On March 9, 2001, Eric Singer began his second tour of duty with Kiss, performing while wearing the band’s famous “Catman” makeup for the first time at a show in Yokohama, Japan.
Original drummer Peter Criss‘ own second stint with the group, which began with the highly successful 1996 reunion tour, had ended acrimoniously a few months earlier, with Criss angrily destroying his drum kit during the last U.S. show of the original lineup’s farewell tour on Oct. 7, 2000.
Criss and Kiss were reportedly unable to come to terms on a contract extension that would enable him to perform on the 2001 Asian and Australian dates of the tour. So the band recruited Singer, who served as the group’s third drummer between 1991 and 1996, following the death of Eric Carr. (Singer and longtime guitarist Bruce Kulick then both stepped aside for the band’s full-makeup and costume reunion with Criss and original guitarist Ace Frehley.)
This final spate of 2001 Farewell Tour concerts, which began in Yokohama and ran for 15 dates through April 13 on the Gold Coast of Australia, mostly went off without a hitch. Still, the decision to have Singer wear Criss’ makeup (and two years later, to have current guitarist Tommy Thayer don Frehley’s “Spaceman” designs) caused some controversy among fans, and resulted in some sharp criticism from Criss.
Ace Frehley’s public profile may be at its highest since before he left KISS in the early ’80s. His 2014 album Space Invader cracked the top 10 on the Billboard 200, a heavy-rotation promo campaign for HBO’s Entourage used his 1978 solo track “New York Groove,” and an all-covers all-star album titled Origins Vol. 1 is highly anticipated among fans old and recent. Things have never been better for the nine-years-sober, clearheaded and down-to-Earth guitar hero, save for the lack of spare time to finish the follow-up to his 2011 autobiography No Regrets. He spoke recently to Las Vegas Magazine‘s Matt Kelemen.
It’s no surprise there were plenty of Kiss fans on hand at the Coach House on Friday night to catch the local debut of singer-guitarist Paul Stanley’s new group dubbed Soul Station. But what may have been a bit surprising to some unschooled members of the capacity crowd was not only the complete lack of any KISS classics in the set list, but the fact that “the Starchild” performed sans makeup and never even touched a guitar during the 90-minute performance.
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