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From: Burrn Magazine/KISSOnline One of the great things about TOMMY THAYER is that he’s just not only in KISS but he’s also a huge KISS fan from way back when who can give you dates, times and places of historical KISS events without having to think about it and that is one of the things that makes this interview so enjoyable! Tommy is without a doubt a KISS historian and so was given as his first job in working for KISS to be the photo editor for the KISSTORY book. That job wasn’t much of a job to Tommy because he was honored to be asked to do such a thing! His passion runs so deep that he was the only logical choice to replace ACE FREHLEY in 2002. Of course, being able to play guitar, being in a KISS tribute band and knowing every KISS song didn’t hurt either! Tommy is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s very laid back and great to talk to as his passion for KISS runs through his veins like raging river waters. He’s also open to talk just about anything and more instead of some occasional stock answers that you may get with Gene or Paul. JH: We haven’t talked in a long time and I know you’ve been in the band what, three years now? TT: Three or four years depending on when you officially consider my first show to be. JH: Wasn’t it Australia with the KISS Symphony show? TT: Officially yes, but technically I had done a couple of things the year prior in 2002; I did a concert in Jamaica, which was a private party and was the first time I was actually up there doing a show in makeup and costume. We did a couple of TV things too, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand 50th Anniversary show and That 70’s Show appearance. You know 2002 was a year that KISS really didn’t tour and there was some one-off stuff here and there so in a way it was an easy way to break into the band and get a chance to grow out my hair (laughs) because by 2003 of course we did KISS Symphony and then we started the KISS/Aerosmith tour in the summer and that went through the rest of the year. So by then I was starting to feel at home and feel comfortable because in the beginning it was like, oh my God! just the shock of actually doing this combined with the fact that you’re filling some pretty big shoes, some pretty tall shoes too and so it’s just kind of mind boggling to begin with. And now I look back on that KISS Symphony show, there was a lot of pressure there to begin with and I was a little nervous then, let alone the fact that it was being filmed for a DVD, recorded for a live album with a huge crowd of 40,000 people in a stadium, with a symphony and doing acoustic tunes and all these intricate harmonies and vocal stuff, so it was a little overwhelming, but overall now I’m feeling comfortable with it. JH: You’ve always been a KISS fan, you grew up with the band so tell the fans in Japan what it’s like to put on the makeup and the suit and go to work? I mean, you’re wearing the authentic real deal. It’s not Halloween and it’s not COLD GIN. TT: It’s hard to describe because it’s such a sacred thing, especially to the KISS aficionados and the fans and stuff. It really is one of those things where you just can’t believe that you’re doing it, to tell you the truth. It’s better than Christmas when you’re a kid. I did have a little experience with it ten years prior in COLD GIN that actually helped a bit and made things easier and a bit more comfortable for me in terms of learning how to put makeup on and getting into a KISS costume and moving around in it all. As I’m sitting in the dressing room putting makeup on with Gene and Paul and Eric and Peter, also the first year there, and you just ask yourself, "Is this all a crazy dream?" How many KISS fans would love to be in this position? JH: So was there a mental part of that where you realized it is sacred and had second thoughts? TT: A little bit, but to be honest with you, I grew up on KISS, I’m just as much of a fan as anybody and if I was sitting off to the side, I may think the same thing and I am conscious of that. It is a little bizarre, but you have to look at the bigger picture and realize that it’s not 1975 anymore. It’s good in a lot of ways that you can have a viable band now that can really play and do the classic show and wear the costumes and KISS fans are able to go out and see the show with the same energy that it had in the beginning. JH: Do the fans hassle you about being in Ace’s makeup? TT: The vast majority of the people see KISS up there and a lot of the younger ones don’t know if it’s Ace or whoever. It’s just that is the lead guitarist with that makeup on and then for some of the older fans yeah, some of them aren’t comfortable with it and they say that it’s not cool or think that fundamentally it’s the wrong thing to be doing, that I should have my own makeup or the band shouldn’t be wearing makeup at all. Most all fans are very supportive. JH: Your playing is great and what a lot of our younger readers may not know is that you are the one who actually taught Ace his parts again when the reunion happened back in ’95, ’96. TT: Over the years with his solo bands, he seemed to have slowly got off the path of the original classic signature KISS parts, which is fine, but when it came time to do the Reunion tour Paul and Gene wanted the band to sound and be faithful