Kiss News

By A.D. Amorosi

When you're a member of KISS, you're a demon or a star child from your first cigarette to your last dying day - especially if you're the 36-year-old band's remaining original members, bassist/reality TV star Gene Simmons and guitarist/painter Paul Stanley.

In talking with Stanley, it becomes clear that the passage of time has brought a wealth of subjects to consider. There's the new KISS CD, for example, titled Sonic Boom. But before discussing that, Stanley dwells on the approaching close of elder super-arenas such as the Spectrum, where KISS set many a night aflame. "When I was a kid, those arenas are what I dreamed of playing," he says.

Stanley also jokes about not caring that KISS - never a critics' darling - is finally being considered for entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "KISS' hall was the 80 million people buying our albums," he says. "That said, we've had hard-core fans that fought long and hard to get us in, and if we do get in, we're gratified for them."By A.D. Amorosi

When you're a member of KISS, you're a demon or a star child from your first cigarette to your last dying day - especially if you're the 36-year-old band's remaining original members, bassist/reality TV star Gene Simmons and guitarist/painter Paul Stanley.

In talking with Stanley, it becomes clear that the passage of time has brought a wealth of subjects to consider. There's the new KISS CD, for example, titled Sonic Boom. But before discussing that, Stanley dwells on the approaching close of elder super-arenas such as the Spectrum, where KISS set many a night aflame. "When I was a kid, those arenas are what I dreamed of playing," he says.

Stanley also jokes about not caring that KISS - never a critics' darling - is finally being considered for entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "KISS' hall was the 80 million people buying our albums," he says. "That said, we've had hard-core fans that fought long and hard to get us in, and if we do get in, we're gratified for them."

Stanley produced Sonic Boom alone ("Democracy is overrated. Besides, someone has to lead the charge") and cowrote this, the band's first new album in 11 years, with longtime partner Simmons.

Both things stem from having sworn off making new music after the band's first reunion album, 1998's Psycho Circus, turned out to be what Stanley deems disastrous. He ascribes much of that failure to personality issues. "There are missteps to making albums when people see the band as ways of furthering themselves rather than the band," he says, obliquely referring to former band members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.

With newer members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer firmly entrenched and fully versed in the KISS glam-metal ethos, the band set about to make Sonic Boom sound like classics from the 1970s heyday. " 'Love Gun' was certainly one we looked toward," Stanley says of a KISS-centric reference point. "We don't really care about what's trendy now. Just because you can write different music doesn't mean it belongs on a KISS album. Sonic Boom sounds like what KISS should sound like."

KISS and Buckcherry play at 8 p.m. Monday at the Wachovia Center, 3601 S. Broad St. Tickets: $25-$128. Contact: 1-800-298-4200, www.aeglive.com, and www.comcastTIX.com.

Guitarist decides to Kiss and tell about new album and how he wound up in one of the world's biggest rock bands

Tommy Thayer plays guitar like an ace, or like an Ace, rather.

When Ace Frehley quit Kiss for the second time in 2002, Thayer, who had been hired as an assistant to the band, was the obvious choice for a replacement. Thayer had even re-taught Frehley how to play his own parts when the original lineup of the band first reunited in the mid '90s.

"It was actually kind of a fun thing," says Thayer, who sports the spaceman look that Frehley popularized in the 70s. "Through the course of these guys' solo careers in the '80s they maybe meandered off into different directions. You know, they didn't play certain things the way they used to... So it was just about reconnecting with the exact way they were doing it before. So I was able to help."

Lately Thayer has been able to do a lot more than just help. The newest member of Kiss has multiple writing credits on "Sonic Boom," the band's latest release, which came out Tuesday, and he even sings lead on the song "When Lightning Strikes."
Guitarist decides to Kiss and tell about new album and how he wound up in one of the world's biggest rock bands

Tommy Thayer plays guitar like an ace, or like an Ace, rather.

When Ace Frehley quit Kiss for the second time in 2002, Thayer, who had been hired as an assistant to the band, was the obvious choice for a replacement. Thayer had even re-taught Frehley how to play his own parts when the original lineup of the band first reunited in the mid '90s.

"It was actually kind of a fun thing," says Thayer, who sports the spaceman look that Frehley popularized in the 70s. "Through the course of these guys' solo careers in the '80s they maybe meandered off into different directions. You know, they didn't play certain things the way they used to... So it was just about reconnecting with the exact way they were doing it before. So I was able to help."

