Kiss News

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By Chris Dickerson / For The Herald-Dispatch

No offense to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, but their circus is not the greatest show on Earth.

That title belongs to KISS.

Whether you love their music or not, anyone who has seen KISS in concert will tell you there is nothing else like it in entertainment: Four larger-than-life men wearing greasepaint, leather and seven-inch heels, breathing fire, spitting (fake) blood, flying around the coliseum while pumping out two hours of hard-driving rock and roll classics. And they�re accompanied by a spectacular laser, light and video show as well as enough pyrotechnics to destroy several small countries.

And on Sept. 10, the Tri-State will get a chance to see the �Hottest Band in the World� for the first time since 1988 when KISS concludes its Freedom To Rock tour at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena. The Dead Daisies open the show.

Last week, I drove to Dayton to take in the show. And even after having seen the band too many times to count, I can say I haven�t seen and heard them look and sound as good as they do right now, more than 40 years after they first took the world by storm.

One thing that struck me is how the band clearly is having a lot of fun performing. They are smiling, laughing and joking with each other on stage. It�s infectious, making the audience enjoy the show that much more.

And, their musicianship is better than ever. Paul Stanley is, in my opinion, the greatest frontman in rock history. Listening to him sing and get the crowd involved is akin to a fiery Southern Baptist preacher on a Sunday morning in a small church. The only difference is that Stanley is preaching to an arena full of thousands of devoted followers. And Stanley�s voice sounds as good as I ever remember it.

While most recognize Gene Simmons for his onstage Demon persona or his outspokenness, most people overlook his fantastic bass playing and vocals. He just seems to get better and better with age.

Original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss no longer are with the band, but the two �new� members breathe fresh life and attitude into KISS.

Tommy Thayer, who became a member of the band in 2002, brings boundless energy as the Spaceman. He�s a fantastic lead guitarist, and he has grown quite comfortable in taking center stage to show off his playing and even his vocals. He sounded great singing �Shock Me.�

Eric Singer, who has been the KISS drummer for 20 of the last 25 years, is one of the best drummers in the business. He gives KISS a powerful beat, and he also shines vocally. He sang �Black Diamond� and �Beth� during last week�s show.

When most people think of KISS, they think of the over-the-top theatrics and the standard rock lyrics about girls. But to the legions of members of the KISS Army, the band is about standing behind something you believe in, being true to yourself and making the most out of life no matter what obstacles are thrown in front of you.

Simmons has been known to say KISS isn�t just a band, it�s a way of life.

A perfect example of that is �Lick It Up.� On the surface, it might seem like a stereotypical rock song. But the lyrics are about making yourself your top priority. �Life�s such a treat, and it�s time you taste it,� Stanley sings triumphantly. �There ain�t a reason on Earth to waste it. It ain�t a crime to be good to yourself!�

The nearly two-hour setlist has all of the KISS staples: �Detroit Rock City,� �Deuce,� �I Love It Loud,� �God of Thunder,� �Love Gun,� �Shout It Out Loud� and, of course, �Rock and Roll All Nite.� It also features �Flaming Youth,� which hasn�t been played regularly since the song came out on the band�s landmark 1976 album �Destroyer.�

Simmons also has been known to say KISS isn�t just a band, it�s a brand. To prove that, fans can throw down as little as $10 for a KISS lanyard or as much as $1,250 for a VIP Meet and Greet package that includes a photograph with the band, an autograph session and a pre-show acoustic performance by the band backstage.

Opening the show with a lively and entertaining hourlong set were The Dead Daisies, a musical collective featuring former Motley Crue vocalist John Corabi, drummer Brian Tichy, guitarist David Lowey and former Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich and bassist Marco Mendoza. Their set included original material � such as �Make Some Noise,� the title track from their latest CD � as well as some fresh takes on rock classics such as �Fortunate Son� and �Helter Skelter.�

Last week�s show was three hours of great music, great showmanship and great fun for all ages. I saw people in their 70s and children as young as 2 or 3, many of them wearing the makeup and/or costumes of their favorite band member.

At each show, the crowd hears this before the curtain reveals the stage. �You wanted the best! You got the best! The hottest band in the world � KISS!� Last week � like they do every night and certainly will on Sept. 10 � they lived up to that mantra.

Tonight's KISS hometown hero #roadiefortheday is MSgt Michelle Nelson!

