The Isley Brothers are set to headline Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City on Saturday, September 26, for a concert billed as “Rhythm & Cigars,” a show sponsored by Compadres Premium Cigars that pairs the legendary soul group's live set with an outdoor terrace smoking lounge. The performance was promoted locally on FOX 4 Kansas City television broadcasts ahead of the date, and it lands at a moment when the historic auditorium itself is in the middle of a major civic makeover.
According to FOX4KC.com, the show is being promoted as part of the station's Great Day KC programming, tying the concert date directly to the venue and its sponsor. Ticket listings for the event, detailed by Ticketmaster, list JUBU as a special guest, with the cigar lounge set up on an outdoor terrace to accommodate the venue's indoor smoking restrictions.
A Landmark Venue Riding a Wave of New Investment
Municipal Auditorium isn't just any concert hall. Opened in 1935 as an Art Deco landmark in downtown Kansas City, the building seats roughly 10,700 people, according to Ticketmaster's venue history. That legacy is now colliding with a fresh round of public investment: Kansas City voters approved a $100 million general obligation bond measure in August, with about $40 million earmarked specifically for repairs and renovations at the auditorium, as Hoodline reported in its piece on the bond measure covering Bartle Hall and City Hall.
The funding push comes as the building works to shed a growing list of deferred maintenance needs, and it isn't the only sign of the auditorium's expanding footprint. The venue is also returning in 2026 as the primary home court for the UMKC Roos men's basketball team under a revenue management deal with Playfly Sports, a commercial arrangement the report notes marks a return after the team had played its home games elsewhere. Between the concert bookings, the bond-funded repairs, and the college basketball deal, Municipal Auditorium is positioning itself as a multi-use hub for downtown Kansas City rather than a fading relic of its Final Four glory days.
Six Decades of Hits and a Growing List of Honors
The Isley Brothers arrive in Kansas City carrying a chart legacy few acts can match. The group originated in Cincinnati and formed in the early 1950s, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014, according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Ronald Isley has made Billboard appearances across eight decades.
Core members Ronald and Ernie Isley continue to tour together under the band's name, and the accolades have kept coming. On November 21, 2025, the pair accepted the Isley Brothers' New Jersey Hall of Fame induction at The Rink at the American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as reported by WBLS. The report also mentions street-renaming ceremonies in Teaneck and Englewood. Then in June 2026, the group was announced as a headline inductee for the 2026 class of the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame alongside The Ohio Players and The O'Jays, with the formal ceremony held during Cincinnati Music Festival week in July, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage tied to The Ohio Players.
From Vinyl to Sample Culture
The Isley Brothers' catalog has also proven durable well beyond their own era. Their discography has been sampled in hip-hop, with tracks like “Footsteps in the Dark” and “Between the Sheets” forming the musical bed for 1990s rap classics, the Songwriters Hall of Fame notes — Ice Cube built “It Was a Good Day” around the former, while The Notorious B.I.G. sampled the latter for “Big Poppa.” That cross-generational reach helps explain why a group formed in 1954 can still headline a modern cigar-branded concert series and draw crowds spanning multiple generations of fans.
For Kansas City, the September 26 date offers a snapshot of a downtown institution in transition — a Depression-era Art Deco hall built for basketball tournaments and civic gatherings, now leaning on bond dollars, a sports sponsorship deal, and a soul legacy act to stay relevant nine decades after it first opened its doors.
