Dave opening for KI$$...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Sesh, at first I thought that shutting down the forum was due to this...

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David Lee Roth jumps on Kiss' 2020 farewell tour in time for Midwest dates

By Chris Riemenschneider DECEMBER 17, 2019 — 10:07AM
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After recruiting a painter to open its “final” tour last year, Kiss has lined up one of rock’s most famous cut-ups for its 2020 U.S. dates, including the Feb. 24 stop at Xcel Energy Center.

Van Halen singer David Lee Roth was announced as the warm-up act for upcoming U.S. dates on the End of the Road Tour, including other mid-February Midwest gigs in Sioux City, Grand Forks and Lincoln. Plenty of tickets to those shows and the St. Paul gig remain via Ticketmaster. Kiss’ farewell outing already stopped at Target Center last February and is confirmed to continue rolling through July 2021.

Ol’ Diamond Dave certainly adds intrigue, though. The 65-year-old singer hasn’t been seen in the Twin Cities since Van Halen’s last show at the X in 2012. His singing voice that night was even shakier than some of Kiss co-founder Paul Stanley’s recent performances, but he remained as much a character as ever.

There were strong rumors of a Van Halen reunion tour happening this past summer, but health issues with Eddie Van Halen and ongoing squabbling between the band members prompted Roth to declare the band “finished” and announce his own tour with a two-guitar-anchored new group starting with a Las Vegas residency in January.

“I've inherited the band de facto — whatever that means," he said in a podcast a few months ago. "I think it means if you inherit it, carry this proudly. Van Halen isn't gonna be coming back in the fashion that you know.”

Most fans already know to except the unexpected when Diamond Dave ventures off on his own.

http://www.startribune.com/david-lee-roth-jumps-on-kiss-2020-farewell-tour-in-time-for-midwest-dates/566275692/

[Jérôme Frenchise]

1977: KISS were a cool band who [at lest Gene Simmons did] enabled VH to record what could have been their first album.
1978: Van Halen, VH's first album, kicks everybody's ass in music industry.
VH opens for Black Sabbath and they steal the show.
1978-1984: Van Halen rules the world.

2020: Dave will be Ki$$'s support act...

As a fan, I don't feel excited at all. My lower jaw dropped in despair when I learnt about it.

[Seshmeister]

Sesh, at first I thought that shutting down the forum was due to this...

I see it very much as Dave just returning to his roots back in the bar days of playing live before some prerecorded disco starts...

He has supported Ki$$ before at Donnington in 1988 following a set by Guns N Roses where a couple of people were crushed to death.

[twonabomber]

DLR opening is not enough for me to give Gene any more money.

[ZahZoo]

I guess there's some folks out there that might be excited with the pairing of Diamond Dave and Ki$$... can't say I've run across anyone like that. But WTF anything is possible...

At 65, it's tough to find anyone willing to hire you despite your experience... mainly because you'd be a pain in the ass to manage and put up with! In Dave's case, he's way over-qualified as a pain in the ass to manage and put up with...

At his age... you would only get out and work if you "needed to" or "wanted to"... which is it?

We're not far out from the Vegas January shows... this should be interesting...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I just hope Dave will sing a little better than Paul Stanley at least.

[Terry]

1977: KISS were a cool band who [at lest Gene Simmons did] enabled VH to record what could have been their first album.
1978: Van Halen, VH's first album, kicks everybody's ass in music industry.
VH opens for Black Sabbath and they steal the show.
1978-1984: Van Halen rules the world.

2020: Dave will be Ki$$'s support act...

As a fan, I don't feel excited at all. My lower jaw dropped in despair when I learnt about it.

Seeing Dave open for Bad Company in 1999, I was somewhat psyched because Dave hadn't been touring since the YFLM album...plus, the 1999 set was basically wall-to-wall CVH tunes, more than a few of which Roth hadn't played live since the 1980s. And after 1996, it wasn't looking like Roth was going to sing for Van Halen again anytime soon. I had no real use for Bad Company then...or even prior to 1999: didn't hate them, but I never thought they were much beyond an average rock band. I left after Roth's opening set.

2020, and Dave opening for KISS...well, I will say on the whole I've enjoyed KISS much, much more than I ever did Bad Company, but at this stage of the game KISS is just far too old for me to bother. I had meant to go see one of the KISS reunion shows in the 1990s, but never got around to it. Now, a KISS with no Ace, no Peter, by and large canned vocals being mimed to...KISS is just way, way past it for me. Not worth more than - at MOST - $30 bucks a ticket in terms of what I'm willing to pay now, and doubtless their 2nd 'farewell tour' will be priced much higher than that.

Far as Dave 2020 if he's not fronting Van Halen...meh...I couldn't be bothered seeing Van Halen Mach 4 in 2015, thus the drawing power of Dave fronting a bunch of nobodies, regardless of how competent they are, said drawing power just isn't there. Really, about the only way I can see paying to see Dave perform now is if he is fronting a CVH farewell tour, and I just don't think THAT is ever going to happen.

[Terry]

I guess there's some folks out there that might be excited with the pairing of Diamond Dave and Ki$$... can't say I've run across anyone like that. But WTF anything is possible...

At 65, it's tough to find anyone willing to hire you despite your experience... mainly because you'd be a pain in the ass to manage and put up with! In Dave's case, he's way over-qualified as a pain in the ass to manage and put up with...

