KISS News Bits

[Terry]

Maybe it actually is, as some outlets have - without much irony- put it, the final End Of The Road tour.

Stanley's voice hasn't been what it was for several years now, and that situation is beyond the point of being glossed over: more and more, the band can't perform certain signature tunes that featured Stanley on lead vocals, because the man just can't sing them well enough anymore to even reach the realm of passable. Eric Singer is 60 years old. Tommy Thayer is 57. Simmons is crowding 70. Stanley is over 60. How much longer do they want to do this?

Nitro's point is well taken in that it isn't beyond Simmons to get four nobodies out there in KISS makeup performing the tunes, franchising the brand. Why not? Simmons has never pretended that the money-making aspect of the band, along with the theatrics, wasn't as important as the music. If people want to pay to see it, fine.

The End Of The Road, even if it does live up to the billing, isn't something I want to see. Certainly nothing I'm going to see based on the premise that this might be the last tour. Too many bands have pulled that bullshit for me to even care anymore, and there's nobody out there anymore working that could entice me to see them with that sales pitch. Mostly because out of who is left in terms of aging arena rock acts, I've either already seen them, haven't cared enough to see them or they can't bring it to the stage well enough anymore anyway.

Aerosmith will doubtless be pulling this "last tour...but we're still going to perform one-offs here and there and still release new music now and then" nonsense that Ozzy did this past year. Well, are you going away or aren't you? Sounds more like announcing semi-retirement to me.

[Terry]

KISS, or at least the memory of 1970s/early 1980s KISS, is still a somewhat meaningful thing to me. I really liked that band. Probably no small part of that had to do with literally growing up in the 1970s. Yeah, I was one of those elementary school age kids in the 1970s that turned the band into bubblegum safe stuff when the Seventies were drawing to a close. I still have a memory of watching KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park when it was originally broadcast on tv. I remember feeling shocked when Peter Criss left the band.

I recall not being overly thrilled with their output post-Creatures, and also recall thinking Revenge was a welcome return to form although by the time it was released I didn't give too much of shit. The band did launch a successful reunion in 1996. Kiss did it right far as that initial reunion tour went. Got the original band together, rehearsed properly. Didn't make any pretenses about doing anything other than serving up all those 1970s tunes in full makeup with all the stage theatrics. By the time Frehley and Criss left the band in the early 2000s, it already felt to me like Klassic Kiss Mach 2 was dragging on a bit too long. In typical KISS fashion, the band took a great idea and repeatedly ran it into the ground to the point where it didn't mean much of anything to me.

[Terry]

Is there anybody else here who reacted to the news of a last KISS tour with anything other than a shrug?

[DavidLeeNatra]

Is there anybody else here who reacted to the news of a last KISS tour with anything other than a shrug?

I saw them three times. 88...98...2014...maybe I take my six year old daughter as I took the older one last time. I guess they do something with Ace and/or Peter. I guess, I go...one last time.

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[Nickdfresh]

...Eric Singer is 60 years old. Tommy Thayer is 57.

Those young bucks can carry the show...

The End Of The Road, even if it does live up to the billing, isn't something I want to see. Certainly nothing I'm going to see based on the premise that this might be the last tour. Too many bands have pulled that bullshit for me to even care anymore, and there's nobody out there anymore working that could entice me to see them with that sales pitch. Mostly because out of who is left in terms of aging arena rock acts, I've either already seen them, haven't cared enough to see them or they can't bring it to the stage well enough anymore anyway.
...

I wouldn't ever consider seeing anything that didn't include at least Ace. Even then, the guys mimicking the original (catman on drums) makeup would be nonsense...

[FORD]

I never did understand why the current scabs are wearing Ace & Peter's makeup. Vinnie Vincent & Eric Carr both had their own makeup characters, at least for a couple years before they went makeup-free for a decade & a half or so. They probably wouldn't recycle Carr's fox character since he died, but Vinnie's ankh-face thing was barely used. Seems more fitting that Tommy the Roadie wears that then being FauxAce.

Wouldn't surprise me if Chaim becomes the manager for MiniKiss and sends them out to do future tours. Maybe he can also teach them to actually PLAY the songs??

[Terry]

Those young bucks can carry the show...



I wouldn't ever consider seeing anything that didn't include at least Ace. Even then, the guys mimicking the original (catman on drums) makeup would be nonsense...

