SKILLET LIVE!! | RITZ
Coverage by Larissa Blankenship
On March 19th the Ritz in Raleigh, NC was packed with eager fans waiting for Skillet to take the stage. The christian hard rock band is currently on their 2026 tour following the release of their latest album Revolution in 2024. The band, which originally formed in 1996, is currently made up of four members: John Cooper (lead vocals and bass), Korey Cooper (backing vocals, keyboard, and guitar), Jen Ledger (drums and vocals), and Seth Morrison (backing vocals and lead guitar). Skillet boasts an impressive discography with a dozen albums over the past two decades. Their album Awake, released in 2009, hit the No. 2 spot on the Billboard top 200 and in 2011 won the “Top Christian Album” award at the Billboard awards.
Skillet's musical style combines the intense, contagious energy of hard rock with lyrics about resilience and faith; which as proven by their Raleigh stop, is a combination that appeals to all ages. The crowd was composed of fans across many different generations, from those who have been following the band from the start to new fans just discovering Skillet’s music. Two young girls were front and center at the barricade smiling and singing along the whole night. I found out from another fan that this was the girls first concert. As the band walked onstage and the first few notes of “Surviving the Game” pounded out, cryo smoke shot up from small canons lining the front of the stage. Ledger and her drum kit sat atop a high platform, looking out over the crowd and her bandmates below. The band members know how to go hard, shredding on guitars and head banging the whole night, and the crowd was right here with them, screaming the lyrics straight back. During “Awake and Alive” John Cooper picked up two cryo canons and sprayed the smoke over the crowd. Korey Cooper and Morrison climbed the raised platform and stood on each side of Ledger, rising up and down on moving platforms. Skillet covered many songs from across their discography and closed out the night with “The Resistance” off of their 2016 album Unleashed. The band will close out the US portion of the tour later this month and head over to Europe in April. Skillet will finish out the rest of their US tour stops this summer, so make sure you catch them.
