Blackberry Smoke bring 25 years to Stifel Theatre on Nov. 13

The Georgia rockers' anniversary tour reaches downtown St. Louis on a Friday night, in a room built for big voices.

Every Blackberry Smoke show on this tour carries an empty chair you can't see. Since co-founding drummer Brit Turner died in 2024, Charlie Starr has dedicated every show to him, and the band's 25th Anniversary Tour comes with a record honoring him. On Friday, Nov. 13, that tour reaches Stifel Theatre in downtown St. Louis. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are on Ticketmaster.

St. Louis lands in the last stretch of the run. The band plays Greenville–Spartanburg on Nov. 5 and Charleston–Huntington on Nov. 6, then heads to Huntsville, Augusta, Jacksonville and a hometown-area Atlanta date on Nov. 27 after leaving here.

Who they are. Blackberry Smoke came out of Georgia at the start of the century and built their following the old way, on the road. Their sound is Southern rock that draws on country and blues. Their most recent studio album, *Be Right Here*, came out in February 2024. It was the last one Turner played on. He'd been fighting brain cancer since 2022, and Kent Aberle, who filled in for him from then on, is still behind the kit. Starr has called hitting 25 years "surreal." He's also said he thinks the band has another 25 years in it.

That's the right attitude for this tour. Reviews from earlier stops describe a set that mixes the hits with deep cuts, so this isn't a greatest-hits revue. Starr has always written like a storyteller, and a band this tight leaves room for the guitar breaks to stretch out.

Not a greatest-hits revue — a band at 25 that still thinks it's halfway through.

Why this room. Stifel Theatre has a longer history than most of the bands that play it. It opened in 1934 as the Kiel Opera House, with a production of Verdi's *Aida* featuring stars from the Metropolitan Opera. It was home to the St. Louis Symphony until 1968. The building closed in 1991 and stayed dark for twenty years, until a renovation of roughly $79 million reopened it as the Peabody Opera House on Oct. 1, 2011, with Aretha Franklin at the gala. The Stifel name came in 2018. The St. Louis Symphony is back in the building again while Powell Hall is being renovated.

The theater seats 3,100, a good size for this band. It's small enough that Starr's voice still carries without strain and big enough to feel like an event. Bands like Blackberry Smoke tend to sound better in a room built for unamplified voices than in an arena.

What to know. It's a Friday at 8 p.m. downtown. Tickets go through Ticketmaster.

Twenty-five years is a long time to keep a rock band together. The best part of the night will probably be watching a group that has lost a founding member keep playing anyway.

Sources: JamBase: Blackberry Smoke at Stifel Theatre, Nov 13, 2026 (jambase.com); Rolling Stone: Blackberry Smoke Say They'll Continue After Brit Turner's Death (rollingstone.com); Louder: How Blackberry Smoke keep moving forwards (loudersound.com); Blackberry Smoke celebrate 25th anniversary with album honouring late drummer Brit Turner (inkl.com); ArtsATL: Q&A — Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr on Be Right Here (artsatl.org); Warner Theatre: Blackberry Smoke 25th Anniversary Tour (VIP / Brit Turner Family Fund) (warnertheatre.org); Ckord: Blackberry Smoke 25th Anniversary Tour — Capital One Hall (app.ckord.com); Wikipedia: Stifel Theatre (en.wikipedia.org); St. Louis Public Radio: Peabody Opera House renamed Stifel Theatre (stlpr.org)