Kiss News

 Flashy rockers bring their ‘End of the Road’ tour to Jiffy Lube Live

By Alan Sculley / www.princewilliamtimes.com

As KISS delved into farewell tour that figures to last for two years or more, lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley said he knows what he’ll miss most about the band he co-founded with bassist/singer Gene Simmons back in 1973.

“There’s nothing really that can compete or come close to the combustive emotional nature of what we do on stage and the connection to the fans,” Stanley said in a telephone interview. “That’s something that’s irreplaceable. …There’s nothing to compare it to.”

But fans won’t have to worry about seeing a mopey or overly sentimental Stanley on stage as he grapples with the reality of the final Kiss tour. In fact, in typical fashion for a band that has never been short on bravado, Stanley said the “End of the Road” tour will be a festive occasion.

“This is really a time of joy, and for us to be up there and celebrate what we’ve done together,” Stanley said, noting their fans will be a key part of the experience.

“It’s much better than finishing a tour, let’s say, and then a year later deciding you don’t want to go out. In that sense, you’ve called it quits. But this is so much better for us and better for the fans to go out there with the highest of spirits and the greatest of shows.”

KISS will appear at Jiffy Lube Live on Sunday, Aug. 11. The music begins at 7:30 p.m.

By Ben Crandell  / South Florida Sun Sentinel

Photo by: (Michael Laughlin/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Oh, what a magnificent tribe, you time-traveling KISS crusaders — the starry-eyed and studded, the tube-topped and acid-washed, young girls with blackened lips and cat-whiskered cheeks, middle-aged dudes with grease-painted faces, monstrous heels and high ponies (sorry, Ariana, but Gene has the most famous high pony in pop music).

While they may no longer party every day, the South Florida legion of the KISS Army came dressed to rock ‘n’ roll all night on Tuesday at the BB&T Center during a raucous concert that opened a new U.S. leg of the End of the Road Tour, which KISS has said will mark its farewell to live performances.

The unfortunate result of the decision is that it will leave the band’s dressed-up fans with no place to go. It is sad to think that the palpable joy which radiated among KISS devotees gathered at the BB&T Center, not to mention the brave fashion, will no longer have a place to be shared.