Yeah...sort of comical in that Singer and Thayer 15 years ago were brought in to basically extend the life of the band - the reality probably is that even if Criss hadn't left in 2003/2004, it's doubtful that even on a purely physical level he'd be with the band today just in terms of ability to get through a set, and even watching Frehley circa 1996 vs. Frehley circa 1999/2000 one can discern a lessening of...ferocity - and I'm sure not having to deal with Frehley and Criss complaining about money was a factor: Singer and Thayer were under no illusions as to why they were brought in, and they collected their paychecks. Maybe both of them got a small piece of the merchandise.

Now, these guys/"scabs" who were in their early to mid 40s 15 years ago are getting right up there as well.

On a personal level, I wouldn't mind just seeing Ace, Gene, Paul and Singer playing. Even if it were in a smaller venue, without makeup and all the stage effects. In point of fact, I think that's how I'd prefer seeing them. Ace got up and did some songs at a Simmons solo show not long ago, and it sounded good. I still like that 70s material: I thought the 1995 Unplugged show was just fine, and it wasn't even electrified, never mind the absence of costumes and smoke bombs. The songs still held up well. I wasn't bummed out in the least that the original KISS didn't perform at the RnRHoF, because how many more times do I need to see the original four doing it "one last time, man, for the fans!" They DID that for four years in the late 1990s. I guess for some people enough is never enough, or it's never enough, or whatever.

The reality is that Peter Criss ain't coming back for a full tour, or even a full set. Shit, back in the day, Criss and Frehley were the ones I liked the most. Even so, Thayer and Singer gave that band a kick in the ass 15 years ago. Ace got lazy after the first couple years of the reunion. Criss eventually got too old to do it.

Then again, much like with Van Halen, I'm not what KISS would consider a useful current fan, in that I haven't spent nickel one on the band since the KISStory DVDs came out. Maybe some of the fans who still do spend money on the group really do care if Frehley is there or not, or maybe for the bulk of them it doesn't REALLY matter. Clearly, it hasn't mattered to those over the last decade and a half who have still attended KISS concerts, at least not to the point where it was a deal-breaker.

[Terry]

I saw them three times. 88...98...2014...maybe I take my six year old daughter as I took the older one last time. I guess they do something with Ace and/or Peter. I guess, I go...one last time.

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Actually, I think THAT reason - taking your kids to see a band you liked to get a sense of what you liked - is pretty cool, actually. And I suppose as the years go by and these bands get too old, the opportunities for doing that kind of thing are going to be less and less...unless you've recently started enjoying, say, the music of Taylor Swift...or you have become a Justin Bieber "Be-lieber/believer"...

[DavidLeeNatra]

Actually, I think THAT reason - taking your kids to see a band you liked to get a sense of what you liked - is pretty cool, actually. And I suppose as the years go by and these bands get too old, the opportunities for doing that kind of thing are going to be less and less...unless you've recently started enjoying, say, the music of Taylor Swift...or you have become a Justin Bieber "Be-lieber/believer"...

Well...there is always the Stones left...

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[Terry]

Well...there is always the Stones left...

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Yep, they're still touring sporatically. I'd say they are one of those bands worth seeing once.

[FORD]

Well... since the Stones have been mentioned in a KISS thread, now I have to post this video.....

[FORD]

Beatles Butchered covers (nope it's got nothing to do with that "rare" US album)

[silverfish]

Ace frehley could participate in your wedding

Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley is available to act as best man at your
wedding or walk the bride down the aisle – for a fee of $6,000.

The Ace Frehley Wedding Experience is offered at the Kiss Rock and Roll
Chapel in Las Vegas, tied in with the Kiss Mini Golf establishment in the
same location, during the weekend of Oct. 26-28.

More at:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/ace-frehley-wedding-entertainment/

[Nickdfresh]

[Terry]

Ace frehley could participate in your wedding

Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley is available to act as best man at your
wedding or walk the bride down the aisle – for a fee of $6,000.

The Ace Frehley Wedding Experience is offered at the Kiss Rock and Roll
Chapel in Las Vegas, tied in with the Kiss Mini Golf establishment in the
same location, during the weekend of Oct. 26-28.

More at:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/ace-f...entertainment/

Awck!