Kiss News

By Jennifer Smith For Daily Mail Australia

KISS kicked off the Australian leg of their 40th anniversary world tour on Saturday with an electric performance in Perth.

Dressed in their signature face paint, the band performed a roll of hits at the city's arena, with Gene Simmons taking centre stage.

He was joined by band mates Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer, with the quartet donning typically outlandish costumes for the show.
Saturday's performance marks the beginning of the Australian leg of their tour which will see the band put on eight sows across the country and in New Zealand.

It will conclude when their KISS Cruise sets sail later this month.

Earlier this week frontman Gene Simmons appeared on The Project to tell of his excitement at returning to Australia as part of the tour.

'It's always been such a treat to come to Australia, we love Australia,' he told the show's panel of judges before adding cheekily: 'It has to be something in the water that makes the women so beautiful.'

The 66-year-old went on to reminisce over how the band came together, telling the Network Ten program that they decided to start wearing make-up in order to stand out.

'In those days we were just four idiots off the streets of New York, all we knew was that we wanted to put together the band that we'd never seen before on stage, so many times we'd go to see our favourite bands and they were looking at their shoes.'

While Simmons said 'none' of the original members were responsible for their decision to wear make-up, they had largely stuck to the same aesthetic since first applying the thick eye white and black markings on their faces.

'One day we just looked at each other and said "uh, let's put on make-up." 'Just like that. We went down to one of those Woolworths stores and we bought clown make-up and mirrors.

'We went back to our loft that was rat-infested and started applying it and what you see today is pretty much what you would have seen then.'

CLICK HERE to view more photos from the show.