Tom Keifer, Take Me Back, Please! | Concert Review (U.S. Tour 2025)

It’s hard to believe that the last concert I attended was The Black Crowes’ Happiness Bastards Tour (The Reprise) in December 2024. Seriously, that is mind-boggling! What the heck have I been doing all this time?!?! That’s a long story, but anyways, I’ve wanted to see Tom Keifer live since I got into Cinderella during my Disney College Program in 2022. The classic Cinderella band did a handful of performances between 1996 and 2014, but I was not into hard rock back then, heck, I wasn’t even born in 1996. My next bet was seeing Tom Keifer live and my time finally came on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 at The Theater at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. Oh, and L.A. Guns were the opening act. However, unlike The Black Crowes concert, I went with my dad and we actually had seats. I wanted to pick the cheapest seats that were also close to the stage, so I purchased seats that were about fourth or fifth row from the stage and the price was not bad. Those two tickets cost me less than $180 without the fees.

I won’t show all the shirts, but instead, here’s my favorite of the three, a Tom Keifer American flag-style tour shirt.

The start time was 8:00 p.m., so my dad and I left our hotel, the Palms Casino Resort, at around 6:00 p.m. and arrived at 6:12 p.m. Despite having assigned seats for the gig, I insisted on getting in the security line early so that we could get to the merch line early and find our seats with enough time to spare before the show. After passing through the security check at 7:02 p.m., my dad and I headed straight for the merch table. I won’t complain about Tom Keifer’s shirts being $45 and the L.A. Guns tour shirt being $40 because that’s the unfortunate reality of the current music industry. Very few people are buying physical media, so bands/artists make their income from touring and merch. I ended up getting two Tom Keifer shirts and one L.A. Guns shirt because the Tom Keifer shirts were so cool and in case I get into L.A. Guns somewhere down the line, I don’t have to fuss about missing out on seeing them live because I’ll have proof that I already did. By the way, dad, thank you for buying me the shirts and sorry for your wallet!

After purchasing our shirts and beverages of choice, we found and got to our seats at 7:20 p.m. As a real treat for the hard rock community and aspiring rock music journalists like myself, Eddie Trunk appeared, along with a guy that looked like Robert Plant, but for the life of me, I can’t remember his name, to introduce L.A. Guns and thank the audience for supporting live music. The band came on five minutes later, and forgive me, I’m no L.A. Guns expert, so I didn’t know any of the songs they performed. I will say, however, they were great live and the audience, myself included, was really into their performance. The only thing that was a bit odd was the pretty blonde that appeared during two of their songs, but that’s just me personally because if the music is great, the hot chicks are not necessary to convince concertgoers the music is great.

A couple of things that stood out to me, oddly enough, had to do with the band members’ appearances. Guitarist Tracii Guns was dressed so casually in a t-shirt and shorts, but I liked it because that was his way of saying, “I’m a rockstar and I can wear whatever I want!” Heck, his green guitar even matched his shirt. As for frontman Phil Lewis, I’m not sure if it’s because I was in Disneyland the day before, but he looked like Captain Jack Sparrow as a rock frontman. He had the white baggy shirt, long hair, the mustache, and vintage looking vest. My favorite parts of L.A. Guns’ portion of the show were when Guns and the ensemble performed the intro to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” and when the audience was singing along to the chorus for “The Ballad of Jayne.” Those two moments were very similar because they united the crowd with the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. Everyone’s got their problems with work, health, life, whatever. But the one common saving grace we have is music and that is beautiful!

L.A. Guns were done at around 7:53 p.m. and there was very little action until 9:18 p.m., when The Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” started blasting through the speakers. Then, the rock ‘n’ roll gods blessed us with Tom Keifer’s presence! I’m not joking; throughout the entire performance, I kept thinking, “dang, Tom Keifer is so cool!” From the way he dressed, how he talked, how he performed, how he walked onstage, how he played guitar, everything about this guy was cool! The Tom Keifer Band kicked off with one of my favorites from Keifer’s Rise (2019) solo album, “Touching the Devine,” which he didn’t play for his 2024 tour, so I’m really happy he brought it back for this tour. I knew he was going to play a couple of songs from Cinderella’s Heartbreak Station (1990) album, which was the only Cinderella studio album I was missing from my collection. Therefore, I had to fix that and good thing I did because the next song on the agenda was “The More Things Change” from the respective album.

The next song on the agenda was the lowkey, “Coming Home” from Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter (1988). It’s not my favorite from that album, but I’ll take it! Next up was “The Death of Me” from Keifer’s Rise, which has become an anthem for Keifer because of all the hardships he experienced with his voice. That’s like a “screw you” to all the haters and outside forces trying to tear him down. Or make him “fall apart at the seams,” eh? Get it, no? Ok, well that was the next song on the agenda, along with “Bad Seamstress Blues” from Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter and every time Tom Keifer does slide guitar is always a win for me because Cinderella were a blues rock band, not that hair metal crap they got lumped in with. The third and final song from Rise that Keifer performed was the title track, which had him front and center on the piano, and yes, even the way he plays piano is freaking cool! Then, here’s where things started getting interesting. You know those songs that casual fans only know because they’ve heard them on the radio and MTV so many times? “Nobody’s Fool” from Cinderella’s Night Songs (1986) is one of those songs; in fact, that was one of the only Cinderella songs my dad knew before attending the gig.

