Kiss News

By Dan Garcia / onmilwaukee.com

The days of rock and rolling all night and partying every day are coming to an end, as KISS' "End of the Road" farewell tour rolled through Fiserv Forum on Friday.

The bittersweet performance checked all the boxes for a memorable KISS concert and gave the band's Milwaukee fans a proper goodbye, in a city where the rock legends have a long 45-year history of live performances. From Gene Simmons breathing fire to the Catman, Eric Singer, performing "Beth" on a grand piano for a teary eyed crowd, Friday night's performance had no shortage of highlights for KISS' last hurrah on a Wisconsin stage.

Here are eight reasons you shouldn't have missed KISS' Milwaukee farewell at Fiserv Forum:

1. They have a 45-year history of memorable Milwaukee performances

You'd be hard-pressed to find a band with a greater history of Milwaukee performances than KISS. Currently comprised of founding members Paul Stanley (the Starchild) and Gene Simmons (the Demon), as well as lead guitarist Tommy Thayer (the Spaceman) and drummer Eric Singer (the Catman), the face-painted quartet has been taking its live show to Milwaukee since the '70s.

Friday night the band added one last stamp to their Milwaukee passport by performing at the brand new Fiserv Forum. From shows at the MECCA in the '80s, multiple appearances at Alpine Valley, the Bradley Center and Summerfest, as well as memorable sets at the Riverside, the Milwaukee Auditorium and more, KISS has a history in Milwaukee older than a lot of the fans in attendance last night.

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

The KISS float took 1st place in the St. Louis Mardi Gras Parade! 

Thanks to Jace Reely for sharing the photos with us.

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

KISS Zannie Golf Cart Parade 1st Place Winners in Galveston Mardi Gras.

Thanks for William Boog Cram for sharing the photo with us!

By Bob Gendron / Chicago Tribune

Forget about going out with a bang. Kiss ended its allegedly final Chicago show Saturday at a packed United Center with a barrage of pyrotechnics and a storm of confetti so thick it obscured the band. For a group legendary for extravagance, the blowout proved a fitting farewell—and put an exclamation point on a 125-minute performance awash in waves of similarly captivating visuals.

More than 18 years after playing its first farewell tour, Kiss is saying goodbye. Again. Ultimately, the group claims the taxing weight of wearing its lavish outfits, as well as the desire for closure, factored into the decision. Whether or not the quartet stays off the road remains to be seen. But the timing appears prescient in terms of providing framework for evaluating the band’s career, particularly in light of current entertainment trends.

Maligned by many critics even in its heyday for gimmickry, Kiss now seems to have been far ahead of its time. At least in terms of strategies. The band helped establish the idea of the artist as a marketable brand, the notion of the concert as spectacle and the dissolution of boundaries between rock and pop-culture—all practices adopted by the modern music industry—in the 1970s. In addition, the members’ individual makeup-and-costume-aided character identities long preceded comic books’ ascension to serious art and superheroes serving as subjects of blockbuster film franchises.

By Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Can you feel the heat?" the guy with the crazy eyes screamed excitedly at me as KISS rocked in front of towering flames and thousands of Milwaukee fans Friday.

If I had to guess, I suspect you could have felt the heat in the Fiserv Forum lobby.

Few rock bands blow stuff up quite as good as KISS. And with this being the "End of the Road" farewell tour, the flames and fireworks were really flying.

They naturally made an explosive entrance for set opener "Detroit Rock City." Rockets fired off across the ceiling of the packed arena, as Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Tommy Thayer descended onto the stage on separate platforms, a shower of sparks rained down behind them.

There were also fireworks. And bursts of flames.