DakhaBrakha bring their first album in five years to Homer's 400-seat room

The Ukrainian band plays the Center for the Arts of Homer on Saturday, Feb. 6 — a rare chance to see them in a room this size, an easy drive south from Syracuse.

Most bands that can fill a European arena-sized hall don't route through a 400-seat theater on South Main Street in Homer. DakhaBrakha will, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2027, and if you live anywhere between Syracuse and Ithaca, that's the date to circle.

The show was announced Oct. 20 and is presented by DSP Shows at the Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S. Main St. Doors are at 7 p.m., the music starts at 8, and it's all ages. Tickets are sold through the DSP Shows / TIXR page, by phone at (607) 749-4900, or at the box office, which the venue's FAQ lists as open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. With 400 seats and a band with this kind of following, waiting until February is a gamble.

They arrive with new music. DakhaBrakha's latest album, Ptakh, is their first in five years, according to the Kyiv Post: 14 tracks, most of them recorded in Kyiv in 2025. The band spent this fall taking it home first, on a Ukrainian tour that opened Sept. 30 in Bila Tserkva and ran through eight cities — including Kharkiv, where they had not played since 2022 — before closing with three nights in Kyiv on Oct. 16, 17 and 18. The band said it would donate all of the revenue from those Ukrainian concerts to the country's Defense Forces.

A band this big doesn't often play a room this small — and Homer has 400 seats, not 4,000.

From there the record heads abroad. European dates are on sale now, including Leipzig on Nov. 17.

Central New York has some history with this band through the same promoter: DSP Shows has brought DakhaBrakha to the State Theatre of Ithaca and the Academy of Music in Northampton on earlier tours. Homer is a smaller and more intimate stop than either, and that is the appeal. A band whose shows lean so heavily on voices, percussion and the energy in the room tends to land hardest when the back row isn't far away.

The room itself has earned its place on the circuit. The Center for the Arts of Homer, a restored hall in the middle of the village, was recognized in 2024 with the New York State Senate's Empire Award, presented by Sen. Lea Webb, who cited its record of bringing national concerts to Cortland County. It is the kind of place where a touring act with a global audience and a crowd driving in from Syracuse, Cortland and Ithaca end up sharing the same 400 seats.

For Syracuse readers, it's roughly a half-hour down I-81 — and a winter Saturday in Homer, dinner on Main Street and a show in a room this size is about as good as February gets around here.

Doors at 7. Get tickets early, and leave time for the snow.

Sources: DSP Shows — DakhaBrakha, Center for the Arts of Homer (Feb 6) (dspshows.com); TIXR — DakhaBrakha at Center for the Arts of Homer (tixr.com); Center for the Arts of Homer — FAQ (center4art.org); Center for the Arts of Homer (center4art.org); Kyiv Post — DakhaBrakha new album and Ukrainian tour (kyivpost.com); MVP Leipzig — DakhaBrakha: New Album Ptakh (Nov 17, 2026) (mvp.de); TIXR — DakhaBrakha at State Theatre of Ithaca (DSP Shows) (tixr.com); TIXR — DakhaBrakha at Academy of Music Theatre, Northampton (DSP Shows) (tixr.com); NY State Senate — Senator Lea Webb honors Center for the Arts of Homer with Empire Award (nysenate.gov); SYR Airport to Homer, NY: Distance, Drive Time & Directions (airport.guide)