Written by: Ray Routhier / mainetoday.com

Gene Simmons, after more than 40 years in the rock concert business, has a couple important rules about putting on a show.

�We like to bring in more fire power than most Third World countries, have the excitement of Fourth of July and look God-like,� said Simmons, 67, bassist and co-founder of KISS. �If we�re guilty of anything, it�s making a complete spectacle of ourselves. We stand by that, proudly, unapologetically and unabashedly.�

Anyone who has seen Simmons and his band, KISS, knows this to be true. On stage, Simmons and his mates make themselves up like characters from a comic book, fly from the rafters with the aid of wires, blow stuff up and have towers of flames burning behind them. Simmons himself is a spectacle, sticking out his 7-inch tongue often, and sometimes even breathing fire or spitting blood. Simmons and KISS will bring their over-the-top show to the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Sunday.

The band�s 40-year career has been spectacle-like as well. Simmons and singer/guitarist Paul Stanley began playing together in the early 1970s in New York City, under the name Wicked Lester. They formed KISS in 1973 by adding veteran drummer Peter Criss, who had advertised his services in Rolling Stone, and guitarist Ace Frehley.

The band started experimenting with outrageous costumes and cartoonish black and white makeup, creating a character for each musician. Simmons� character is a demon.

By the mid- to late�70s, the band was well known for its theatrical shows and had string of hard-rocking hits, including �Rock and Roll All Nite,� �I Was Made for Lovin� You,� �Calling Dr. Love� and �Christine Sixteen.� The band�s biggest hit of the period, the ballad �Beth,� went to No. 7 on the singles chart in 1976.

Simmons said he wanted KISS shows to be explosive and theatrical because he remembers being disappointed as a teenager when he�d see the rock stars of the day live.

�I was always disappointed, no matter who I saw. I didn�t want to see guys standing around playing guitars; I wanted to see a show,� Simmons said.

KISS cashed in on marketing opportunities, lending its name and the band members� images to comic books, games, lunch boxes and dolls. This came in handy later. The original band broke up in the early �80s, with Simmons and Stanley adding new members. In 1983, the band even abandoned its legendary makeup. But when the original members reunited in the mid-�90s, with makeup, they played big arenas packed with all those kids who had bought KISS lunch boxes and dolls in the �70s. The band�s 1996 tour was the biggest grossing concert tour of the year, bringing in $43 million.

But the original members squabbled over contracts, musicianship and other things, so the reunion didn�t last. KISS continued on in the early 2000s, with Simmons and Stanley joined by Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer.

When KISS was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, Stanley publicly criticized the hall for not including current KISS members Singer and Thayer. Criss and Frehley haven�t been permanent members of the band since the early �80s. Stanley said it wasn�t fair, since other bands have had later-joining members inducted.

Asked about the original members during an interview for this story, Simmons said he had no intention of reuniting with them. He said it would be like reuniting with your first girlfriend 40 years later.

As for why the band keeps on rocking, Simmons said he�s never considered doing anything else.

�Retire and do what? Sit on your thumbs all day and watch �I Love Lucy?� � said Simmons. �What we do is magic, and it�s more fun than anything I can think of.�

But he and Stanley do have their hands in other ventures, including the Rock & Brews restaurant chain, located mostly in the western part of the country. They are also owners of an arena football team, the Los Angeles KISS.

Simmons said the band�s current �Freedom to Rock Tour� is intended to bring Kiss to smaller towns and cities, so there�s nowhere like Boston or Los Angeles on the itinerary. Instead, the 35-plus dates include venues in Bozeman, Montana; Minot, North Dakota, and Duluth, Minnesota, as well as Portland. But Portland is big enough to have been included on other Kiss tours. The band played here in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003.

�We want to bring music to the heartland. Politicians still have to visit places like Mankato (Minnesota) and Saginaw (Michigan), so we felt like we should, too,� said Simmons.

On the subject of politics, namely the presidential election, Simmons was non-committal. Though he was definite about one aspect of the campaigning.

�I know people on both sides. I�ve met the Clintons, and I know Trump well enough, and I believe Americans can make up their own minds without finding out what celebrities think or what Gene Simmons thinks,� he said. �I think celebrities should shut up and not bully people into thinking one way or another.�

But KISS and the political candidates do have something in common: They sure can create a spectacle.

