There are some voices in rock that need very little introduction, and Tom Keifer’s is one of them.

The former Cinderella frontman brought the Tom Keifer Band to Monsters on the Mountain in Gatlinburg on August 19, 2022, taking the top spot on a stacked opening-day lineup at the Gatlinburg Convention Center.

Decades after Cinderella first emerged from the Philadelphia-area rock scene, Keifer was no longer simply touring on the strength of the band’s past. His solo career had developed into its own chapter, beginning with The Way Life Goes in 2013 and followed by Rise in 2019. Still, the Cinderella catalog remained an unmistakable part of what brought generations of rock fans to the stage.

That combination worked particularly well at Monsters on the Mountain. Keifer delivered the familiar grit and unmistakable rasp associated with Cinderella while fronting a band built to give those songs plenty of muscle live. Contemporary coverage of the festival singled out the band’s energy, including Keifer moving onto the catwalk and trading guitar work with lead guitarist Tony Higbee.

For longtime fans, Keifer’s history runs through songs that helped define Cinderella’s career, from the hard-rock swagger of the band’s early years to the bluesier direction that increasingly became part of its sound. But the Gatlinburg performance wasn’t presented simply as a nostalgia act. The #KEIFERBAND RISE imagery behind the stage made the point visually: the Cinderella legacy was there, but so was the band Keifer had built afterward.

With Keifer closing Friday night, it was an appropriate finish to the first full day of a festival centered on the artists and music that have kept hard rock audiences coming back for decades. Monsters on the Mountain had plenty of familiar names on its 2022 bill, but Keifer showed exactly why his remains one of the most recognizable voices among them.