Still loud, still sold out: Former Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer rocks a packed Granada Theater

If you grew up in the era of 1980s hair metal, you remember the voice: soaring, raspy and at times gritty. A voice that stood out from the surrounding shredding of the time — Tom Keifer, the star frontman of Cinderella.

On Friday night, in front of a packed-to-the-rafters crowd at Granada Theater, the now 65-year-old and his aptly named Keifer Band proved to loyal followers and newcomers alike that he’s still got it. And this all despite him losing his voice in the 1990s, enduring multiple surgeries and having to retrain his vocal cords to simply speak, never mind belt out his signature sound again.

L.A. Guns set the stage

Before we go much further here, though, there’s credit to be given to the show’s opener: L.A. Guns, another ’80s metal band perhaps best known for “The Ballad of Jayne.”

Founder Tracii Guns, in shorts and red-striped knee-high socks, was masterful on lead guitar while singer Phil Lewis never missed a note through rockers such as “Electric Gypsy” and “Never Enough.” 

Hitting the ‘Gypsy Road’

Still, while L.A. Guns took care of business by getting the house energized, Keifer was undoubtedly the main attraction. Looking the part in platform lace-up boots, a custom trenchcoat, long scarf and the required necklaces and rings, he ripped through a 16-song set that included all the hits. 

After starting off with “Night Songs,” the ballad “Heartbreak Station” soon followed before things were ramped back up with the underrated “Bad Seamstress Blues/Fallin’ Apart at the Seams,” the latter two featuring his turn on both lap steel and resonator guitars.

Keifer would later sit down at the piano for a duet with his wife, Savannah, for “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone).” Unfortunately, hearing her was a bit hard, but that was in part because the crowd sang along at the top of their collective lungs.

Savannah is a backup singer in the seven-piece band that also features Tony Higbee on lead guitar (and some downright impressive vocal high notes), Luis Espaillat on bass, drummer Jarred Pope, keyboardist Kory Myers and fellow backup singer Tanya Davis. 

Together, the group mixed in three songs from Keifer’s more recent solo work, “All Amped Up,” “The Death of Me” and “Solid Ground,” but those songs obviously weren’t why people threw down their money for tickets and merch. However, for those not familiar, the newer material is worth a listen, as it has a definite Cinderella vibe.

Fans, of course, demanded the favorites, and they were not disappointed. The back-to-back thundering deliveries of “Somebody Save Me” and “The Last Mile” were a personal highlight, but the finale of “Shake Me” and “Shelter Me,” followed by an encore of the Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice” and Cinderella’s mainstay “Gypsy Road,” put an emphatic exclamation point on Keifer’s ability to keep rocking even four decades after it all began.

And, oh, that voice.