KISS Perform On Late Night

The KISS promo machine rolls on. The band just performed "Love Gun" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The appearance is to promote the band's upcoming farewell tour.

The performance was just okay for me. It's been 40 years, so what can you expect? Voices change. But charging like $7,500 for a meet and greet is just insane.

Comments

[Bkallday]

Are they making ppl do the meet n greet or is it optional?

[Jeff]

That was not very good.

[Rita]

After watching 5 seconds of that, I think I will take Paul’s advice and listen to KISS ALIVE instead.

[Him]

Same story, different decade. The farewell event is a calculated one, designed to put butts in seats. You do it right, you are golden. You do it twice, you are suspect. You do it past your prime, you are looking for a final cash infusion.

I don't begrudge the thinking, even as I scratch my head. Think about it: KISS were on a major show (relatively speaking, in the fading era of late night talk shows). They got some eyeballs watching them. Some even set their DVRs. The fans will watch and give the cringey moments a pass. The others will shuffle back to the good ole days. In between, some will make a compromise.

You recall those Twilight of the Idols posts I made? The trend accelerates. So you get to say "I saw them one last time" or you get to say "I got to see them when it meant something." Either way, you are witnessing the slow, inevitable, death of the bands we loved from the 70s and 80s. And so it goes . . .

[Metalboy!]

Unless they go all Blue Man Group on us, as Stanley once suggested.

I actually think it could work. Just get different people to don the make-up and perform all over the world, simultaneously, even.

And there’s certainly no shortage of musicians who could more than fill those boots. Yeah you could get a bunch kids to do it but wouldn’t it be funnier to fill those boots with the inevitable has-verbs our other heroes are about to become?

Think Terry Ilous as Stanley, Dana Strum as $immons, Sambora as Ace and James Kottak as Peter Criss. The combinations are endless as a pipeline ad naseum from the Hair Metal scrap heap ...

$immons protegé, Jamie St. James as Stanley, Chip Z’Nuff as $immons, Steve Vai as Ace, Jason Bonham as Criss ...

Robin Zander as Stanley, Bobby Dahl as $immons, Richie Kotzen as Ace and Vikki Fox as Criss, etc., etc.

Surely it would be a badge of honor for these now nearly anonymous performers to get a second lease on life, even quasi regained notoriety.

Even better, they get to age gracefully under the Kabuki make-up and play as long as they can endure their continuing rigors of touring, maybe we’ll into their 70’s ...

Robin Beck as Stanley, Michael Anthony as $immons, Rick Nielsen as Ace (how prophetic would THAT be? Got my KISS records out!) and Bun E. Carlos as Criss.

And the cash surely couldn’t hurt.