to the original parts that were recorded and played originally, because that’s what everybody knows and loves. So they asked me to come in and help Ace and Peter on separate occasions with some of the things that they were doing and help them get back on track with those signature parts. JH: So you actually helped make the band more authentic again. TT: I grew up on KISS ALIVE, that album in particular, and obviously Ace was a big influence on me so I tried to learn all of that stuff to begin with when I was a kid, so it’s been in my conscience for a long time. When they played on The Midnight Special on television at 11:30 at night before we had video recorders, I had my little cassette recorder up against the TV so I could hear the audio over and over. It was exciting just to listen back to the audio in those days so I studied that stuff just because I loved it. So when they started playing together again it un-jarred me because I said that you’ve got to play the classic parts, this is really important! I’m not taking credit for everything, but I did push for the signature stuff. JH: Was there ever a time when they were together onstage that you were backstage playing Ace’s classic parts out of sight while he was onstage? TT: No. JH: Wasn’t Ace late a couple of times to shows and you------ TT: On the Farewell Tour in 2000, we had just had a week off and the first show back was at Irvine Meadows here in Southern Cal. Ace was back in New York at home and he was supposed to come out the day before because we had a rule that nobody should be flying across the country the day of a show; it’s just too risky, tickets are sold and so on. At that time I was road managing, so of course the day before, I get Ace a car and I had to monitor these things; it was like constantly every half hour monitoring progress or no progress. So I’d be calling the car company and they’d tell me, we’re here at the residence in front, we’re waiting and he’s supposed to be coming out any time now. Then I’d call back and they’d tell me, we haven’t seen him, he hasn’t come out. I was calling him and leaving him messages - your car is out there and you have to get in it now because you’re going to miss the flight! So anyway he never made it out, I don’t know why but he just never made it out of the house into the car. So we were kind of screwed and then I finally got him on the phone, "Ace, you’ve got to promise me that you’re going to get on this flight in the morning." He was like okay, okay, I promise and then the same thing happened again! Is he coming out of the house yet? No, on and on and so he missed that morning flight too. The noon flight, same thing, I didn’t know what was going on but he just was not responding. So now I started to get really nervous because there was only one more flight that afternoon that would get Ace into LA in just enough time to get in a car, if everything went like clockwork, that would get him down to Irvine and to the show. So I said, "Ace, this is do or die on this one, it’s got to happen." So I called the car company and they say, uh, he hasn’t come out yet and Ace, I tell him on the phone, you’ve got to get in the car and so FINALLY, he came out of his house and got in the car and was on his way to the airport, so I felt a little relief. I’m the one who is responsible, because if he screws it all up I’m the road manager and everybody is going to be looking at me like, what the hell? Like, how come you couldn’t make this happen even though they kind of understood (laughs) who we’re dealing with here. So okay finally he’s on his way to the airport and this is good but that was the most crucial thing, just getting him out of the house and into the car; that was the biggest struggle. So I’m resting a little easy and I’m getting into my car to drive down to Irvine because now it’s that afternoon. So I’m driving along and my phone rings and it’s our travel agent. She says, "Well Tommy, I just want to call you and give you an update: I’ve got some good news and some bad news and she asked me, what do you want to hear first?" JH: (laughing hysterically) TT: And I said let's hear the good news first. So she said well the good news is that Ace made it to the airport and he’s on his plane and I was like, well that’s good! Then she says, but the bad news is the plane has a mechanical and they’re just sitting there and they don’t know how long it will be before the plane can take off. It might be an hour or two before they can even leave and I was thinking, this is not good because we were just shaving by, by the skin of our teeth to begin with and now the plane is still sitting in New York! By now it's 3 in the afternoon, so I called Doc and told him the deal, I explained the whole situation that Ace was still in New York and Doc goes, well Tommy, get down there, get suited up, you’re going on tonight. I was like oh man, I haven’t really rehearsed and I haven’t done this in awhile but I thought that I could possibly pull it off. JH: (laughing) At Irvine Meadows? TT: Yes, at Irvine Meadows. JH: (laughing more) TT: I’m driving to Irvine and I’m thinking, oh my God! I called Paul and Gene and explained the situation and they were immediately like, no, you’re playing tonight, that’s it; we’re not going to cancel the show! So I get down there and the wardrobe girls are right on me fitting, taking