Bands beware: KISS is back in rock music scene
Val Palmieri
Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: Opinions
They play with fire, they're loud and wear more makeup than your mother.
After a break from their 35 years on the hard rock music scene, they're back! KISS is touring again, adding Pittsburgh to their list of tour stops.
Their newly released album, "Sonic Boom" is the foundation of their tour this year. They're expected to play in Pittsburgh on Dec. 13 at Mellon Arena. The cheapest tickets are selling for about $50 a person on ticketmaster.com.
The late 1970s were huge years for the rock legend KISS. Teenagers and adults alike waited in line for hours to purchase KISS concert tickets. These now older fans are taking their own children to KISS concerts.
KISS has left huge high-heeled, platform shoe footprints on the music industry, and most notably, this presence began with their public display of pyrotechnics while on tour. Gene Simmons still breathes fire on stage to this day.
Perhaps equally as notable is the look of KISS, which has also been a part of their stage performance since the band formed. For their "Alive 35" tour, the make-up will not change, though two original members of KISS will be noticeably absent. Former members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss are no longer a part of KISS; they departed from the group in the mid-1980s. The new members of KISS are guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. KISS made it acceptable today for bands like Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and glam metal bands of the 1980s such as Poison, RATT and Mötley Crüe, to wear make-up.
KISS's music is well known. Their "Destroyer" and "Alive!" albums went gold in the 1970s. Their first live album in 1975, gained them the most notoriety among the general public with the release of "Rock And Roll All Night." Other KISS albums have earned them platinum status. KISS songs, such as "Rock And Roll All Night" and "Detroit Rock City," have also been heard in countless movie soundtracks and on radio stations.
After a break from their 35 years on the hard rock music scene, they're back! KISS is touring again, adding Pittsburgh to their list of tour stops.
Their newly released album, "Sonic Boom" is the foundation of their tour this year. They're expected to play in Pittsburgh on Dec. 13 at Mellon Arena. The cheapest tickets are selling for about $50 a person on ticketmaster.com.
The late 1970s were huge years for the rock legend KISS. Teenagers and adults alike waited in line for hours to purchase KISS concert tickets. These now older fans are taking their own children to KISS concerts.
KISS has left huge high-heeled, platform shoe footprints on the music industry, and most notably, this presence began with their public display of pyrotechnics while on tour. Gene Simmons still breathes fire on stage to this day.
Perhaps equally as notable is the look of KISS, which has also been a part of their stage performance since the band formed. For their "Alive 35" tour, the make-up will not change, though two original members of KISS will be noticeably absent. Former members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss are no longer a part of KISS; they departed from the group in the mid-1980s. The new members of KISS are guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. KISS made it acceptable today for bands like Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and glam metal bands of the 1980s such as Poison, RATT and Mötley Crüe, to wear make-up.
KISS's music is well known. Their "Destroyer" and "Alive!" albums went gold in the 1970s. Their first live album in 1975, gained them the most notoriety among the general public with the release of "Rock And Roll All Night." Other KISS albums have earned them platinum status. KISS songs, such as "Rock And Roll All Night" and "Detroit Rock City," have also been heard in countless movie soundtracks and on radio stations.
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