The Mersey Beatles return to Indianapolis at Clayton's Country Bar, their first Indy show since 2018

The Liverpool Beatles tribute plays the downtown bar in the old Hard Rock Cafe space on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2027, ahead of a Sgt. Pepper anniversary run back home.

The last time The Mersey Beatles played Indianapolis was May 10, 2018, at The Rathskeller. Their return lands in a room that didn't exist then, and an unexpected one for a Beatles show. The band plays Clayton's Country Bar on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2027, at 8 p.m. Tickets are through OpenDate, and the show was announced Oct. 27.

Clayton's is downtown at 49 S. Meridian St., inside the historic Morrison Opera House building that housed Hard Rock Cafe from 1999 to 2019, Indianapolis Monthly reported. It's the project of Bedford-born country singer Clayton Anderson, and it opened with a grand opening weekend in September 2025, per WRTV. The plan from the start was live music most nights, with Anderson saying the room would give local and regional bands a stage.

So yes, it's a country bar, and a Beatles tribute is playing it. For anyone who remembers that corner as the Hard Rock, there's a nice symmetry in seeing a rock band from Liverpool back on that stage.

The timing matters too. In 2027, The Mersey Beatles are touring a show built around the 60th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, according to Leeds Inspired. Their 2027 calendar runs mostly through the UK and Ireland, with dates including Ulster Hall in Belfast on March 10 and the National Opera House in Ireland on March 13.

Before that, there's a short Indiana swing. The night before Indianapolis, the band is listed at the Blue Gate Performing Arts Center in Shipshewana on Wednesday, Feb. 3. That makes Indianapolis the second night of a two-night Indiana run, a month before the band's anniversary dates across the Atlantic.

A Liverpool Beatles tribute, a Sgt. Pepper anniversary year, and the old Hard Rock corner on Meridian Street.

What has changed since 2018 is mostly the city around the band. The Rathskeller show was in a long-established room, and this one is in a downtown bar barely a year and a half old. A Thursday-night set at 8 p.m. leaves room for dinner downtown first.

For Indianapolis Beatles fans, it's been almost nine years. Feb. 4 is the night to make up for it.

Sources: Clayton's Country Bar Comes To Downtown Indy (Indianapolis Monthly) (indianapolismonthly.com); A taste of Nashville in Indianapolis: Clayton's Country Bar opens downtown (WRTV) (wrtv.com); Mersey Beatles: 60 Years of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Leeds Inspired) (leedsinspired.co.uk); The Mersey Beatles (Ulster Hall) (ulsterhall.co.uk); The Mersey Beatles (National Opera House) (nationaloperahouse.ie); The Mersey Beatles (Visit Shipshewana) (visitshipshewana.org); The Mersey Beatles at Clayton's Country Bar (JamBase) (jambase.com)