Kiss News

KISS STILL LOVING THE THEATRICAL APPROACH

By: ED CONDRAN / Burlington County Times

During its heyday, Kiss was introduced as "The Hottest Band in the World."

So it's not surprising that the cartoonish rock band has dubbed its latest jaunt the "Hottest Show on Earth Tour" with a stop tonight at the Susquehanna Bank Center.

"There's a good reason that we went with that name for our tour," drummer Eric Singer says while calling from Los Angeles. "We're still a hot act. No band brings it like Kiss."

The veteran band, which continues to be led by vocalist-guitarist Paul Stanley and vocalist-bassist Gene Simmons, still plays the big arenas and sheds around the country. The "Kiss Army" continues to support the band, and its contingent is expanding.

"We're seeing a lot of younger fans come out to our shows," says Singer. "So we have the older and definitely the younger, who are so enthusiastic."
By: ED CONDRAN / Burlington County Times

During its heyday, Kiss was introduced as "The Hottest Band in the World."

So it's not surprising that the cartoonish rock band has dubbed its latest jaunt the "Hottest Show on Earth Tour" with a stop tonight at the Susquehanna Bank Center.

"There's a good reason that we went with that name for our tour," drummer Eric Singer says while calling from Los Angeles. "We're still a hot act. No band brings it like Kiss."

The veteran band, which continues to be led by vocalist-guitarist Paul Stanley and vocalist-bassist Gene Simmons, still plays the big arenas and sheds around the country. The "Kiss Army" continues to support the band, and its contingent is expanding.

"We're seeing a lot of younger fans come out to our shows," says Singer. "So we have the older and definitely the younger, who are so enthusiastic."

The veteran Kiss fans have introduced the kids to anthemic staples such as "Detroit Rock City" and "Deuce."

The group has little choice but to play the array of old chestnuts.

"We have played those songs countless times, but they never get old to us," Singer says. "We love to play 'Black Diamond,' 'I Was Made For Loving You' and 'Love Gun.' How can you not play the songs that made this band legendary? It's a privilege to play Kiss classics. We love it."

Advertisement The members of Kiss are getting long of tooth, so it's probably not a bad time for the quartet to sport makeup.

"It's part of the ritual," Singer says. "We're always pumped up to lay things out in a theatrical manner. It's a cool thing going out in the makeup and the cool clothes. This band has always been about being larger than life. There just aren't many bands out there that are larger than life anymore. We're living in an ordinary era and then you have Kiss, which is still all about being big."

The shows aren't just big. The Kiss concerts are lengthy.

"We go out there every night and do two-hour-plus shows," Singer says. "I don't know if we have a choice because we have so many songs to play. We're getting older, but we've been doing this for years and the guys in this band are in such good shape. But that's what we have to be to pull off a show like you'll see when we come to town. We go all out when we play, so you experience a show that you'll never forget."

For Paul Stanley, success is not a dirty word

By Jed Gottlieb

KISS is the greatest rock band! Ever!

Who says? KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley of course.

Stanley, Gene Simmons and the other two masked men (longtime supporting players guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer) are back for their second Boston-area date in less than a year Saturday at the Comcast Center. Stanley dialed the Herald to talk about a possible KISS fridge, a probable new album and finally getting great reviews.

You guys were just here. What is this, a victory lap?

The last 35 years have been a victory lap for us. No one other than our fans thought we were going to win, but we've spent the last two years playing to 10,000 at the smallest show and 90,000 at the biggest around the world. We just wanted to bring the hottest show on Earth, the best show we've ever done, back to the States. Once again, we are the winners.

You have so many albums and songs. How do you balance playing the hits and obscure songs your cult loves?

I'm one of those people who believes that songs are obscure for a reason. Hold on a second. (The chattering of a child can be heard in the background.) Sorry, my kids rule my house. Where were we?

For Paul Stanley, success is not a dirty word

By Jed Gottlieb

KISS is the greatest rock band! Ever!

Who says? KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley of course.

