Antonio Marino

Our friend Antonio sent us a link to an amazing photo gallery of shots he took last week at the Ace solo show in New York City.

Gallery link is HERE.

Iain Blair | Chicago Tribune

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Get out your makeup and dust off those platform boots, KISS is hitting the road again with one of the summer’s biggest concert tours, teaming up with fellow rock band Motley Crue and kicking off “The Tour” on July 20 in Virginia.

The band, with its painted faces and pyrotechnics, was among the biggest acts of the 1970s, coming out of the glam rock era with hits like “Rock and Roll All Nite” as a predecessor of 1980s the heavy metal groups that included Motley Crue. KISS guitarist and singer Paul Stanley recently spoke to Reuters about the tour, the band’s new album “Monster,” and the secret to the group’s longevity.

Q: After all these years, do you still feel pressure when you hit the road?

A: “I do. I’m very excited about it but I also know there’s a lot to live up to. We’re really up against our own reputation and the legend of what KISS is supposed to be, and that grows bigger and bigger. How much of it’s true I don’t know, but we have to live up to that.”

Q: So what can fans expect?

A: “The apocalypse! It’s a lot more than people usually get in one night. It’s being bombarded with rock ‘n’ roll. Motley’s co-headlining, and one thing we didn’t want to do was the kind of sabotage between bands that happens. We always figured, let a band go out and do the greatest show they can, and that’ll only amp us up to do what we do that much better. There’s no ego clashes, and this is another way to give fans more than just a concert – it’s an event.”

Q: What about the new album which you also produced? What can fans expect from that?

A: “‘Monster’ is done. Its heart is beating, and it’s chained down until we release it in October. I was asked if it’s a great Kiss album and I said, forget about Kiss – I truly believe it’s far beyond being a Kiss album. It’s a great album of its genre with all the elements of all the classic bands that I listened to – all the music that inspired me – The Who, the Stones, Humble Pie, (Eric) Clapton, (Jimi) Hendrix, Led Zeppelin. That’s what I grew up with, and it inspired me to create passion, chaos, something sexually aggressive that’d celebrate life. That’s a description of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Q: So many bands implode after they make it big. Do you guys still hang out together off-stage?

A: “Well, Gene Simmons lives five minutes away – I can see his ego from here (laughs). We have a great relationship, and the key is knowing its limitations. If you want a family, go have one, as a band isn’t a family. It may start out like that, but if it evolves into something else you haven’t lost anything. I told this other very famous band, well-known for all their in-fighting, ‘Look, if you make magic on stage, anything else is a bonus. Be thankful for that.'”

Q: You’ve outlasted all sorts of movements in music – punk rock, grunge rock. What’s the secret to the band’s longevity?

Continue reading →

Ultimate Guitar

Kiss have revealed some of the techniques they employed early in their career that helped them become one of the most recognizable rock acts of all time.

One trick involved tricking fans into thinking they were a busy touring band, as Paul Stanley explains:

“We had a rule that we wouldn’t play more than once every eight or 12 weeks because we wanted people to think we were busy. We were literally sitting in our loft starving and rehearsing,” Stanley told the Guardian

“[The makeup] was warpaint … makeup does not give it enough respect,” he said. “I remember seeing the Beatles as a kid and thinking there must have been a Beatle mother cos they all looked like they were connected. There’s no question that our outfits and our boot-heels and our makeup was a unique definition of who we were.”

A notable low point for the band was when they released a disastrous dance album, “The Elder“, which lost them support from critics and fans alike.

“We lost the plot. We forgot why we did this. We forgot why we got into it. And I don’t think we’ve ever forgotten that since,” said Stanley, who says it took years for the band to recover. “People abandoned us in droves, and rightfully so, because we betrayed them and we betrayed ourselves.”

The lesson? Be distinctive, fake it till you make it, and stick to your morals. Even if that happens to include putting your band on every piece of merchandise imaginable.