Kiss News

By David Morton / www.chroniclelive.co.uk

 

It looked like the opening exchanges of World War III. As the giant stage curtain dropped, and in the midst of a blitzkrieg of thunder flashes, smoke bombs, and searing jets of fire, the four members of KISS descended from high up in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena.

 

Opening the show with their rabble-rousing anthem Detroit Rock City, the American rock legends expended more explosives and pyrotechnics in one song than most bands do over the course of an entire tour.

 

For KISS, it’s always been about the show. And their shows have seen them pump out glam rock on steroids for the last four and a half decades.When young guitarist Stan Eisen and bass player Gene Klein teamed up in New York in the early 1970s, their vision was to form the “ultimate rock band”.

 

Reinventing themselves as Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons (and joined by Peter Criss on drums and lead guitarist Ace Frehley), KISS were born, taking America by storm, and becoming one of the biggest rock acts of the 1970s. Image, presentation and a prodigious work ethic were paramount.

They dressed as Marvel comic superheroes, donning outlandish stage-wear and freakish black and white painted faces. Their stunning stage show featured blood-spitting, fire-breathing, guitars that fired rockets, and pyrotechnics – all of which were on show at the Arena on July 14.

 

Now, after more than 45 tumultuous years of endless touring, band bust-ups and personnel changes, KISS are slapping on the grease paint one last time for their End Of The Road world tour.

 

At a sold-out Arena, the band rolled back the years with faultless versions of favourites from across their back catalogue.For Shout It Out Loud from 1976’s Destroyer, Simmons shared lead vocals with Stanley stomping around in his monstrous six-inch platform boots and poking out his famously prodigious tongue at the audience.

Dry ice, laser beams, a giant video screen and blazing lighting rig added to the sensory overload. And the audience loved it – from aging rockers, to teenagers, to parents with young children wearing KISS tour T-shirts and ear protectors. Many had come specially made up for the occasion as Paul Stanley’s ‘star child’ or Gene Simmons’ ‘demon’.

 

From 1982’s Creatures Of The Night, Simmons was up to his theatrics again on War Machine, breathing fire like a manic circus performer. Not to be outdone, Paul Stanley flew above the audience on a zip wire to sing Love Gun, prancing on a platform at the back of the Arena.

 

And at different parts of the show, members of the band would elevate on risers high above the stage adding to the spectacle. The ‘new boys’ played their part too with drummer Eric Singer putting his stamp on original member Peter Criss’s 1970s showpiece solo 100,000 Years - and guitarist Tommy Thayer rocking as hard as any of his six-string predecessors.

 

And, of course, KISS do disco as well as rock, with their 1979 hit I Was Made for Lovin’ You from the Dynasty album, getting the audience dancing in the aisles.

 

Stanley seemed genuinely pleased to be back in Newcastle, on more than one occasion mentioning the band’s long-gone legendary shows at the City Hall. The encore section saw KISS enter power ballad territory with the 1976 weepy Beth, before bringing the house down with a blistering double salvo of Crazy Crazy Nights and Rock and Roll All Nite as the Arena seemed ready to detonate under an apocalyptic conflagration of explosions, fireworks and lasers.

 

It was a great rock show, not in the purist sense of a classic Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd concert, but just unparalleled, over the top fun, excitement and entertainment with lots of audience participation for the Newcastle crowd.

 

Gene Simmons will be 70 next month and says he has slept with nearly 5,000 women. Even rock superheroes need a rest. Farewell and thank you KISS.