Dan texted me Thanksgiving morning and said Kiss was lip-synching on a flatbed trailer in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Indeed.
There’s no bottom. Not with these guys. Not anymore.
(Hey, at least they were lip-synching to a live recording.)
Several times in the 40+ year history of Kiss, they seemed to wander down a dead-end road, only to inexplicably find a power-up at the end of it. Ill-considered art rock album? Churning personnel? No problem. Makeup off. Too old to be pretty or to do a credible grunge album? No problem. Reunion. Makeup on. OK, reunion done, and the “new album” was just so-so. What now? Farewell tour. You know the drill.
It took a bit more winking and nudging, particularly as the “final” Kiss tour faded into the previous decade. But there was enough enthusiasm, and maybe just enough new material here and there, to pull it off if you didn’t look too closely (and indecorously notice that neither Ace nor Peter has been in the band since 2004).
Now, in addition to taking absolutely anything (hey guys, we’ll have a new Sonic at County Line and 72 in a few months! Want to play the grand opening?), apparently, they really are proceeding with plans to become their own tribute band. The idea is that Kiss is bigger than its members, so let’s have a high-profile television show to find the next members of Kiss! The band will go on forever!
I would say I’m surprised Gene and Paul believe this is a good and valid pursuit, but could anything really surprise me from these guys today?
My sons got their Kiss show, so I’m genuinely glad the machine rolled long enough to make that possible. Just as a cringing fan, however, I wish the farewell tour had been it, and we’d been enjoying things like Live To Win for that much longer.
Who would have ever guessed Ace Frehley would be the one to escape with his dignity?
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