11/08/2009
KISS CREATURES TATTOO
Kiss News
11/08/2009
KISSED
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: 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.
He'll be there with three friends, and he expects they'll all be in costume.
"I got my first Gene Simmons costume when I was in Grade 6," he says. "It was a mask and some paper tied with a string. But I built my own for my friends' Halloween wedding social in the mid '90s."
In the spring of 2008, he was driving to work, listening to CITI FM, when he heard that a local theatre troupe was auditioning actors for a KISS musical to be staged at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.
"I had taken drama in high school," he said. "I parked on the side of the road and wrote down the number."
He went to the audition in full Simmons regalia and got the part. The musical, Lester Gets KISSed, made best of the fringe that year.
Its producer and co-writer, Kevin Doherty, is remounting the 13-actor show this weekend at the Ellice Theatre to get fans in the mood for the concert.
Tickets, $12 each, can be had at the door both tonight and Sunday. Show time is 8 p.m. The Ellice Theatre is at 585 Ellice Ave.
"We sent an email to the band's management offering them comps, but we haven't heard back, Doherty says.
"They've got the night off, so you never know."
Winnipeg musician Kelly Fairchild of the local tribute band the Paul Stanleys caught up with the current 35 Alive tour in California earlier this year.
"It's an awesome show," Fairchild says. "It's great for KISS fans because they do the whole Alive album (from '75) front to back. And they've brought back the fog, which they hadn't used in a while."
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: 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.
He'll be there with three friends, and he expects they'll all be in costume.
"I got my first Gene Simmons costume when I was in Grade 6," he says. "It was a mask and some paper tied with a string. But I built my own for my friends' Halloween wedding social in the mid '90s."
In the spring of 2008, he was driving to work, listening to CITI FM, when he heard that a local theatre troupe was auditioning actors for a KISS musical to be staged at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.
"I had taken drama in high school," he said. "I parked on the side of the road and wrote down the number."
He went to the audition in full Simmons regalia and got the part. The musical, Lester Gets KISSed, made best of the fringe that year.
Its producer and co-writer, Kevin Doherty, is remounting the 13-actor show this weekend at the Ellice Theatre to get fans in the mood for the concert.
Tickets, $12 each, can be had at the door both tonight and Sunday. Show time is 8 p.m. The Ellice Theatre is at 585 Ellice Ave.
"We sent an email to the band's management offering them comps, but we haven't heard back, Doherty says.
"They've got the night off, so you never know."
Winnipeg musician Kelly Fairchild of the local tribute band the Paul Stanleys caught up with the current 35 Alive tour in California earlier this year.
"It's an awesome show," Fairchild says. "It's great for KISS fans because they do the whole Alive album (from '75) front to back. And they've brought back the fog, which they hadn't used in a while."
11/07/2009
KISS ROCKS CHICAGO
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.By Greg Kot
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. Guitarist Tommy Thayer became Frehley's futuristic space man and drummer Eric Singer yanked Criss' cat whiskers. Not that the fans seemed to mind. If anything, Thayer and Singer brought more punch and technical prowess.
The music makes no pretense beyond turn-off-your-brain appeal: big chords and gang choruses about love guns and love doctors. As Stanley said, "If you came here tonight to hear some band tell ya how to end world hunger" you were out luck. A minute later, Kiss delivered its mission statement: "I want to rock 'n' roll all night, and party every day."
The music itself was gimmick-free. As a bass player, Simmons created a thick, mulch-like bottom end for Thayer to deliver solos, and Singer kept the arrangements interesting with showy fills. On "Black Diamond," the quartet sounded downright musical, with sharp harmonies and Stanley quoting another warhorse, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," on guitar.
Most of the set list was drawn from the Kiss golden era, 35 years ago, and so was the stage show. For a band once celebrated for arena-rock spectacle, surprisingly little has changed. Fake blood, flaming geysers, Simmons and Stanley going airborne with the aid of ropes and a trapeze, Thayer's guitar turning into a cannon - it wasn't all that different from a Kiss show circa 1977. They're in the business called show, and business is still good.
Kiss set list Friday at the United Center:
1. Deuce
2. Strutter
3. Let Me Know
4. Hotter Than Hell
5. Shock Me
6. Calling Dr. Love
7. Modern Day Delilah
8. Cold Gin
9. Parasite
10. 100,000 Years
11. I Love it Loud
12. Black Diamond
13. Rock and Roll All Night
Encore:
14. Shout It Out Loud
15. Lick It Up
16. Love Gun
17. Detroit Rock City
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.By Greg Kot
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. Guitarist Tommy Thayer became Frehley's futuristic space man and drummer Eric Singer yanked Criss' cat whiskers. Not that the fans seemed to mind. If anything, Thayer and Singer brought more punch and technical prowess.
The music makes no pretense beyond turn-off-your-brain appeal: big chords and gang choruses about love guns and love doctors. As Stanley said, "If you came here tonight to hear some band tell ya how to end world hunger" you were out luck. A minute later, Kiss delivered its mission statement: "I want to rock 'n' roll all night, and party every day."
The music itself was gimmick-free. As a bass player, Simmons created a thick, mulch-like bottom end for Thayer to deliver solos, and Singer kept the arrangements interesting with showy fills. On "Black Diamond," the quartet sounded downright musical, with sharp harmonies and Stanley quoting another warhorse, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," on guitar.
Most of the set list was drawn from the Kiss golden era, 35 years ago, and so was the stage show. For a band once celebrated for arena-rock spectacle, surprisingly little has changed. Fake blood, flaming geysers, Simmons and Stanley going airborne with the aid of ropes and a trapeze, Thayer's guitar turning into a cannon - it wasn't all that different from a Kiss show circa 1977. They're in the business called show, and business is still good.
Kiss set list Friday at the United Center:
1. Deuce
2. Strutter
3. Let Me Know
4. Hotter Than Hell
5. Shock Me
6. Calling Dr. Love
7. Modern Day Delilah
8. Cold Gin
9. Parasite
10. 100,000 Years
11. I Love it Loud
12. Black Diamond
13. Rock and Roll All Night
Encore:
14. Shout It Out Loud
15. Lick It Up
16. Love Gun
17. Detroit Rock City
11/07/2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMMY!
11/07/2009
KISS ARMY - YOU LOOKED GREAT!
11/06/2009
mixed emotions
11/06/2009
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KISS: 'THE LEGEND IS ALIVE'
