Article Contributed by SRO
Published on 2026-08-13
The Stray Cats—all three original members Brian Setzer (guitar, vocals), Lee Rocker (upright bass, vocals), and Slim Jim Phantom (drums, vocals)—will wrap the summer leg of their 2026 tour with an August 18 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing one of the legendary group’s iconic hits. This marks the group’s first live late-night television performance in more than 35 years. Their last performance was in 1990 on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Later this year, the band will return to the road with a month of fall dates kicking off November 9 in Grand Prairie, TX, with stops in Nashville, Charlotte, Orlando, Atlanta, and more before wrapping December 6 at Foxwoods in CT. The group’s setlists will be highlighted by some of the iconic multi-million-selling band’s massive hits, including “Stray Cat Strut,” “Rock This Town,” “Runaway Boys,” “(She’s) Sexy + 17,” and much more. The group’s ongoing 2026 tour dates are below.
Last year, the iconic multi-million-selling band released two new tracks via Surfdog Records: the loud, upbeat “Stampede,” which is unmistakably The Stray Cats, and their cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Teenage Heaven.” These songs mark the first new music in six years. Listen HERE and pre-order the 7-inch “old school” 45 RPM vinyl record, available July 24.
Both “Stampede” and “Teenage Heaven” were produced by The Stray Cats, mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, and recorded at The Terrarium in Minneapolis, MN, and Laguna Sound in Laguna Beach, CA. “Stampede” was written by Brian Setzer, Peter B. Antonio, Wally Zober, Bert Salmirs, and Mike Himelstein, while “Teenage Heaven” was penned by Jerry Capehart and Eddie Cochran.
The Stray Cats 2026 dates are as follows:
Friday, August 14
Westbury, NY
Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair
Saturday, August 15
Atlantic City, NJ
Ocean Casino Resort
Sunday, August 16
Morristown, NJ
Mayo Performing Arts Center
Monday, November 9
Grand Prairie, TX
Texas Trust CU Theatre
Tuesday, November 10
San Antonio, TX
Majestic Theatre
Thursday, November 12
Sugar Land, TX
Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
Friday, November 13
Biloxi, MS
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino
Sunday, November 15
Memphis, TN
Orpheum Theatre
Tuesday, November 17
Louisville, KY
The Louisville Palace
Wednesday, November 18
Nashville, TN
Ryman Auditorium
Friday, November 20
Charlotte, NC
Ovens Auditorium
Saturday, November 21
Danville, VA
Caesars Virginia
Monday, November 23
Orlando, FL
Hard Rock Live Orlando
Tuesday, November 24
Clearwater, FL
Ruth Eckerd Hall
Wednesday, November 25
Jacksonville, FL
Florida Theatre
Friday, November 27
Atlanta, GA
Fox Theatre
Saturday, November 28
Cherokee, NC
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort
Sunday, November 29
Virginia Beach, VA
The Dome by Rutter Mills
Tuesday, December 1
Red Bank, NJ
Count Basie Center for the Arts
Wednesday, December 2
Greensburg, PA
The Palace Theatre
Friday, December 4
Bethlehem, PA
The Wind Creek Event Center
Sunday, December 6
Mashantucket, CT
Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino
About The Stray Cats:
The Stray Cats, the band that put rockabilly music back on the record charts in the early ’80s, scored several big hits on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to a striking visual 1950s style brought “up to date” with exaggerated pompadours and colorful tattoos, as well as genuine musical chops that evoked the best players of rockabilly’s original heyday.
Formed by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer, upright bass player Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, NY, in 1979, the trio shared a love for rockabilly music. After banging around New York for a few months, in the summer of 1980, and seeing a pompadoured kid on the cover of UK magazine NME, they hopped a plane to London, where a rockabilly revival movement was just beginning to emerge.
Their massive hits and videos include “Runaway Boys,” “Rock This Town,” “Stray Cat Strut,” “(She’s) Sexy + 17,” and “I Won’t Stand in Your Way.”
