Tom Keifer Band and Close Enemies @ West Herr Riviera Theatre, North Tonawanda, NY 10-2-25

A double bill of rock blasted its way through North Tonawanda, NY this past Thursday night. The Tom Keifer Band and Close Enemies played to a near capacity house at the majestic Riviera Theatre. This was Keifer’s first appearance in the WNY area since 2019. Close Enemies is a new band that has released a few singles and will be getting ready to release its new album on November 7th, 2025.

First up was Close Enemies. This band is comprised of Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) on bass, Peter Stroud (Sherly Crow) on guitar, Tony Brock (The Babys) on drums, Trace Foster on guitar and Chase Hampton on vocals. The bands 50 minute set included 9 songs. With this amount of talent on stage, it would be interesting to see on how the band would jell and how the these songs would translate to the audience. The very energetic “Rain” led off the festivities for the night. The bluesy swing of “Sweet Baby Jesus” followed a few songs later. A Babys cover “Head First” and Aerosmith cover “Sick as a Dog” concluded their set. Both Foster and Stroud played very well off each other. Hamilton and Brock were locked in as rhythm section too. I think even though there was mostly unfamiliarity of the bands music, the crowd were soon won over. It was a nice introductory set by Close Enemies for the fans of WNY.

Closing the nights festivities was the Tom Keifer Band. The band has made a few changes to its lineup since the last time I seen them. The current incarnation of the band now is Tony Higbee on guitar, Jarred Pope on drums, Luis Espaillat on bass, Kory Myers on keyboards, and vocalists Savannah Keifer and Tanya Davis. Opening up with “The More Things Change,” I thought it not only was an interesting choice but a good choice. This because the band was able to settle in some. Then they followed up with the up tempo ballad “Coming Home.” Up next was the first solo song that made an appearance in “The Death of Me.” Keifer made sure that no notes were missed when he was going back and forth between the piano and guitar so he had his tour manager Craig Bradford play a few guitar parts on a few songs. If you want to know how Keifer’s voice has held up, I think his performance on “Solid Ground” showed that. His power and precision may be better than ever. That is unbelievable to consider after Keifer’s many years of vocal issues. His wife Savannah joined him front and center for “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone.” The hard hitting “Shake Me’ closed things out before the band returned for an encore. Maybe my favorite song from the Cinderella catalog started things off in “Gypsy Road.” They closed things out with fun Beatles classic “With a Little Help From my Friends.” Kiefer’s solo work is just as good as his Cinderella material and blends in so well with the confines of the setlist. The energy continued throughout the show regardless of what song and in what position was performed.

This may have been the show of the year. To see a band still in its infancy and already delivering in Close Enemies and of course, Kiefer’s band killing it, made for a great rock and roll show.

Tom Keifer Band Setlist:

The More Things Change (Cinderella song)

Coming Home (Cinderella song)

The Death of Me

Bad Seamstress Blues (Cinderella song)

Rise

Nobody’s Fool (Cinderella song)

Solid Ground

Night Songs (Cinderella song)

Somebody Save Me (Cinderella song)

The Last Mile (Cinderella song)

Don’t Know What You Got (Till Its Gone)