Chicago brings the horns to the Wexner Center's Mershon Auditorium

The band plays Columbus on Tuesday, Nov. 17, with Rudy Cardenas now singing lead.

Mershon Auditorium has been standing on the Ohio State campus since 1957. On Tuesday, Nov. 17, it gets a band whose songs a lot of Columbus grew up on.

Chicago plays the Wexner Center in Columbus on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets run $84.20 to $678.50 through Ticketmaster. The show is in Mershon Auditorium, the Wexner Center's big room at 1871 North High Street, as ABC6 reported.

ABC6's announcement leaned on the names Columbus will be listening for: Robert Lamm and James Pankow, and the songs "25 or 6 to 4," "Saturday in the Park" and "Feeling Stronger Every Day." Those are the reasons most people buy a Chicago ticket, and they're the reasons this one is worth a weeknight.

There is one change to know about. Ultimate Classic Rock reports that Rudy Cardenas is now the band's lead vocalist. If your last Chicago show was a few years back, that's the new voice you'll hear on the old songs.

The Columbus date is part of the fall extension of the band's 2026 tour, which Ultimate Classic Rock covered when the new dates were added. This leg runs through the Northeast in early November, with stops in the Lehigh Valley, Atlantic City and New Haven, before it turns west to Ohio.

The room has its own history. The original east side of Mershon Auditorium was completed in April 1957, and the Wexner Center for the Arts has operated it since 1989, according to the Ohio State University Libraries. Ohio State calls it the largest stage space on campus. For this show it holds 2,500, so even the back rows are close enough to see the horn section work.

It's a Tuesday on campus, so plan ahead for parking along High Street.

Those are the reasons most people buy a Chicago ticket, and they're the reasons this one is worth a weeknight.

Some bands are better heard in a big room with a lot of history. Chicago at Mershon is one of those nights: the songs you know, a new voice singing them, and a 1957 hall that has seen a lot of Columbus come through its doors.

Sources: Chicago coming to Mershon Auditorium in November (ABC6) (abc6onyourside.com); Chicago Extends 2026 Tour Into Fall With New Dates (Ultimate Classic Rock) (ultimateclassicrock.com); Mershon Auditorium (Ohio State University Libraries) (library.osu.edu); Wexner Center and Mershon Auditorium (Ohio State Event Planning) (planevents.osu.edu); Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.evyy.net); JamBase listing (jambase.com)