one of his outfits and kind of getting it all fitted up for me, we’re working on the makeup and all this stuff and then I was all ready to go. In the meantime, Ace's flight finally got going and when he arrived at LAX, we had arranged a helicopter for Ace from LAX down to Irvine Meadows’ parking lot. So he shows up about 15 minutes before the band is supposed to be going on because the opening act had already played and Doc said, "Ace, you’ve got 20 minutes to put your makeup and costume on!" It was weird when Ace walked into the dressing room I was sitting there all made up all ready to go and he just looked at me and said very casually, "Hey Tommy!" and didn’t even blink an eye, just typical Ace. To make a long story short, Doc postponed the show and the band finally went on about 40 minutes late or something and it was a close call. In early 2002, KISS was going to play at the Salt Lake City closing ceremonies for the winter Olympics. They weren’t going to really play, just lip-sych, but nonetheless it was a huge deal because you literally had billions of people watching this thing and it was important. (laughs) So it just so happens (laughs) that the week before that I had been given a long-awaited vacation to go to Hawaii. So I was there in Hawaii with my family and I’m sitting in Maui relaxing and Doc calls me and says, "Hey Tommy, I hate to tell you this, but you’re going to have to fly directly to Salt Lake City right now because Ace might be a no-show at the Olympics thing and we can’t cancel this, it’s too important, it’s too big of a deal." So I took a red-eye to Salt Lake after being in Hawaii only three days. So I get there the day before for the rehearsals, so I do that and sure enough the next morning here comes Ace walking in again at the very last minute. He did the show and everything, but I was kind of pissed off because it had just ruined my whole vacation. Actually Ace pulled me aside and he said, "Hey, I just wanted to apologize," he said that he was sorry and that he didn’t mean to screw up my whole vacation. He was nice about it, but then two weeks later the Jamaica thing was happening, a big private show down there, a big deal, and Doc calls me and says, "Ace isn't doing the show, so you’re just going to have to go do it. Gene, Paul and I all talked and they were saying, you’re doing it, Ace is not going to be there and we’re not going to cancel. So that was the beginning for me and it just got to the point with Ace, you never knew what was going to happen. JH: Have you spoken with Ace since you took his place in KISS? TT: No, I haven’t. I’ve actually exchanged some messages though. For instance I was talking to Ed Trunk (host of TV’s Metal Mania and also a rock deejay in New York) one day about a year and a half ago and he said that he was going to see Ace, and I told him to tell Ace that I said hey. Then when Ace was on Ed’s show at Christmas time he said that if anybody was replacing him then Tommy was the right guy. So he kind of has been approving; in a certain sense. And to be honest with you, Ace is a funny guy and I always enjoyed being around him particularly back when we were doing the tours because I was with him everyday for about six years. I like him, he’s very personable, just a cool guy to hang out with. JH: I’m a KISS fan but not as big a fan as you are but on this new DVD that was just released in Japan ROCK THE NATION! I was surprised to see Gene breathing fire in a song called "War Machine," which I had never heard of before. He always does that fire-breathing bit in "Firehouse." TT: "War Machine" was an attempt on our part to just try and vary the set list a little bit, particularly with the song that showcases Gene and his fire stuff, which he did it at the end of "War Machine," particularly because "God Of Thunder" has really been overdone in the past six or eight years. JH: So is that something that you brought up to Gene and Paul? TT: No, I think it was Gene's idea. I've got more involved in song selections with ERIC SINGER as well, he’s very verbal about that. We'd say, "Hey guys, let’s play some cool older stuff and mix it up a little bit." I think that it's good because you don’t want to keep playing those same songs over and over and over. But then it’s also kind of difficult to decide what songs to do, because you’ve got the classic KISS songs like "Detroit Rock City" and "Deuce" that are KISS standards, the ones that you really have to do. So it’s not like you say, okay we’re going to play "Room Service", and then "Kissin’ Time" because there are the people who want to hear "Shout It Out Loud" and "Detroit Rock City". Hard core fans want to mix it up more. Somebody suggested that we play the entire Elder album for one concert, and I said, "Are you sure about that?" JH: Earlier you were talking about putting on the makeup and I seem to remember at (N. Hollywood rock club) FM Station, COLD GIN was playing and Gene and Paul was there and actually applied your makeup for you back then. Didn't they do that for you? TT: Well they came to a couple of shows out there and it was the first few times that we were doing COLD GIN. It was a lot of fun and I think they got a big kick out of it. You've got to remember back then, there hardly were any tribute bands around. There were a couple of other tribute bands around the state, not so