Kiss News

By Joe Ardent

Once you get past the grease paint, spandex and 35 years of mainstream merchandizing, Kiss is a rock band to be taken seriously again.

As the band rolls into Southern California nearing the end of what it considers its most successful concert tour in decades, Kiss is seeing a real resurgence in fan support and critical acclaim.

"Sonic Boom," the band's first studio album in 11 years, topped Billboard's Rock Albums chart shortly after its October release, according the band's Web site. Many reviewers are calling it the best Kiss record since 1977's "Love Gun."

Kiss performs Tuesday night at Honda Center in Anaheim, Wednesday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, and Friday night at the San Diego Sports Arena.By Joe Ardent

Once you get past the grease paint, spandex and 35 years of mainstream merchandizing, Kiss is a rock band to be taken seriously again.

As the band rolls into Southern California nearing the end of what it considers its most successful concert tour in decades, Kiss is seeing a real resurgence in fan support and critical acclaim.

"Sonic Boom," the band's first studio album in 11 years, topped Billboard's Rock Albums chart shortly after its October release, according the band's Web site. Many reviewers are calling it the best Kiss record since 1977's "Love Gun."

Kiss performs Tuesday night at Honda Center in Anaheim, Wednesday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, and Friday night at the San Diego Sports Arena.

The "Kiss Alive 35" concert tour has been wildly successful, said lead guitarist Tommy Thayer in a phone interview on Friday.

"You know, just the whole world of Kiss the last year has been phenomenal," he said. "We started the tour a year ago in Europe and South America. That was kind of the cornerstone of really getting the ball rolling leading up to this whole new resurgence of Kiss. We started noticing in Europe that a lot of young kids, along with the longtime Kiss fans, were coming out. And it was really exciting. We hadn't seen much of that in recent years."

Because the band members - Simmons, Thayer, guitarist/singer Paul Stanley and drummer Eric Singer - live in the LA area, the band considers this stretch of the tour its "home games."

"This is always an exciting part of the tour for us," Thayer said. "Southern California is going to see the very best of Kiss."

Of course, all the traditions that made Kiss' live shows spectacular - Simmons breathing fire, spitting blood and flying, the pyrotechnics, the costumes 0 are back. Kiss has ramped it up even more with a bigger stage presence and a giant video screen for this tour.

"The Kiss show is bigger than ever right now in terms of staging," Thayer said. "A lot of the basic elements of the show are here that have been around for a long time. That's what makes Kiss Kiss. If you didn't do a lot of that stuff, people would wonder why not. So that stuff will continue to be there.

"The video production is the latest and the greatest thing," he said. "For a band that kind of invented the theatrics, the pyrotechnics, we've taken the video to another level. We're making us appear huge on the screens. We're a visual band, so people want to see those characters up close. It's quite awe-inspiring, even for me."

In making "Sonic Boom," Kiss returned to the basics, despite the fact that Thayer and Singer were in and original members guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss were out.

Thayer said the new foursome approached the album like a brand new band would. They decided to write their own songs and do everything their way, with no outside influences.

The result was something the band was proud of, and the loyal fans and critics applauded.

"Paul said recently that when he goes home, he goes to a house that was built on bad reviews," Thayer said. "All the complementary reviews this time around have gotten him scared. It'll probably sound biased for me to say, but the band is more for real now than it ever has been."

As big as 2009 has been for Kiss, next year may be even bigger. Kiss plans to launch its "Sonic Boom" tour in Europe next summer, and 2010 may also be the year Kiss is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band was nominated for the first time earlier this year.

"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination is amazing," Thayer said. "That's a real nod to the original members of the band. They should have been in a long time ago, if you ask me. No band has been bigger longer. It's a travesty that they're not in there already."

Thayer, who originally joined Kiss in 2003, is more in awe of its marketing machine than embarrassed by it. He was a longtime Kiss fan, even before touring with them as a member of the '80s metal band Black 'N Blue.

Seeing Kiss' image on everything from M&Ms to lampshades -- thanks to a new deal with Walmart -- is all part of the band's success.

"Believe it or not, for Gene and Paul, this is a rock band first," he said. "The music and the live show is the core of what Kiss is, along with the image and the look and the characters. We take it to the next level with the merchandising and promotion. One thing drives the other. Kiss really was innovative. They've been doing this longer than anybody. In the '70s, a lot of bands thought it was a sellout. But now everybody has to do it. It's almost the biggest part of the business."

And nobody in the industry has done it quite like Kiss for the past 35 years.

