Hairball books Mars Music Hall for a February arena-rock blowout

The Minneapolis tribute machine brings its costume-change, pyro-and-power-ballad show to the Von Braun Center on Friday, Feb. 26.

Somewhere in Huntsville there is a closet with a leather vest in it that has been waiting since the last time the arena-rock songbook came through town. Pull it out: Hairball has booked Mars Music Hall at the Von Braun Center for Friday, Feb. 26, 2027.

The date was announced Oct. 26. The show starts at 8 p.m., and Ticketmaster has seats from $38.75 up to $198.85, with the top of that range buying you the kind of proximity that gets hairspray on your shirt. Mars Music Hall holds about 1,575, which is a sweet spot for this act: big enough to feel like an arena night, small enough that the people in the back are still in the show.

Hairball is not a tribute to one band. It's a tribute to an era. The group formed in Minneapolis in 2000 and built its reputation on a rotating cast of characters, each one channeling a different stadium-sized act from the '70s and '80s, with costume changes between them and production that leans hard into the volume, the lights and the theatrics. If you have ever wanted to hear a night's worth of the radio staples you grew up on without any of the original bands having to reunite, this is the pitch.

The band hit its silver anniversary recently, celebrating 25 years of "rock n roll mayhem", and it has kept touring under the Balls to the Wall banner. The winter calendar around this Huntsville stop is packed: Brown County Music Center in Indiana in early January, Denver's Paramount Theatre and Colorado Springs' Pikes Peak Center mid-month, Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls at the end of January, then Kansas City, the Wichita area and Grand Forks in early February. Lexington Opera House comes the night after Huntsville, so the Feb. 26 date falls right in the middle of a Southern swing.

Hairball is not a tribute to one band. It's a tribute to an era.

For Huntsville, the Von Braun Center room makes sense. Mars Music Hall is the mid-sized space on the downtown campus, a step down from the arena and a step up from the clubs, and it's where a show like this lands when promoters want a full house rather than a half-empty bowl. A Friday night in late February is also a good bet: the holidays are paid off, the weather is turning, and a night of singing along to every chorus is cheaper than a vacation.

Tickets are on sale now through the link on this page. Tribute shows with this kind of following tend to sell from the front rows back, so if you want to be close enough to see the wigs, move early.

Then dig out the vest. It's been waiting.

Sources: Arena-rock tribute band Hairball set to bring high-voltage show to Idaho Falls - East Idaho News (eastidahonews.com); Hairball celebrates 25 years of rock n roll mayhem - Table Rock Lake (business.visittablerocklake.com); Hairball - Fallsview Casino (Niagara Falls Tourism) (niagarafallstourism.com); Hairball: Balls to the Wall Tour - Explore Minnesota (exploreminnesota.com); Hairball tour dates - concerts50 (concerts50.com); Ticketmaster: Hairball Huntsville 02-26-2027 (ticketmaster.com); JamBase listing (jambase.com)