Lately Thayer has been able to do a lot more than just help. The newest member of Kiss has multiple writing credits on "Sonic Boom," the band's latest release, which came out Tuesday, and he even sings lead on the song "When Lightning Strikes."

"I'm amazed that we've actually went and did a record," says Thayer. "Paul and Gene were so ambivalent about it for years, understandably so... when you're a band like Kiss that's an important historic act, you've got to be careful if you're going to do a studio record. ... By the time we finished recording the record we all looked at each other and thought, 'This is pretty good, this doesn't suck.' You can never tell until you finish it."

First Kiss

"I was a 13-year-old kid up in Oregon and I used to go to the magazine stand and buy this magazine called Circus magazine. They'd have all these great articles and color pictures of hard rock bands. I saw this band called Kiss and I was just blown away when I saw the pictures because they looked awesome, you know. They had a great image. You know, tons of great hair, big platform boots with leather cool outfits and this makeup and cool guitars and this big stage with all of this pyro going off with Marshall stacks. I was like, 'Wow, that's my kind of band!' It's the ultimate band. That's how I kind of initially got hooked. And then for Christmas I asked for the first Kiss album and my parents got me the first Kiss album for Christmas. And I was forever hooked."

Best Kiss

"That's a tough one. There's so many great songs. Maybe 'Deuce.' That's the old show-starter from way back when. But you know the new album, I'm really, really proud of that, and I love all those songs. 'Modern Day Delilah' is a lot of fun."

Lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, 48, grew up a KISS fan in the Portland, Ore., area.

As a child, he dressed up as original KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley for Halloween. A quarter-century later, he replaced Frehley as the band's main ax man.

"I've been a fan of KISS since I was 13 years old," Thayer said in a phone interview. "I discovered KISS when their first record came out in 1974. I hadn't even started playing guitar yet. I saw a feature in a magazine called Circus. I saw some live photos of KISS doing a performance, and I thought, 'These guys look menacing!' They had cool guitars and platform heels. I got my first KISS album for Christmas in 1974, and I was on my way.

"I dressed up a couple of times, like all kids do," Thayer said. "I actually put on Ace Frehley back then. It's kind of ironic, actually. I used to come home from junior high school and play air guitar to KISS Alive!"

Thayer eventually formed a band, Black 'N Blue, and moved to Southern California to hit the Hollywood club scene. In 1985, Black 'N Blue toured with KISS as an opening act.

Thayer formed a friendship with Gene Simmons and asked the KISS co-founder to produce Black 'N Blue�s next record. But it was during that studio work that Thayer became more involved with KISS itself. He wrote songs, recorded demos, managed tours and produced and edited film and video.

Lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, 48, grew up a KISS fan in the Portland, Ore., area.

As a child, he dressed up as original KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley for Halloween. A quarter-century later, he replaced Frehley as the band's main ax man.

"I've been a fan of KISS since I was 13 years old," Thayer said in a phone interview. "I discovered KISS when their first record came out in 1974. I hadn't even started playing guitar yet. I saw a feature in a magazine called Circus. I saw some live photos of KISS doing a performance, and I thought, 'These guys look menacing!' They had cool guitars and platform heels. I got my first KISS album for Christmas in 1974, and I was on my way.

"I dressed up a couple of times, like all kids do," Thayer said. "I actually put on Ace Frehley back then. It's kind of ironic, actually. I used to come home from junior high school and play air guitar to KISS Alive!"

Thayer eventually formed a band, Black 'N Blue, and moved to Southern California to hit the Hollywood club scene. In 1985, Black 'N Blue toured with KISS as an opening act.

Thayer formed a friendship with Gene Simmons and asked the KISS co-founder to produce Black 'N Blue's next record. But it was during that studio work that Thayer became more involved with KISS itself. He wrote songs, recorded demos, managed tours and produced and edited film and video.

When Frehley rejoined the band for the 1996 reunion tour, Thayer re-taught him the licks from the old KISS songs. In 2002, when Frehley left the band again, Thayer was on standby, ready to permanently take over the lead guitar role.

Back to the future

The new live act is loosely a tribute to the '70s KISS hits, Thayer said.