"Not only are they very good musicians and very creative, they've been able to create this great band and be able to market it as well," he said. "Most musicians aren't able to do this the way they've done it. It's unique. You don't create a band and continue for 35 years without being exceptional at what you're doing."

By Justin Press

If your band came of age during the Nixon years and landed their highest ranked album on the Billboard charts in the Obama era, you've definitely done something right. In KISS's case, it was creating a groundbreaking live band utilizing grand theater with gritty street themes, motivating a nation of fans to form an army around you, developing a marketing and merchandising industry that matches Ringling Brothers, and then creating a catalog of rock 'n' roll anthems and dark passages.

The founding members - fire-breathing bassist Gene Simmons and flamboyant frontman Paul Stanley - have steered this ship since 1972, and after much success, much turmoil and a bit of tragedy, they have finally formed a union with two like-minded musicians in drummer Eric Singer and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer (a longtime behind-the-scenes guy with the group). Their new album, Sonic Boom, has cracked the #2 spot on the album charts, a feat not accomplished by any of their previous albums, including Destroyer, Love Gun or Dynasty.

Who could believe that a band that topped the charts in 1978 is now, believe it or not, even bigger 31 years later? ENVY had the chance to speak with newest member and Spaceman, Tommy Thayer, about living the dream.By Justin Press

If your band came of age during the Nixon years and landed their highest ranked album on the Billboard charts in the Obama era, you've definitely done something right. In KISS's case, it was creating a groundbreaking live band utilizing grand theater with gritty street themes, motivating a nation of fans to form an army around you, developing a marketing and merchandising industry that matches Ringling Brothers, and then creating a catalog of rock 'n' roll anthems and dark passages.

The founding members - fire-breathing bassist Gene Simmons and flamboyant frontman Paul Stanley - have steered this ship since 1972, and after much success, much turmoil and a bit of tragedy, they have finally formed a union with two like-minded musicians in drummer Eric Singer and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer (a longtime behind-the-scenes guy with the group). Their new album, Sonic Boom, has cracked the #2 spot on the album charts, a feat not accomplished by any of their previous albums, including Destroyer, Love Gun or Dynasty.

Who could believe that a band that topped the charts in 1978 is now, believe it or not, even bigger 31 years later? ENVY had the chance to speak with newest member and Spaceman, Tommy Thayer, about living the dream.

ENVY: The new album, Sonic Boom, was initially hyped as being a return to the sound that KISS captured in the '70s. In your view, did the band find that sound again?

Tommy Thayer: To me, I think the album delves into everything from the early albums to Revenge. It wasn't the intention to just sound like one era of the band, but a cross-section of what has been done before but giving it an updated sound.

Well, for long-time fans, the jacket will immediately remind them of Rock And Roll Over, and some tracks like "Nobody's Perfect" could have been from Love Gun, so it does hit the mark. For your playing, was there a certain sound you wanted to retain?

Well, I wanted to bring my own interpretation of what people have come to expect, but also with the new album, it freed me up to create a signature sound for myself and the band since it's a new KISS record.

Obviously, with this being a new KISS record, it must be refreshing to put your stamp on it.

For sure. I have been copying guitar sounds and solos for some time now, and that is out of respect for the songs and the fans, but it is nice to be able to bring my own ideas to the classic KISS structure.

A lot of people don't realize your role before the new full-time one you have as a band member was quite extensive with the band.

Well, I've been behind the scenes for years working on video editing, working on songs with Paul and Gene and back when they reunited in 1996. I helped Ace relearn some of his solos that he hadn't played in years. So when the time came for the band to continue forth and make some changes, I was put into this role I have now. Sonic Boom helped me be fully realized in KISS.

For the new tour, "Alive 35," from the looks of concert footage available, it looks more video-oriented than past tours. Is it necessary to stay up with technology for a live setting, or could this band bring out the "Alive II" set minus video and still blow minds?

What people don't realize is that the "Alive II" set is really not that big - it was at the time because most bands weren't doing that kind of show in the 1970s. But today, the stage we use is huge, so we needed to be able to fill it up and give fans an opportunity to see us from anywhere in the arena. With the video, it means that something is always visually going on.

For you, personally, is there a part of the new show that is your favorite aspect?

Well, my solo is something I've been working on, and I've been utilizing the ability to launch rockets and flares from my guitar. It's just a great effect and the crowds have been really enjoying it.

Other than the bombast, fire and blood, what else can audiences expect or is that pulling back the curtain too far?

Great rock 'n' roll, the classics and what people want to hear, plus some new stuff from Sonic Boom that will let them know that we are still creating some great music. Otherwise, it's two hours of non-stop spectacle. It's what you expect from KISS, and we continue to deliver.