News Archive July 2011
From: Morning Call
by John J. Moser
Posted: July 8, 2011
With the rock band KISS coming to Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center in Bushkill, Pike County, on July 13, fans have quite a show to look forward to, the band's demon-faced bassist, Gene Simmons, says.
"What you have to look forward to is KISS," Simmons said in a recent telephone interview. "And if that doesn't say it all. I mean, we're the ones who changed the live concert experience, period."
There's little argument that, with the emergence of KISS in the mid 1970s, concerts expanded from exclusively musical to a show experience. With its members wearing painted faces and costumes, fire breathing and shooting, Simmons spitting blood and more, KISS clearly changed the concert paradigm.
"Absolutely," Simmons says. "Basically we strapped our boot heels down - our platform boot heels down - and said, 'You paid a lot of money for this concert, you deserve more than me sitting with an acoustic guitar on a Persian carpet and lighting incense'"
"So whether you see Gaga or McCartney or anybody else live, and they're using pyro and effects, where do you think that comes from - The Oak Ridge Boys?"
Simmons promises a similar experience when KISS hits the stage at Mountain Laurel.
