Tom Keifer Delivers A Summertime Gem In Akron

Concert Review
Tom Keifer Band
LA Guns
Lock 3 Park
Akron, OH
Thursday July 23, 2026
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto

Nothing says summer like a Tom Keifer Band concert in the outdoors in the heart of downtown Akron Ohio. Lock 3 Park is known as a place where everyone belongs and everyone can find something to celebrate. Thursday evening we celebrated the return of Tom Keifer and LA Guns to town. This show marked Keifer first in Akron since 2023 but 4th Akron appearance in the past seven years. The city is special as he could easily play nearby Cleveland but continues to come to Akron with regularity.

Thursday night Keifer and his band delivered another flawless performance as they kicked off with “Night Songs”, a song which Keifer’s old band Cinderella opened many a show with. It instantly set the tone as he followed up and ripped into “All Amped Up” from his most recent solo album 2019’s Rise.

The setlist featured a good mix of solo songs and Cinderella songs. The one thing I like is each tour Keifer will bring back a Cinderella tune he hasn’t played in a few tours and rotates between a few solo songs keeping the set fresh while maintaining all the classic hits one expects to hear.

His band is the same lineup as in 2025 and included guitarist Tony Higbee, bassist Luis Espaillat, drummer Jarred Pope, keyboardist Kory Myers, and vocalists Savannah Keifer and Tanya Davis.

The crew rolled out a piano for “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”. It was during that song Savannah joined her husband at the piano to sing the highest charting song Keifer has amassed to date as it reached #12 on the Billboard Hit 100 singles chart.

2026 has been a busy year for Keifer as he kicked his year off in May playing the M3 Rock Festival. He will be playing Houston on August 3rd which is the last date listed to date on his website. 2026 marks the most shows he will have done since 2015 as will clock in with over 40 shows. Hopefully that will leave the rest of the year to finish recording his follow-up to Rise so we get some new music and more songs to choose from on his next tour.

TOM KEIFER PICTURES

Tom Keifer

Night Songs
All Amped Up
Heartbreak Station
Bad Seamstress Blues/Fallin’ Apart At The Seams
The Death of Me
Coming Home
Nobody’s Fool
Solid Ground
Somebody Save Me
The Last Mile
Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)
Shake Me
Shelter Me

Encore
Tumbling Dice
Gypsy Road

The Hollywood Strip set up shop in Lock 3 Park Thursday evening as LA Guns put on a blistering display of guitar driven rock combined with the solid vocals of vocalist Phil Lewis. This lineup has been the most solid cast of characters the band has had in quite some time. The evidence shows in not only their performance but the fact this lineup has been together since 2022.

For forty-five minutes the band entertained with a good mix of songs throughout their long history. Of course the big songs “The Ballad Of Jayne”, “Never Enough” and “Rip and Tear” stood out as they have passed the test of time.

Lewis sporting a new look made him seem more like a ringleader as he guided the band through song after song without missing a beat. Of course LA Guns is not LA Guns without its founder Tracii Guns leading the charge. His cohort on guitar Ace Von Johnson meshes well with Guns as they really lead the charge with the twin guitar attack. Bassist Johnny Martin has been around since 2016. Drummer Shawn Duncan joined the live band in 2022 and they have never looked back. In this business LA Guns having gone through numerous personnel know all about trying to maintain a consistent lineup.

LA Guns has kept rolling along having released five albums with the reuniting of Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis. Lewis once told me “LA Guns is me and Tracii and if it doesn’t have that then it’s not LA Guns. That’s just the way I feel. I did a few records without him, music that I’m really proud of that I enjoyed but it wasn’t LA Guns.” Hopefully they continue down the path of making a new album and keeping the touring cycle going as they are still firing on all cylinders this late in their career which you generally don’t see in the music business by a veteran band.

LA GUNS PHOTOS