As mentioned earlier, I was smart enough to buy Cinderella’s Heartbreak Station in preparation for the gig, but unfortunately, I was dumb enough not to buy Keifer’s debut solo album, The Way Life Goes (2013), also in preparation for the gig. Luckily, I looked up the setlist as soon as the 2025 tour started and unlike The Black Crowes, Keifer sticks with the same setlist throughout the entire tour, so I sort of knew what to expect for the gig. The only song he performed from The Way Life Goes was the opening track, “Solid Ground,” which I looked up the day before and it sounds even better live. Unfortunately for Mr. Keifer, that was the beginning of minor tech issues for him. He was having trouble activating his beautiful, red electric guitar, but worked out the kinks before the song’s intro. However, more issues came during the title track for Cinderella’s Night Songs. The first half of the song was fine, but when it was time to do the guitar solo, Keifer’s new black, electric guitar gave out. Ironically, that was my favorite part of the show because it’s part of the live experience, nothing is perfect, and to be that close to the stage, seeing Keifer talk to his guitar tech offstage to sort out the issues was fascinating to watch. 

The next song on the agenda was another hit from Cinderella’s Night Songs, “Somebody Save Me,” which under normal circumstances I would’ve been like, “all right, cool.” However, my personal life has been a mess this year and the lyrics hit me harder now than they did three years ago, especially the chorus. I now understand why it was a big hit back then. Next up was a song my dad wasn’t familiar with at all, but I knew what it was, so it was cool to teach my dad something new about a band that was from his era, but he wasn’t really paying attention back then. The song was a very underrated track from Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter, “The Last Mile.” Another highlight of the show was when Keifer and his wife and background vocalist, Savannah, walked to the front of the stage holding hands (so adorable) to perform the beautiful and heartbreaking ballad, “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone),” another track from Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter, on the piano with Savannah on backing vocals. I’m not even a huge fan of the song, to begin with, but the piano instrumentation is gorgeous and he’s doing what he loves with his wife by his side! Plus, she can play piano too; when Keifer switched to electric guitar for the solo, Savannah took over piano duties, which was cool as heck!

Afterwards, Keifer and company performed the last song of the setlist from Cinderella’s Night Songs, the banging and scratching, “Shake Me.” I remember jamming to that song while brushing my teeth in the morning, getting ready for who knows what, so that one holds a special place in my heart. The second and final song from Cinderella’s Heartbreak Station that Keifer performed was another track that hits harder than it did back then, “Shelter Me.” By the way, I know I’ve mentioned in my Songs with the Same Title – Triumph Edition blog post that nothing dates a song more than a line that references MTV, but the lyrics for “Shelter Me” are absolutely genius because well, have a look: “Tipper led the war against the record industry / She said she saw the devil on her MTV.” Yeah, that woman really was a twit.

The band took a brief pause before returning to the stage for the encore, which despite being a massive hit for Cinderella, I was really excited about the next number and I’m usually all about the deep cuts; that song was “Gypsy Road” from Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter. The reason being it’s such a bada** song, but also, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to hear that song live because Cinderella called it quits years ago, therefore, I was just taking it all in and partying like it was 1988. Plus, Keifer and his other guitarist, Tony Higbee, got to mess around for a bit trading solos before the song’s intro. One of the only complaints I have for the show, however, was I wish they didn’t end the show with a cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends” because I’m so sick of The Beatles, thanks to American Idol, I never liked that song because I thought the message was cheesy and old-fashioned, and I would’ve preferred another Tom Keifer / Cinderella song instead. 

The show ended on a weird note for me, but I still had a blast! I never got to see Cinderella live, but if the Tom Keifer Band is the closest thing that comes my way, I’ll take it! As for the other minor complaint, besides the cover song, I wish they did three songs from Cinderella’s last studio album, Still Climbing (1994), because it’s highly underrated and it never got the credit it deserved; it came out during the grunge era. The band did play “Hot & Bothered” for the 2024 tour, but unfortunately, I missed that.

As mentioned earlier, because my dad and I had assigned seats, we were stuck in that very spot throughout the entire show. Being a short, 26-year-old, there were more than a few tall mainland folks obstructing my view, so I couldn’t take as many pics as I would’ve liked. However, on the plus side, I got to enjoy the show more because I wasn’t taking so many pictures during the show. That was probably the rock ‘n’ roll gods’ way of telling me, “put your phone down and just enjoy the show, you idiot!” By the way, to the guy I smacked on the head twice while taking pictures, I’m so sorry! Tom Keifer, though, holy cow, the Lord knows how many vocal surgeries he went through, but his voice sounds better than ever; still mean, gritty, and nasty as I remember it to be. Another interesting note is you can really hear who’s playing what, guitar-wise. Despite the tech issues from earlier, I heard every note Keifer played perfectly loud and clear. Speaking of which, for a guy who used to be uncomfortable singing onstage without his guitar, he seems perfectly fine with it now. The bottom line is, I would see the Tom Keifer Band live again in a heartbeat (as long as they make minor adjustments to the concert setlist)!

L.A. Guns Concert Setlist

1. Cannonball

2. Electric Gypsy

3. Sex Action

4. Like a Drug

5. Speed

6. Guitar Solo

7. I Wanna Be Your Man

8. Lucky Motherf*cker

9. Never Enough

10. The Ballad of Jayne

11. Rip and Tear

Tom Keifer Band Concert Setlist

1. Touching the Devine

2. The More Things Change

3. Coming Home

4. The Death of Me

5. Bad Seamstress Blues / Fallin’ Apart at the Seams

6. Rise

7. Nobody’s Fool

8. Solid Ground

9. Night Songs

10. Somebody Save Me

11. The Last Mile

12. Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)

13. Shake Me

14. Shelter Me

15. Gypsy Road (ENCORE BEGINS)

16. With a Little Help from My Friends (The Beatles cover) (ENCORE ENDS)

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Lana