OK so Tuesday I went to the Rodeo to see Kiss. The thing is I’m not that much of a Kiss fan. Sure there are some good 
songs – Detroit Rock City, Rock and Roll All Night, Strutter, and the utterly ridiculous Love Gun. That stuff is all fun but Kiss never ever hit me like say Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Black Flag, The Minute Men, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Replacements, or a host of other bands. Those bands were bands that somehow resonated with me on some real level – the way music is supposed to when it’s at its best – but Kiss to me was always like the cotton candy of bands. Sure, it’s fun and who doesn’t like it but it is hardly a full meal. Seeing Kiss at the rodeo I thought might have a chance of changing that perception but it really didn’t – they were just as cotton candy as I remembered but that wasn’t really a bad thing.
In some ways, this was about as good a Kiss experience you will get nowadays as the band lumbers on in it’s cash cow nostalgia phase. No Peter Criss and no Ace Frehley but the band had good enough sense to have some no-name hacks fill in their boots with the appropriate make-up. In a way that kind of sucked and in a way it didn’t. On the one hand even I, a casual Kiss fan, wanted the real thing behind the make-up but on the other hand I’m glad that the band realized that’s what the fans wanted and keeping Cat Man and Spaceman on the stage in some form was a recognition of their importance.
As for the Music. Well shit, they played a few crappy 80′s songs but they pretty much stuck to their strengths – the good 70′s material and a whole lot of fireworks. I mean I think they had more pyrotechnics than many Fourth of July celebrations because when you are playing to a sold-out football stadium, pyro is a good bet. One thing I gotta give Kiss points on was their shameless pandering to the audience. I don’t mean that in a bad way – in fact, it was horribly endearing. Paul Stanley complimented our hospitality, our women, and just about everything you could think of over the course of the night and, while we knew it was schtick, we graciously screamed out approval back. Shameless? Maybe. Excellent showmanship? Definitely. And it being Kiss, they had to go the additional nine yards and bring out troops and the American flag and have the audience recite the pledge of allegiance with them. Sadly, the person to my left did not appreciate my doing it in a falsetto metal voice but whatever; Paul Stanley had been doing that shtick all night and I figured it was my turn.
By the end of the short set ( I swear it seemed like 30 minutes, maybe 45 tops), we streamed out with all the wild gaggle of fans from all walks of life – kids, teens, parents, Metal dudes, Country folk, city folk, painted up folks, etc. – all in good spirits. Cotton candy? Sure, but again there is nothing wrong with that. The world needs it cotton candy because tomorrow there would be more horrible stories coming from Japan or the Middle East but for one night you could forget all that and that I think is the beauty of Kiss.
Thanks, Gene and Paul
‘ppreciate ya.
I can’t believe I’m even about to type this, but here we go. You started it, anyway.
Kiss already tried using different guys with different makeup, and that wasn’t exactly a huge success. Since all they are at this point is a traveling nostalgia sideshow, why rock the boat? (Rock, get it?) Their first couple of albums were actually pretty good. Man, I can’t believe I actually said that, either. I think I need my head examined.
Had I been there I no doubt would have enjoyed myself, even though I find both of those guys to be something close to the embodiment of turds in tights. I know several Kiss fanatics, but I personally got over that in like fifth grade, because, you know, zzzzzzzz.
Either way, I imagine you did have a good time, and that’s pretty much why anyone would go see them, no? Their motives for still doing it are a little more, ahem, practical, though; which in itself is okay, I guess. Something has to pay for all those facelifts!
I think these guys still get a kick out of doing it. Both of them probably have plenty of money already – from the merch and licensing alone. I used to think that these nostalgia acts were strictly for the bucks but as I’ve gotten older I think a lot of it just has to do with the fact that they’ve done it their whole lives, and they couldn’t really do anything else that would be as fun. Some guys try a different shtick, like Sting or whatever, but seriously, if you woke up one morning and discovered you were Paul Stanley, you’d probably be pretty stoked that you were still a rock & roll star even though you’d had a hip replacement (no lie). I’m less cynical about this stuff than I used to be, partly because I am getting closer to the Senior Citizen Circuit every day myself.
Of course, there is Aerosmith to counter my argument…
Yeah, I think yr right Kilian; I doubt that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are purely cold robots solely out to make a buck. I mean sure they ARE out to make a buck but it’s pretty hard to get out there and do that as much as they do without having some love for what they do. I’m sure it’s pretty fun to play for 70,000 fellow AARP members, their kids, ironic hipsters, Guitar Hero fans, and everyone else. They are just out to entertain. Simply put, you don’t go out to a Kiss show expecting soemthing heavy or deep – well, with the exception of the one dude in Peoria who really dug The Elder – you go to just be entertained.
And sure while we had a good time, I have to admit that if the tickets weren’t free, I wouldn’t have gone for sure but all I’m saying is vaccuous entertainment by “turds in tights” has it’s place in the world and I’d argue the world is a just little better for it.
Uh, Ramon, he’s not Kilian.
you sure? sounds just like that dirty bastard.
Oh right, sorry…that’s Clintoid…
Kind of hard to keep track of all the pseudonyms sometimes.
I have no idea who several of the pseudonyms are around here, so that was educational.
Presumably you knew who Aging Scenester was though? Since you play in a band together?
Nope. He keeps pretty mum about his online presence, for the most part. A man of secrets, that fellow is.
Damn, I thought I was Charlie!!