Kiss News

By Jim Ryan / Forbes.com

In perhaps the entirety of rock and roll’s brief history, no band has better marketed itself than New York hard rock stalwarts KISS.

Over the course of their 46 years, the group has put their name on everything from condoms to caskets, continually cashing in despite an era where its become increasingly difficult to monetize recorded music.

Though they’ve sold records too – 100 million of them (25 million albums), making them one of the best selling groups in the history of hard rock.

But KISS’s true legacy has been and will always be their seemingly ubiquitous presence on the road.

Their breakthrough record was a live album and Alive! (1975) remains one of the most influential live sets ever.

Since staging their first “farewell” tour in 2000, the last to feature the group’s original lineup, each subsequent road trip has elicited a wink, nod and occasional chuckle from fans.

So it’s with moderate disbelief and slight trepidation that KISS fans approach the group’s current “End of the Road” tour, one which makes its way through the midwest, northeast and into Canada before heading abroad with dates scheduled through the rest of 2019.

“Chicago!” bellowed the familiar opening stage announcement following Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” Saturday night at United Center. “You wanted the best, you got the best: KISS!”

As rock and roll disappears from terrestrial radio in America, it can be easy to forget just how many hits KISS has had in parts of five decades. Nothing hammers that home though quite like a live set and the group wasted no time getting to their biggest tracks, opening with “Detroit Rock City” as each band member flew into the air amidst a trail of sparks and smoke on hydraulic lifts.

It’s the ‘End of the Road’ for iconic rock band KISS

Kelly Simms, USA TODAY NETWORK

Sioux Falls wants the best, and it’ll get the best, when veteran rockers KISS say goodbye after four-plus decades of bombastic entertainment with its “End of the Road” tour.

KISS’s farewell tour, which will most likely last for two-plus years, will be pulling into Denny Sanford Premier Center on Wednesday night. Although this will be KISS’s first show in the brand-new venue, the band has played numerous times at the old Sioux Falls Arena throughout its career.

KISS’s last appearance in Sioux Falls was in 2016 at Badlands for a special unmasked acoustic show.

“I remember Sioux Falls,” guitarist Tommy Thayer said during a recent phone interview with the Argus Leader. “Every time I’m there it’s freezing cold and snowing. But we’re looking forward to playing the arena this time. We played at the Badlands, and a couple of times we came and visited the Brennan Rock and Roll Academy, which is no longer open unfortunately.”

Formed in 1973 by bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley, KISS dominated the mid-’70s; producing comic books, pinball machines, KISS dolls and other merchandise, as well as countless TV appearances, thousands of concerts and even a movie in 1978, “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.”

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Mardi Gras - The Original Krewe of Orpheus in Mandeville, LA!

KISS keeps on shoutin’ in farewell tour boasting the best of a bygone era 

By Selena Fragassi - Chicago Sun-Times

“You wanted the best! You got the best! The hottest band in the world … KISS!” 

It’s the last time we’ll hear that in Chicago as KISS took one final bow at the United Center on Saturday night with a stop on the heavily hyped End of the Road World Tour.

Announced last September, timed with the band’s appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” the 69-date trek (running through September) seemed gimmicky from the start, especially for anyone who remembers the first go-around on the “KISS Farewell Tour” (2000-2001) or who questioned why original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were not invited to the goodbye party, even after making appearances on the KISS Kruise and Gene Simmons’ solo tour over the past year. For this go-around, the spots were respectively filled by the exceptional guitarist Tommy Thayer, who was at ease on showstopping guitar solos, and breakneck drummer Eric Singer, both of whom have been a constant in the band since the early 2000s.

With 20 greatest hits padded by the trademark fire breathing, blood spitting, firework exploding, stage rising, flaming guitar shenanigans that have always made KISS’ “Psycho Circus” the greatest show on Earth, what the End of the Road Tour brilliantly did was leave everyone wanting more.