw them at the Township in 2022, you know what this band does to a room. If you have only heard about it, February is the chance to find out at close range. Get the tickets now, before the opera house fills up with people who already know.

Sources: Newberry Opera House Events & Tickets (newberryoperahouse.com); Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Announce 2027 Shorty Gras Tour (Shore Fire Media press release) (shorefire.com); Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Announce Third Annual Shorty Gras Tour For 2026 (Shore Fire Media) (shorefire.com)