49 Winchester bring "Change of Plans" back to the Rialto in March

The Virginia band's first Tucson date since April 2023 lands Friday, March 5, on Congress Street, with Kenny Whitmire opening.

The last time 49 Winchester played Tucson, it was a spring night at the Rialto Theatre on April 25, 2023. Three and a half years, a label move and a new record later, the band is coming back to the same room.

49 Winchester plays the Rialto Theatre on Friday, March 5, 2027, at 8 p.m., with Kenny Whitmire opening. The date was announced October 20 as part of the band's 2027 Change of Plans tour, and tickets run $34.05 to $123.90 through Ticketmaster. Presales ran October 21 and 22 and general sale opened October 23, so this one is already moving.

The tour is named for the record it supports. *Change of Plans* came out May 15, 2026, and it is a step-change for the group: their sixth studio album and their first on Lucille Records / MCA, with Dave Cobb as executive producer, according to coverage of the release at antimusic and Country in the UK. Cobb's name on a record tends to mean a certain kind of warmth and live-in-the-room feel, and a major-label home means more people hearing it. For a band whose genres sit somewhere between rock, country and folk, that combination is the difference between a cult following and a crossover year.

The run itself is long. It opens February 5 at The Eastern in Atlanta and closes May 8 at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth, with stops in Charlotte, Los Angeles, Boston and Austin along the way, per the tour announcement reported by uDiscover Music and The Music Universe. Tucson lands early in March, on a Friday, which is the kind of slot that tends to fill the Rialto from the rail to the back bar. The band's 2027 plans also reach overseas: a Danish press release says 49 Winchester will play an exclusive Denmark concert at Tønder Festival 2027.

Same room, new record, bigger label: the Rialto gets the 2027 version of a band it last saw in 2023.

The Rialto is a good fit for this. At roughly 1,200 capacity, the 1920 theater on Congress Street is big enough to feel like an event and small enough that this band doesn't get lost in the rafters. It is the room Tucson has watched this band in before, which makes March a straight comparison: how much has the crowd grown since 2023, and how much of the new record has the room already learned?

Expect the set to lean on *Change of Plans*, since this is the tour built around it, with the older songs that got people into the Rialto the first time filling in around it. Kenny Whitmire's opening set means doors-to-headliner is a full evening, so plan dinner downtown accordingly.

Tucson doesn't always get the full routing when a band like this goes national; a lot of tours skip straight from Phoenix to Los Angeles. This one stops here, on a Friday, in the same room as last time. If you were there in 2023, you already know whether you're going. If you weren't, March 5 is the easy fix.

Sources: JamBase: 49 Winchester at Rialto Theatre, Mar 5 2027 (jambase.com); uDiscover Music: 49 Winchester Announces 2027 'Change of Plans' Tour (udiscovermusic.com); The Music Universe: 49 Winchester tour supporting new album (themusicuniverse.com); antimusic: 49 Winchester announces homecoming headline show (antimusic.com); Country in the UK: 49 Winchester release new album Change of Plans (countryintheuk.com); Ritzau: 49 Winchester at Tønder Festival 2027 (via.ritzau.dk); Ticketmaster: 49 Winchester Tucson (ticketmaster.evyy.net); The Rialto Theatre - LocalWiki Tucson (localwiki.org)