much around Los Angeles. I remember that Gene and Paul came backstage and Anthony White, the guy who played Paul, asked them a question about the makeup. So then of course Paul grabbed a brush and showed him the technique, so that was cool. They both gave a few makeup tips. It was fresh and new back then but then it got to a point where (laughs); I remember that I was sitting at home one day and I get this phone call and it’s both Gene and Paul on the line and they said that they'd like to talk with me for a second. Cool. They said it was great that I was doing this KISS tribute thing but they had noticed a full-page ad that COLD GIN was soon appearing at the Celebrity Theater in Anaheim, an Avalon Productions Presents, KISS/Coca-Cola Concert Series. You know, all of a sudden this thing was starting to explode and we were doing larger theatre concerts, not just a show at FM Station. Paul has a delicate way of saying things and he said, "Tommy you know, you're such a great guitarist that it would probably make more sense for you to do a band of your own or something; you should put this time and energy into a band of your own. They were very nice about it, but it was becoming too big of a deal and then all of a sudden, we were offered a Japanese tour. Ironically, COLD GIN was just getting some guys together to play some KISS songs for fun and kicks and it wasn't important, it didn't matter, so we had a whole different attitude about it. I had more fun doing that band than any other group I've ever been in. JH: So were the Japan dates the last thing COLD GIN ever did? TT: I think so. Japan was kind of the last hurrah, but we did do a couple other shows after that; we got invited to do a New Year’s Eve show or Halloween thing here and there down the line for the next year. We just kind of phased it out and by that time I was offered a part-time job with these guys, starting out with KISSTORY and then all of this other stuff, so I was getting busier. JH: I remember when BLACK N’ BLUE left LA and flew to Germany and did your record, it seemed like you guys were gone for like two years. The band was the biggest thing around, and by the time you came back to LA and everybody was like, who are these guys? There were like 100 bands that got signed after you. TT: I know, the timing was bad - here’s what happened: We made a big splash, we had moved down from Portland in early 1983. But we made a big splash in the clubs here, playing the Troubadour, the Whisky, the Roxy and by June or July of 1983 John Kalodner (Geffen Records) came to a show at the Troubadour and signed us, so we were ahead of the curve so to speak; I mean, there was MOTLEY CRUE and QUIET RIOT as you know, but as far as the slew of RATTS and GREAT WHITES and BLACK N’ BLUES and all these bands, we were the first one to get a deal. So we were thinking about producers and of course with Kalodner he said we had to have the right producer, so somehow we ended up thinking that we wanted DIETER DIERKS to produce. Okay fine, but he was finishing up ACCEPT’s "Ball's To The Wall" and he wasn't going to be available until the following January so we said that we'd wait. It was a mistake. We should have gotten a BEAU HILL here in town and recorded right away, immediately and got it out, but we dicked around and went to Germany and did this whole thing. We were gone too long and it didn't come out until a year later in late 1984 and by that time RATT and all these other bands had albums coming out and they were doing well. By the time ours came out, it just got lost in shuffle. It just wasn't very smart timing. JH: Didn't you guys also appear on Slagel’s METAL MASSACRE I? TT: That was the first record that we were ever on. A guy named Brian Slagel had this fanzine called the NEW HEAVY METAL REVIEW, that really focused a lot on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, all the bands coming out of England and Europe back in ’82, bands like IRON MAIDEN and even early DEF LEPPARD and ANGEL WITCH----all those bands. So I had sent him a demo tape of "Chains Around Heaven" and a couple of our early songs that we demoed in Portland and he said it was pretty good and wanted to put it on his METAL MASSACRE album, which was essentially a compilation of demos from young West Coast bands. Brian ended up doing very well with Metal Blade Records. That was our first experience of being on an album and that was about a year before we moved to LA. JH: How long have you known GENE SIMMONS? TT: I've known Gene for almost 25 years. The first time I actually met him I was in BLACK N’ BLUE; we had just come out with our first album and we all went down to Long Beach Arena to see KISS play with QUEENSRYCHE opening up. It was the ANIMALIZE tour and BRUCE KULICK was new in the band. We were lucky enough to get backstage for a meet n’ greet before the show and Paul and Gene walked in and we were introduced and that was a big thrill for us. When we were introduced to Gene he said, "Black 'N Blue, oh, good band, good band." Then about six months later we came out with our second album "Without Love" and our manager Warren Entner called me and said that we were going to be opening up for KISS on the ASYLUM tour starting in a month and that was so unbelievable to me. We got on tour with KISS and that’s when I started getting to know them. We were really intimidated