Here�s KISS performing �Shout It Out Loud�

KISS
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Cross Insurance Arena, 1 Civic Center Square, Portland
HOW MUCH: $36.50 to $122
INFO: Crossarenaportland.com

By Richard Duckett / Telegram & Gazette

When KISS formed in 1973 as a bigger-than-life, comic book-costumed gothic hard rock band, co-lead vocalist and guitarist Paul Stanley knew they were onto something "massive from the start."

More than 40 years later, Stanley still has a good feeling about KISS as they head into the DCU Center in Worcester for a show at 8 p.m. Sept. 3 as part of their "Freedom To Rock" tour. The Dead Daisies will open).

"This is probably the best the band has ever been," Stanley said during a recent telephone interview. "It justifies, if one (justification) is needed, why this band exists. We're not a band that relies on nostalgia. We're a band that competes and beats anything out there."

But KISS, with original members Stanley and Gene Simmons (co-lead vocals, bass), and longtime players Tommy Thayer (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Eric Singer (drums, backing vocals), is doing a little looking back on its current tour.

When "Freedom To Rock" was announced it was stated that KISS would be specifically taking the show to markets that hadn't had the chance to see the band in some time. The tour opened in Boise, Idaho, July 7.

The last time KISS was in Worcester was 20 years ago in 1996 when the DCU Center was the Worcester Centrum. KISS had first come to the Centrum in 1983 on its "Creatures of the Night" tour, and also returned there in 1988 and 1992.

"For us this tour is very much about revisiting places that made us from the beginning," Stanley said. "We went to places other bands ignored. Most bands stuck to a very narrow-minded and rigid schedule."

KISS initially came to Worcester because it was "banned in Boston, so speak. They wouldn't allow pyro(technics). That being said, the Centrum for us was always an exciting gig. All of the places we're playing have great memories for us," Stanley said.

KISS with Stanley, Simmons and original members Ace Frehley (lead guitar) and Peter Criss (drums) quickly made a name for itself performing live shows that were massive theatrical-style productions with band members with painted faces (Stanley's trademark "Starchild" visage is a black star over his right eye), drum kits rising 40 feet into the air, pyrotechnics, and (fake) blood spitting.

The performances remain a spectacle, as attested by a headline in the Daily Emerald for a review of a recent KISS "Freedom To Rock" tour stop in Eugene, Oregon, that called the show "aptly excessive."

Along the way the shows have been accompanied by quite a soundtrack of 44 albums with more than 100 million sold worldwide. Hits such as "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock and Roll All Nite" are typically hard driving, but the band's biggest hit single is the quietly sad, acoustic "Beth," showing that KISS can be subtle as well as brash.

KISS was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. (The band has just released a new DVD/CD "KISS Rocks Vegas" taken from performances when it was in residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas during November 2014.)

Stanley, who has written or co-written many of KISS' songs, is also an actor and an artist. Intelligent and articulate, the native New Yorker said he could not have envisioned at the beginning KISS' longevity even though his initial intuition has told him the group would be successful.

"You have to remember there was no precedent for a band lasting decades at that point," he said. "There was no idea that a band could be something like the blues where you play it for your life. Nobody could have envisioned that. With time, rock and roll changed from teen idols being fed by writers to writing songs that connected with your audience."

There have, however, long been precedents for disharmony within a band, and KISS has had its share of that. Over time there would be departures, reunion tours and makeups. Meanwhile, the paint makeup disappeared for a while, and then reappeared.

All of the original members of KISS have written memoirs, and Stanley's account of the KISS 2000 "Farewell Tour" with the four original members in his book "Face The Music: A Life Exposed" is very revealing ("The tour was horrible. Constant drudgery and misery � ").

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Retired Army Maj. Liz Sherr was selected by Hiring Our Heroes to be "Roadie for a Day" for Kiss at the Allentown Fair on Thursday in Allentown.

CLICK HERE to watch video interview.

By Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

'Shout it out loud!' That's what legendary rockers KISS did as they brought their "Freedom to Rock" tour to the Lehigh Valley on Thursday night at the Great Allentown Fair. 

But the real show was all the dedicated fans that came costumed as their favorite KISS member. 

The band, which has produced over 40 albums, has been performing since 1973 with original members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. 

CLICK HERE look through the photo gallery and see all the fans dressed up for the concert. 

