Tom Keifer – a hard rock connoisseur

Tom Keifer brought Raleigh a hard, seasoned set built on the durable force of Cinderella’s catalog and the gritty self-possession of #Keiferband. As Cinderella’s principal songwriter, singer, and guitarist, Keifer helped turn Night Songs, Long Cold Winter, Heartbreak Station, and Still Climbing into a blues-weighted answer to the era’s more polished hard rock, with “Nobody’s Fool,” “Gypsy Road,” and “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)” remaining staples because the songs still carry real tension. His current band gives those songs more breadth than a nostalgia package, with keyboards, percussion, backing vocals, and room for his solo work from The Way Life Goes and Rise. The June 18 Ritz date sat within Keifer’s 2026 U.S. run, while the pairing with L.A. Guns put two veteran acts before an audience that wanted songs with mileage, muscle, and scars. Keifer’s latest album remains 2019’s Cleopatra Records release Rise, and the strongest part of his present-day appeal is that he has never softened the blues, the strain, or the bitterness out of his writing. Official website: Tom Keifer — Latest release: Rise

Cinderella’s Tom Keifer and the Keifer Band

The L.A. Guns set had a directness expected from a band whose history reaches back to the earliest days of the Sunset Strip and whose best records—L.A. Guns, Cocked & Loaded, Hollywood Vampires, Vicious Circle, Man in the Moon, Checkered Past, and Black Diamonds—have survived because Tracii Guns’ guitar work and Phil Lewis’ voice still favor bite over polish. Their 2026 Lucky MF’r tour was tied to the band’s most recent album, Leopard Skin, released by Cleopatra Records in 2025, and the Raleigh crowd responded to a set built for people who know that this band’s reputation was earned through songs, riffs, and attitude rather than fashion. The group’s current era has been unusually productive, with a steady run of new albums since the Guns–Lewis reunion, and that forward motion matters: L.A. Guns did not arrive as a museum piece. They arrived as a working hard-rock band with a deep discography, a loyal audience, and enough confidence to make old songs and recent material belong on the same bill. Official website: L.A. Guns — Latest release: Leopard Skin

L.A. Guns