Stanley, Gene Simmons and the other two masked men (longtime supporting players guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer) are back for their second Boston-area date in less than a year Saturday at the Comcast Center. Stanley dialed the Herald to talk about a possible KISS fridge, a probable new album and finally getting great reviews.

You guys were just here. What is this, a victory lap?

The last 35 years have been a victory lap for us. No one other than our fans thought we were going to win, but we've spent the last two years playing to 10,000 at the smallest show and 90,000 at the biggest around the world. We just wanted to bring the hottest show on Earth, the best show we've ever done, back to the States. Once again, we are the winners.

You have so many albums and songs. How do you balance playing the hits and obscure songs your cult loves?

I'm one of those people who believes that songs are obscure for a reason. Hold on a second. (The chattering of a child can be heard in the background.) Sorry, my kids rule my house. Where were we?

Hits vs. cult classics.

Right. KISS has built its name on pleasing the masses. I won't play a song to make 25 people happy and have 25,000 scratching their heads. I once saw the Stones in a theater doing their obscure songs, and by the third song it was boring. People pay for the hits, so we give them the hits.

I just read there'll be a KISS refrigerator. Is that true?

I didn't authorize a KISS fridge. But if somebody wants a KISS fridge, let them have a KISS fridge. We're not marketing geniuses. We listen very carefully to what our fans want and we give it to them. It's only after we listen and put the product out that we're called marketing geniuses.

I'm thinking about the Dr. Pepper commercial that's everywhere. Many bands in the so-called indie community think it's abhorrent to sell songs to advertisers, what do you say to those bands?

Wake up and smell the coffee. If those indie bands keep that philosophy they'll be flipping burgers soon enough. There's a reason that it's called the music business. Putting your song in a commercial doesn't negate your creativity.

The concept of selling out is meaningless to KISS, right?

Success isn't selling out. We've never had to sell out because we've always done things on our terms. I didn't get into this to have a fan base of 100. I will gladly fly in the private jet to the show and make no apologies for being loved worldwide. Hold on a second. Listen to this from Rolling Stone: "KISS proved why they are the reigning kings of theater rock, delivering an electric two-hour, 21-song set of glam-rock smashes, newer tunes, over-the-top pyrotechnics." Regardless of what the naysayers say, I didn't have to sell out to get these kind of reviews.

Is it nice to have the critics finally loving what you do?

I didn't get into this for validation, but I'll take it as long as it's on my terms.

How did KISS survive so many changes in the music industry?

There's always going to be a flavor of the week. And every year has not been the pinnacle of our career. Ali didn't win every fight, but he's still called the greatest.

Gene's been doing reality TV for a decade. Why aren't you pushing to raise your profile?

I've steered the ship the way I've wanted it to go. I'm too busy living a real life to live a scripted one. There's no appeal in that for me. Which isn't to knock it. The great thing about success is the ability to do whatever you want.

So you and Gene aren't competitive?

No, we're very different people. He'd make a horrible me. We're family in the best of ways. You don't want to spend all your time with your brother, but he's still your brother.

Will we get another album soon?

Yes. "Sonic Boom" wasn't the last album but the first of the next phase of KISS. We had to do that album. We were getting along too well, sounding too good, not to put our boot down, so to speak. It's the beginning of something new.

You're donating a dollar of every ticket to veterans charities. Whose idea?

We went to a rehab center in Augusta, Ga., one that really should be a model for the rest of the country. Meeting these men and women and having them screwed out of what they're entitled to is unconscionable. We've raised $77,000 in five shows, so it's only the beginning.

Rejuvenated band comes to Comcast Center on strength of well received new CD

KISS at the Comcast Center Mansfield, MA - Saturday, August 7

BY ALAN SCULLEY

The previous Kiss studio CD "Psycho Circus" did little to prove that the band still had creative life in it.

The CD was billed as the return of the original Kiss, since it came in the midst of the reunion of guitarist/singer Paul Stanley and bassist/singer Gene Simmons with the two other original members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.

