Tab Benoit and Duane Betts bring the Southern Gentlemen Tour to Mobile's Saenger on Feb. 11

The Louisiana bluesman's first Mobile show since 2022 is a co-bill with Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel in the 1927 movie palace downtown.

The last time Tab Benoit played Mobile, in October 2022, it was at the Mobile Civic Center. His return lands in a room with nearly a century of history behind it, and he is bringing company.

Tab Benoit plays the Saenger Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2027, at 8 p.m., with Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel. Tickets run $43.40 to $99.95 through Ticketmaster. The show was announced Oct. 27, and general sale opened Oct. 30, so tickets are on sale now for the 1,921-seat house.

Mobile is one stop on the Southern Gentlemen Tour 2027, a co-headlining run that starts Feb. 5 at Tipitina's in New Orleans and wraps Feb. 25 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, with stops in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, JamBase reported. The Alabama leg is a tight one: Birmingham's Iron City on Feb. 10, Mobile on Feb. 11 and Dothan on Feb. 12, according to The Music Universe.

Both acts arrive with fresh music. Benoit released *Blues Masters Live* on Oct. 23, and Betts recently put out *Isle of Hope*, JamBase noted in its tour announcement. That gives the night two different flavors of Southern guitar music: Benoit's Louisiana blues and Betts's rock with Palmetto Motel. Betts has toured steadily with the band, including a run of dates Relix covered, and a co-headline bill means both sets should get real room to stretch.

A co-headline bill means both sets should get real room to stretch.

The setting adds to it. The Saenger opened on Jan. 19, 1927, designed by architect Emile Weil, and hosted everything from vaudeville to silent films in its early years, according to Wikipedia). It closed as a movie house in 1970, was bought and restored by the University of South Alabama, and later passed to the City of Mobile, which bought it in 1999. Today it is home to the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, as the symphony's own history notes.

That is a long way from the Civic Center. Hearing a slide guitar or a long blues solo in a restored 1927 theater, with seats instead of a floor, is a different experience, and one that tends to reward players who can work dynamics as well as volume.

For Gulf Coast blues fans, this is a February night worth circling. Mardi Gras season will be in full swing around town, and a Thursday at the Saenger is a good excuse to come downtown for something other than a parade.

Buy the tickets now, get there early enough to look up at the ceiling, and give both bands your full attention. It has been more than four years since Benoit came through. Do not wait that long to see him again.

Sources: Ticketmaster: Tab Benoit with Duane Betts, Mobile 02/11/2027 (ticketmaster.evyy.net); Tab Benoit & Duane Betts announce Southern Gentlemen Tour 2027 (JamBase) (jambase.com); The Southern Gentlemen Tour kicks off in February (The Music Universe) (themusicuniverse.com); Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel announce new tour dates (Relix) (relix.com); Saenger Theatre (Mobile, Alabama) (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); Saenger Theatre History (Mobile Symphony) (mobilesymphony.org)