At his age... you would only get out and work if you "needed to" or "wanted to"... which is it?

We're not far out from the Vegas January shows... this should be interesting...

I'll be interested to see and hear audio and video from the Vegas shows. For the sake of those travelling a long way specifically for those shows, one hopes Dave has a capable backing band and is going to turn in a series of vocal performances that don't sound goddamned awful.

[Terry]

I just hope Dave will sing a little better than Paul Stanley at least.

At least, if Dave remains true to form, his vocals will be live...warts and all. And as bad as he has been sounding live in the last 8 years, at least he isn't miming it, and I honestly applaud him for that.

[ZahZoo]

I'll be interested to see and hear audio and video from the Vegas shows. For the sake of those travelling a long way specifically for those shows, one hopes Dave has a capable backing band and is going to turn in a series of vocal performances that don't sound goddamned awful.

That's the key risks... musicians worth a shit..? Will Dave put the effort into actually singing or just over-amp and Yelp the Night Away™..?

[Seshmeister]

Kiss at this point remind me of these fireworks boxes you get which are single ignition where you light it and step back and the whole underwhelming show happens.

I'm convinced at this point that not only are they miming the whole show, they will have programmed everything else into that so the lights and the pyros will all be happening at the exact same point triggered by the same program running the music track.

I get that some people have some emotional investment in the Kiss thing but watching some old guys in wigs and makeup miming to a show like that has no more interest to me than watching the latest boy band 'live'. If I did end up at a show I would leave one or two songs after Dave's set like I did at the tour with Hagar. But hey each to their own and I can see how it makes sense to the bands and promoters.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Kiss at this point remind me of these fireworks boxes you get which are single ignition where you light it and step back and the whole underwhelming show happens.

I'm convinced at this point that not only are they miming the whole show, they will have programmed everything else into that so the lights and the pyros will all be happening at the exact same point triggered by the same program running the music track.

I get that some people have some emotional investment in the Kiss thing but watching some old guys in wigs and makeup miming to a show like that has no more interest to me than watching the latest boy band 'live'. If I did end up at a show I would leave one or two songs after Dave's set like I did at the tour with Hagar. But hey each to their own and I can see how it makes sense to the bands and promoters.

Faked fireworks, even. The bangs will be pre-recorded.

[Terry]

Kiss at this point remind me of these fireworks boxes you get which are single ignition where you light it and step back and the whole underwhelming show happens.

I'm convinced at this point that not only are they miming the whole show, they will have programmed everything else into that so the lights and the pyros will all be happening at the exact same point triggered by the same program running the music track.

I get that some people have some emotional investment in the Kiss thing but watching some old guys in wigs and makeup miming to a show like that has no more interest to me than watching the latest boy band 'live'. If I did end up at a show I would leave one or two songs after Dave's set like I did at the tour with Hagar. But hey each to their own and I can see how it makes sense to the bands and promoters.

I'd tend to think with the pyro that the detonations have been rehearsed and are timed for the same spots in the set every night just so the band members can make sure they are positioned properly re: not burning the fuck out of themselves.

Kid in the 1970s...man, seeing a KISS show circa 1977 or 1979 would have been a wet dream even before I was old enough to have one, much less know what one was.

Teenager in the 1980s...the one KISS show I saw in 1985 - makeupless, on the Asylum tour - definitely underwhelming compared to the hype of KISS in their 1970s prime.

Twenty's in the 1990s...should have made a better effort to see one of those reunion shows from 1996 to 1998.

Nearly 50 in 2019...the thrill is gone in terms of KISS being a Bucket List-type show, even if this retirement sticks. Much like the 4 year deluge of Star Wars movies, KISS has run the concept into the ground in terms of what I found appealing in the 1970s having any allure today. Just a case of overkill.

I do get that there folks out there who still derive whatever enjoyment they get out of KISS. God bless 'em, I hope they enjoy the shows next year.

[Terry]

That's the key risks... musicians worth a shit..? Will Dave put the effort into actually singing or just over-amp and Yelp the Night Away™..?

I'd be more surprised if Dave DIDN'T assemble a bunch of musicians who weren't - the very least - capable of playing the material competently than I would if Dave didn't manage to put the kibosh on the yelping and strained, off-key yelling: those two vocal strategies have been front and center since 2012...Roth has pretty much had a 4 year layoff save for that charity gig a couple years ago...and I will say that what Roth brought to the table in 2007/2008 vocally was quite an upgrade from the performances I saw in 2005 and 2006...so maybe Dave is gonna kick it up a notch vocally with these Vegas shows and KISS tour.

I mean, I honestly hope so. Far as the band goes, the lineup I saw in 1999 outside of Luzier weren't particularly charismatic in terms of showmanship, but the band SOUNDED good. Hopefully, the same applies for the Vegas gigs.

Should Dave go out, fob off the vocals and try to get by on his tried and true Al Jolson dance moves and mug his way through the set...well, I tend to think it won't make a good night out for the audience unless one is a diehard Roth fan to the point where anything Dave does is just fine and dandy.

[Seshmeister]

An optimist might say that Dave will have full artistic control back to either add more show and spectacle.

It's got to be less of a band than the DLR Band and that felt like a backing band. Dave solo hasn't been a 'band' since EEAS. Maybe he could/should copy the Prince thing by branding the backing band as a thing in itself like 'The Revolution'. 'NPG' and so on.