By Ross Raihala

A funny thing happens when you turn 35. People start respecting you.

At least that's the case with costumed rockers Kiss, who are celebrating their 35th anniversary with a world tour that's earned them uncharacteristically warm reviews, even from previously hostile corners. Perhaps more surprising is that the band finally has been nominated for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, more than a decade after they were first eligible. Even cool cat Brian Setzer likes Kiss! (Well, I assume he does anyway - he was standing behind me in the will-call line.)

Lest anyone worry, the foursome's Saturday night performance at the Target Center proved founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons aren't about to let all that newfound esteem go to their heads. If anything, Kiss has survived 35 years - technically speaking, they're actually a few months shy of turning 37 - by refusing to grow up at all.

Heavy-metal glam-rock legends light up MTS Centre on Monday

By: Brian McCollum

Iconic rockers KISS play a sold-out show at MTS Centre Monday night for the first time in nine years.

This time, founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are joined by guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer as KISS tours in support of Sonic Boom, which was released last month and is being hailed as the best Kiss album since Destroyer.

It's the first KISS album since 1998's Psycho Circus, recorded as the reunited lineup was starting to disintegrate. (The band launched a farewell tour in 2000.)

Stanley, who produced Sonic Boom, recently spoke with the Detroit Free Press from his home in Los Angeles.

Here's Tommy, Paul and Eric backstage in Minneapolis after last night's show celebrating Tommy's birthday with a very special birthday cake!

During the November 7, 2009 concert at Minneapolis' Target Center, KISS and the audience sang "Happy Birthday" to Tommy Thayer.

KISS is featured on a wall mural for eggs in a California Trader Joe's Grocery store.

Thanks to Brian for sending the image to KOL!

Gene Simmons appeared on the cover of the largest Spanish newspaper, "El Pais", last Friday, November 6th. This section also contained a two page article about the band, with a brief interview from New Orleans.

Thank to Santy Pradas for sending KOL the image.

Check out this fan's great KISS Creature of the Night tattoo at the Minneapolis show meet & greet.

Photo by Spiro Papadatos for KISSOnline.

Here's a video with a cool perspective of Paul's flight in Minneapolis last night!

By: Morley Walker

THEY say you never forget your first KISS.Russ Antymis was 12 when an older cousin turned him on to an album by the American heavy-metal glam rockers. Now 36, he's still listening.

"It's the makeup and theatrics, and I love their music," says Antymis, a math and science teacher at Elmwood High School.

"I love that fun, heavy kind of feeling."

As a card-carrying member of the KISS Army, the group's international fan club, Antymis nabbed four tickets in Row 11 on the MTS Centre floor for Monday night's concert.

By Greg Kot
Photo by KISSonline

Once you've seen a giant demon in silver platform boots sprout wings and spit blood and fire, what's left? For Kiss, that shtick was outrageous enough to get them noticed in the '70s until they were the biggest band in the world.

On Friday at the United Center, not a whole lot had changed. Rock's answer to the Ringling Brothers - Kiss cofounders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley - brought the circus to a near-capacity audience. Fans were blinged out in vintage Kiss tour T-shirts and face paint. A few adolescents have enlisted, but the Kiss Army consisted mostly of folks who came of age in the mid-'70s, back when 10-year-olds were toting Kiss lunch boxes to school and rocking "Kiss Alive" on the stereo loud enough to annoy Cat Stevens fans everywhere.

Still selling loads of tickets, Simmons and Stanley run the greatest self-marketing machine in rock history, perhaps the first pair of businessmen-rockers to put the "r" in band, as in "brand." They keep finding new ways to sell themselves: In the '70s it was everyday-is-Halloween masks; at Friday's show, $30 got you a USB leather wristband containing digital files of the night's performance.

The garish black-and-white makeup was intact, as it was when the band brought a shot of glam to New York City grime in 1973. Simmons wore his 60 pounds of demon regalia, while Stanley was the bare-chested star man.

Wishing you a very happy birthday...we hope you have an awesome day, before rockin' Minneapolis tonight!

Check out this KISSONLINE EXCLUSIVE video clip of KISS performing "Detroit Rock City" last night in Chicago!

Take a look at some of the fans attending last night's show at Chicago's United Center!

Here are the latest approved KISS collectibles.

Pictured:

KISS Snuggie, Destroyer Towel, Rock 'N' Roll Over Blanket and Love Gun Mirror from KISS licensee Classic Imports.

Sonic Boom Drum Sticks from KISS licensee Coopersburg.

Destroyer Vinyl Clock from KISS licensee Rabbit Tanaka.

Here are some images of the Komplete KISS factory set that will be available in Walmart and Target stores in mid-November.

Komplete KISS is a 180-card factory set that includes the complete KISS Ikons and KISS 360 sets with an electric blue "KISS" parallel (samples below). Similar to the popular blood-spitting and fire-breathing parallels that were inserted into boxes of KISS Ikons and KISS 360, the electric blue "KISS" parallel is a must-have for KISS fans.

Each Komplete KISS factory set also includes a 5-card Komplete KISS foil insert (shown here). Also pictured is the Komplete KISS box.