"It's really a combination of all the eras of KISS - the '70s era, which was originally when the band started out, but also bits and pieces from early '80s and late '80s and even stuff from the early '90s," he said. "We've got a whole new stage, new outfits, a lot of new bells and whistles. Another exciting thing about it - the reviews critically, across the board, have been spectacular. In times past, critics haven't been good to KISS, but even the critics are giving it a thumbs up."

KISS' stage personas have made it possible for the band to live on, even as membership changes. "It's pretty multigenerational; when the kids see KISS, it's the characters, the music," Thayer said. "Everything is kind of timeless about it, and it seems to keep working."

There have even been recent reports that charter KISS members Simmons and Paul Stanley might pick their own stage replacements - perhaps on a reality show - while maintaining creative control of the act. Theoretically, KISS could continue with a hand-picked lineage for generations to come.

"Part of what KISS is all about is thinking outside the box," Thayer said. "I suppose it's possible. Someday, that could happen. It would have to be somebody really good, though."

Would Thayer recommend that older KISS fans take their children to a KISS show?

"Sure. When people first came out in the early '70s, they were wondering, 'What is this?' It was very cutting edge, underground almost. There were all these rumors, and Gene was kind of demonic. But like anything, KISS became more mainstream. It's still very rock 'n' roll and rootsy, in that respect.

"But we have all kinds of age groups, from kids to people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. It's good for everybody, good for family and a great show. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Will McGuirk
NewsDurahamRegion
Photo by Laura Stanley

Halloween came early to Oshawa this year, 35 years in the making.

Dressed as a mashup of Transformers meets Josie and The Pussycats, KISS transformed the ice shed of the General Motors Centre into a full-on rock 'n' roll bonanza Wednesday night. The concert that was, then wasn't, then was, is now done. Mel Lastman once called in the army to help his city. Our civic fathers and mothers went one further, calling in the KISS Army to help what Macleans magazine called a sad and desperate city.

Well, we know better. Oshawa is not down. It's not out. It's merely resting its eyes, waiting for the right reason to get up and get its party on. KISS provided the reason. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and the two new guys are custom-made for this town, SHWA Rock City Baby. Get up out of your rocking chair grandma, KISS is in the house.Will McGuirk
NewsDurahamRegion
Photo by Laura Stanley

Halloween came early to Oshawa this year, 35 years in the making.

Dressed as a mashup of Transformers meets Josie and The Pussycats, KISS transformed the ice shed of the General Motors Centre into a full-on rock 'n' roll bonanza Wednesday night. The concert that was, then wasn't, then was, is now done. Mel Lastman once called in the army to help his city. Our civic fathers and mothers went one further, calling in the KISS Army to help what Macleans magazine called a sad and desperate city.

Well, we know better. Oshawa is not down. It's not out. It's merely resting its eyes, waiting for the right reason to get up and get its party on. KISS provided the reason. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and the two new guys are custom-made for this town, SHWA Rock City Baby. Get up out of your rocking chair grandma, KISS is in the house.

Downtown was filled with men dressed as ladies dressed as men dressed as animals for the glittering glam-rock spectacle. The lineup to get in stretched around the back of the Bell building.

If you like the silver codpiece of a 60-year-old man dressed as a Samurai from the 7th circle of Hell, dangling in your face (and clearly you do Oshawa) then this was the ear-bursting, eye-burning rock extravaganza for you. A wall of screens, and a jumbotron stretched across the full width of the Centre and then some. Fireworks, confetti cannons, flames and interplanetary juggernaut rock riffage, a drum solo of strobe light intensity from Eric Singer, a guitar solo that shot explosions from its head by Tommy Thayer, plus a hit list of '70s classic rock was what you got for your ticket, was what you got for winning the contest, for being No. 1, Oshawa.

KISS is a band of individuals and each one got his spotlight. Apart from the new kids on the rock solos, we got Demon Gene Simmons in the rafters, like a manic cross between a pterodactyl and Marcel Marceau, and the pursed lips and butt-clenching strut of Starchild Paul Stanley, who rode a half unicyle/half weed-whacker high above the audience to a waiting platform at the back of the ice.

Now that, baby, is what you call rock 'n' roll. That's debauchery, that's excess, that's not giving a rodent's rear end about anything. This was Theatre of The Crotch, this was everything your mother warned you about and secretly yearned for. I saw no KISS Army recruiters, but if I had I'd have signed up on the spot and marched away from it all with them. That was SHWA-some!