By John J. Moser / The Morning Call

�How are you doing, Allentown?� KISS singer Paul Stanley asked the crowd Thursday at Allentown Fair�s grandstand, two songs into the band�s� first concert in the city in 26 years, first in the Lehigh Valley in 24 years and first in makeup in more than 40 years.

�We�ve got some catching up to do.�

That might have been standard stage patter, but KISS�s 17-song show certainly made it seem like the band was making up for lost time.

Its 97 minutes was filled with blood spitting, fire breathing, members flying, drum sets levitating, smoke, sparks, explosions and the biggest confetti shower the Lehigh Valley has likely seen.

And, oh, yeah, music. And surprisingly good music, that gave the crowd of 7,082 most of the hits they would expect, but also a some surprisingly good choices of lesser-known songs.

But what made the show most successful was that KISS, now more than 40 years into its career, seemed enthusiastic about performing all of that.

From the opening �Detroit Rock City,� Stanley, at 64, was moving about the stage, even dropping to his knees to play. Bassist/singer Gene Simmons, at 68, was lasciviously swirling his hips � and famous tongue. And guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer were playing strong and solid, which is their role.

�There are no singers singing off stage. There�s no band playing off stage. There�s no pre-recorded music and no lip-synching,� Stanley told the crowd a couple of songs later. �And there�s no dancers humping each other on stage. We are a rock �n� roll band, and that�s what you deserve.�

A nice surprise was how good a couple of the deeper songs the band played sounded. �Do You Love Me,� a cut from the 1976 disc �Destroyer� (along with �Rock and Roll Over� celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year) was very good.

�Cold Gin� from the group�s 1974 debut album was well played and sung by Simmons, though he also got theatrical by licking Thayer�s face on it. And �I Love It Loud�  from 1982�s �Creatures of the Night� also was very good, and Stanley had an elementary school girl on stage with him helping him play guitar.

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John J. Moser / The Morning Call

Rock band KISS has never been about subtlety.

From its outlandish costumes and makeup to its over-the-top, fire-roasted stage shows and slogans such as "the biggest band in the world" and "you wanted the best � you got the best," KISS has made its mark by being big and bold.

So when KISS brings its "Freedom to Rock" tour to the Allentown Fair on Thursday, the show won't be burdened with deep cuts. And even though it's the 40^th anniversary of both of KISS' biggest studio discs � "Destroyer" and "Rock and Roll Over" � KISS won't be doing an album show like many other classic rockers. Instead, the concert will be a show full of hits.

"The cream has always risen to the top, and the people expect certain songs and they'll get those," guitarist/singer and founder Paul Stanley says in a phone call from his California home. Recent shows have included them all: "Shout It Out Loud," "Beth," "Love Gun," "Detroit Rock City" and, of course, "Rock and Roll All Nite."

"The idea of playing obscure songs is only appealing to a die-hard fan who knows our albums inside out," Stanley says. "To go up on stage and play unknown songs for a handful of people as opposed to playing the songs that everybody wants to hear is really not in our best interests or the audience's.

"We want to do the best show possible and we want to blow away people who get to see us once every two years, five years, 10 years. Those are the people who we put the show together for. If somebody comes night after night or sees 10 or 15 shows on a tour, well, they may be asking why we don't change the show up much. But the fact is we don't change it up that much because once it's great, you don't mess with it."

Wanting to reach people who see KISS infrequently is why KISS is coming to Allentown � and other "secondary markets" on the current tour, Stanley says. The 35-show jaunt, which started in July, has KISS playing more than 25 cities it hasn't visited in more than 10 years, and four first-time stops.

"One of the great things about this tour is going back to places that somehow, for one reason or another, have been off the touring grid," he says. "And it's a thrill. I mean, I have to say it's great to play these great big metropolises, but truth be told, we made our name by playing the smaller cities.

"And this only reaffirms for us why we should be doing this � is to go full circle and go back to where it all started."

The Lehigh Valley certainly qualifies as one of the places it all started for KISS.

In 1975, the band, which was born in New York City, played two shows on the same day at Northampton's Roxy Theatre, on the very day it released its third disc, "Dressed to Kill," which included "Rock and Roll All Nite."

Eight months later, KISS played Allentown Fairground's Agricultural Hall, days after releasing what would become its first gold disc, "Alive." In 1984, it kicked off its North American tour for its "Animalize" album at Bethlehem's Stabler Arena, after rehearsing the tour there. It was the first area show for the band without its signature makeup.

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