Drive-By Truckers come back to Louisville bigger: Paristown Hall, Feb. 20

After a Mercury Ballroom night in June 2024, the band steps up to Paristown's 2,000-capacity hall with Norwich's Brown Horse opening.

The last time Drive-By Truckers played Louisville, it was June 9, 2024, at Mercury Ballroom on Fourth Street. Their next visit is a winter Saturday in Paristown, in a room a good deal bigger.

Drive-By Truckers play Old Forester's Paristown Hall on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2027, with Brown Horse opening. The date was announced Oct. 14, and Kentucky Performing Arts, which sells tickets for the hall, has it on its calendar. Check the listing there for the start time and ticket options before you go.

The move from Mercury Ballroom to Paristown Hall is the story for Louisville. Paristown Hall, at 724 Brent Street, holds about 2,000, a step up from the room the band played last time. That says the band and promoters expect a bigger turnout for a February Saturday than they got for a June Sunday two years ago, and it gives the show more space to breathe. Paristown is also a different part of town from the Fourth Street strip.

It is a long gap by this band's standards. Drive-By Truckers have spent most of their career on the road, and Louisville has long been an easy stop for a band that came out of Athens, Ga., and built its following driving between Southern cities. Going two and a half years between shows here is unusual, which is part of why the date is worth circling.

The opener is worth showing up early for. Brown Horse are a band from Norwich, England, who play country-tinged rock that gets raucous in a Crazy Horse way. Their third album, *Total Dive*, came out on Loose Music in April, and they toured North America behind it in May, according to BrooklynVegan. Reviewers have compared them to Neil Young, Wilco and, fittingly, Drive-By Truckers themselves, per Americana UK. They have opened for the Truckers before, including a September 2026 date in Asheville. For a lot of the crowd at Paristown, this will be the first time hearing them; for some, it won't be the last.

What to expect from the headliners: a long set, loud guitars and songs that tell stories about the South without flattering it. That has been the band's deal for a long time, and a bigger room just gives it more space.

The move from Mercury Ballroom to Paristown Hall is the story for Louisville.

February is a quiet month on Louisville's music calendar, and a Saturday night in Paristown with a Southern rock band people here have followed for years is a good way to break it up. Buy tickets through Kentucky Performing Arts and plan for a cold walk from the parking lot.

Sources: Kentucky Performing Arts: Old Forester's Paristown Hall (kentuckyperformingarts.org); Old Forester's Paristown Hall (paristown.com); BrooklynVegan: UK indie country band Brown Horse announce new album Total Dive, North American tour (brooklynvegan.com); Americana UK: Classic Clips – Brown Horse "Wipers", Newport 2024 (americana-uk.com); Drive-By Truckers – Past Tour Dates (drivebytruckers.com); Drive-By Truckers - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Drive-By Truckers at Burial Beer Co. Forestry Camp, Sept 12 2026 - JamBase (jambase.com)