By Nick Patch

TORONTO - Kiss delivered on its promise to Oshawa, Ont., on Wednesday with a supersized show that spared no flair, flames or facepaint.

Even playing to 6,134 fans within the relatively cozy confines of Oshawa's General Motors Centre, the classic rockers seemed to manage to pull off every extravagant stunt of their reliably over-the-top show.

And they didn't miss an opportunity to pay respect to Oshawa, the town that won the right to the concert by pouring votes into an online contest hosted by Kiss.

"We've been to Moncton, we've been to Sudbury, we've been to Saskatoon - we've never been to 'Shwa," singer-guitarist Paul Stanley bellowed from the stage, using a popular local nickname for the town that he would repeat again and again.

"Tonight, we change all that."By Nick Patch

TORONTO - Kiss delivered on its promise to Oshawa, Ont., on Wednesday with a supersized show that spared no flair, flames or facepaint.

Even playing to 6,134 fans within the relatively cozy confines of Oshawa's General Motors Centre, the classic rockers seemed to manage to pull off every extravagant stunt of their reliably over-the-top show.

And they didn't miss an opportunity to pay respect to Oshawa, the town that won the right to the concert by pouring votes into an online contest hosted by Kiss.

"We've been to Moncton, we've been to Sudbury, we've been to Saskatoon - we've never been to 'Shwa," singer-guitarist Paul Stanley bellowed from the stage, using a popular local nickname for the town that he would repeat again and again.

"Tonight, we change all that."

With a nearly two-hour performance, the Detroit rockers captivated a grateful crowd with a set drawn mostly from their 1970s output, with a specific focus on their 1974 double-LP breakthrough, "Alive!"

While the venue was significantly smaller than the arenas Kiss typically visits, the band showed no signs of having downscaled their show.

There were the rising, rotating stages, the confetti streaming from the sky and the relentless pyrotechnics, more plentiful here than the jet-black hair strewn across Stanley's chest.

Tongue-wagging bassist Gene Simmons dribbled blood from his mouth and performed menacingly from a platform high above the heads of the audience, while Stanley used pulleys to zip over to a round platform located in the middle of the crowd during "Love Gun."

The crowd roared appreciatively with each increasingly flamboyant stunt.

"Did you really believe we weren't going to come to see you?" Stanley asked the audience.

Oshawa has been a rare destination for major touring acts because it's only a 45-minute drive from Toronto, and because General Motors Centre is the city's largest venue.

Longtime fan Jan Pettersson said he could scarcely believe Kiss visited his hometown.

"I never thought I'd see a big act like that in Oshawa, so I was very impressed with that," said Pettersson, 40, who previously saw Kiss perform in Stockholm, Sweden in 1984.

"It's unbelievable, I'm incredibly happy they came here and that I got the chance to see them. It's definitely history having a band like that here. It'll stick out in my mind for a long time."

Stanley told The Canadian Press before the show that the band wasn't planning anything extra for the show - but only because they always give everything they have.

"We don't know the word 'extra,"' said the 57-year-old Stanley, who looked remarkably spry as he strutted across the stage (the habitually bare-chested rocker says he keeps in shape with aerobics, hiking and by doing 70 situps before every show).

"You know, how much extra can we give? We're Kiss!"

Yet, he did seem to make a special effort to pay respect to the fans and certainly relished every opportunity he had to say "'Shwa."

"We love all the big cities - we love Toronto, we love Montreal, we love Vancouver," Stanley said.

"But it's cities like you that make it all happen."

In fact, the show did seem a particular treat for a blue-collar auto town that has been hit hard by the global economic slump.

"When the fan contest was first announced, I mobilized the Kiss army in Oshawa and everyone came out, the spirit was unbelievable," said city councillor Robert Lutczyk, who spearheaded the campaign to bring Kiss to town.

"A lot of times, it wasn't so much about Kiss. It was about Oshawa winning a contest. So everybody came out."

Stanley made reference to economic hard times once during the show, lamenting the "bad news" that was ruling TV, radio and newspapers. But he didn't linger long on the topic.

"We are here tonight to escape the world," he said to a roar from the crowd.

"We came here tonight to have a good time."