"Psycho Circus," though, ended up being a lackluster effort on a musical level, and far less than advertised when it came to being called a triumphant return of the classic Kiss lineup.Rejuvenated band comes to Comcast Center on strength of well received new CD

KISS at the Comcast Center Mansfield, MA - Saturday, August 7

BY ALAN SCULLEY

The previous Kiss studio CD "Psycho Circus" did little to prove that the band still had creative life in it.

The CD was billed as the return of the original Kiss, since it came in the midst of the reunion of guitarist/singer Paul Stanley and bassist/singer Gene Simmons with the two other original members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.

"Psycho Circus," though, ended up being a lackluster effort on a musical level, and far less than advertised when it came to being called a triumphant return of the classic Kiss lineup.

Instead, Frehley and Criss hardly played on that 1998 CD, with studio musicians stepping in to handle what ostensibly were their parts. The band also had several outside writers contribute to roughly half of the songs.

So Kiss had something to prove when they decided they wanted to make the new studio CD, "Sonic Boom." For one thing, this was a new lineup for Kiss, with guitarist Tommy Thayer, making his full-fledged debut, and drummer Eric Singer, who since 1996 has been the band's drummer whenever Criss wasn't in the lineup. KISSNow a little more than a year later, the verdict on "Sonic Boom" is in, and it's been positive, with some critics even saying it's the best CD from the band since early career albums like "Dressed To Kill" and "Destroyer."

Thayer is pleased to have seen "Sonic Boom" win such support.

"I think on a lot of different levels, it has had impact," Thayer said in an early July phone interview. "First of all, just as far as the music and being a great Kiss record, check that off the list. In terms of the band, the lineup, this incarnation of the band, a lot of people from a critical standpoint would say, 'They're just kind of re-creating what's happened in the past. They're just out there playing the songs of the '70s and early '80s,' and things like that. And I think what has happened here has put that to rest, too, because suddenly it's a viable, creative unit that can put together a great record and go out on tour with a fresh new approach to songs and writing and things."

Interestingly, the band decided if Kiss was going to fail on "Sonic Boom," there would be no one to blame but the band members themselves, as Stanley took the reins on the project.

"We were lucky to have Paul kind of spearheading the project, taking charge and being the leader," Thayer said. "It's really important to have somebody doing that in the producer's role. In this case it was just important in laying a groundwork for what direction we're going in, and it worked very well to have him doing that. Of course, nobody knows Kiss better than Paul does."

The success of "Sonic Boom" represents a welcome turn of fortunes for Kiss, whose future looked cloudy only a few years ago. Gene Simmons, left, and Tommy Thayer of Kiss perform in 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic. (AP file photo)The reunion tour of 1996-97 with the four original members was a major success as a live venture, but by the end of the decade, it appeared the band's days were numbered. In early 2000, the band announced it would do a farewell tour that would run from that summer into 2001. Before the tour was over, Criss split with the group, and Singer, who had joined the group following the death from cancer of drummer Eric Carr, rejoined Kiss to finish the farewell tour - which of course, turned out to be far from a final jaunt.

By 2002, Frehley had also played his final gig, with Thayer filling that slot. When the band returned to the road in 2003 to co-headline a tour with Aerosmith, Criss had been brought back, prompting Singer to say he would never play with Kiss again. This time, Criss lasted only for about a year, and as shows became sporadic over the next four years, it truly looked as if Kiss might actually fade from scene.

But in 2008, with the 35th anniversary of the band's formation in New York City looming, Kiss announced it would begin is "Kiss Alive/35 World Tour," with Singer and Thayer joining Stanley and Simmons.

Now Kiss gets to continue cementing the idea that the band is back on track both creatively and as a live unit by touring amphitheaters this summer and fall. Thayer said the show is notably different from the one the band took on the road last fall.

"I know this sounds like a typical answer, but it is bigger than ever," he said. "It's a bigger stage. We've got more effects, bigger pyro and added songs. We have a new opening as well. So there are a lot of new bells and whistles. You try and take a Kiss show and take it to a new level, and that's really what we try to do each time because it has to be bigger than the time before."