by Gene because he kind of comes off with that whole aura of intimidation, which he does on purpose just to keep people off guard. The first night was Little Rock, Arkansas and the next show was in Nashville or Memphis. Jaime and I were sitting out in the arena watching their sound check and Gene walked offstage afterwards and started walking over towards us and we were like, oh----here comes Gene. So he came over and asked us how we were doing and then said that he had one little thing to talk about: he says, your intro------we had this intro that was like (in a deep, gruff voice) ALL RIGHT------FROM LOS ANGELES-----BLACK N’ BLUE!!!! Some kind of thing like that and he goes, there’s something about your intro; it kind of reminds me of this band that’s been around since about 1902 and it’s too similar to their intro and it would be a good idea if maybe you guys changed that up a little bit and we were like sure, no problem. JH: Didn't he produce your second album? TT: No, BRUCE FAIRBAIRN did, but then on the third and fourth albums Gene produced. We actually opened for KISS for about two months of that tour. By that time we were already working on demos for our third album; and we hadn't picked a producer, but we were thinking that we wanted to get a little rawer edge to the third album because the second album was a little too slick. We called Gene and asked him if he'd interested in listening to our new demos because we were looking for a new producer and he said, I'd love to hear your demos, he said, "I've got a big mouth, I'll tell you what I think." After the show in Las Vegas, we all went up to Gene’s suite at Caesar’s Palace and that’s when we asked him if he'd be interested in producing, and he agreed to do it. JH: I remember reading where BLACK N’ BLUE did a reunion album a few years ago. TT: Yeah, we recorded a live show up in Portland eight or nine years ago now and it was released as a live album on a small label I started with my brother called Eon Records. We released a few things up there in Portland including that Black 'N Blue live album, a band called GENERATOR, which we signed to EPIC and we also signed Portland-native DAN REED, but he never finished the record (laughs). JH: I want to talk about the ROCK THE NATION DVD. I understand that you produced it. TT: I've been fortunate to do about three or four of the KISS DVD’s now, not just this one. After the reunion tour I did the SECOND COMING, the double-set I produced/edited. And a couple of VH-1 documentaries I've done; THE LAST KISS, which was a pay-per-view that came out in 2000 on the Farewell Tour, I did that; uh, and KISS SYMPHONY. JH: How did you get into that? TT: I tell you it was really just by accident. When I was in high school I use to take my 35 mm camera to all of the concerts in Portland and I even took my dad’s movie camera to a lot of them, because back then you could just walk in with it. So I just walked in and was standing up front with my dad’s super-8 movie camera and there was no security up there, nobody cared. So I've always been into media and film, never went to school for it, but I've always been around it. When we were organizing the KISS Conventions in 1995, Paul said that he was going to put together a TV ad and he asked me to come down and help. Since we did the KISS Conventions ourselves, that’s when I really started working full time with these guys because I was kind of the tour director or the tour manager and I helped Gene and Paul put the whole thing together. So I met Paul at a video-editing studio and I had never been in a video editing session before and I thought it was real interesting. And then typical Paul says, "Oh I've got to get going, I've got an appointment, so here Tommy, you finish it; you know what to do." That was essentially it! Just take over and it was about halfway done and I said this would be cool here, that would be cool there and I just kind of started rolling with it so I finished that little TV ad. Then as we began to do other video stuff all of a sudden I was put into the default position of taking care of it. It’s always come out okay or pretty cool. JH: Is this what you really have always wanted? Did you think about it? TT: No, no. You hear people talk about their five-year plan or their ten-year plan and that kind of stuff never made sense to me. And maybe it’s because I didn't have a five-year plan (laughs) because I never roll with that kind of thing. First of all, philosophically, if you're thinking, oh in ten years I want to be doing this, I think that can be counter-productive because all of a sudden you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself to make these huge strides. I just think that things happen more naturally when you just take things with short-term goals, like what do you want to be doing a month from now or want do you want to accomplish. I've always approached things like that, just little steps towards something and then all of a sudden you end up in some kind of weird thing and you're in KISS all of a sudden or something. Secondly, being in KISS was never my intention at all and to be honest with you after BLACK N’ BLUE and a couple of other bands that I was in and out I thought screw this, I want to make a successful living, I want to have some money in my life and playing guitar is such a long shot. You know most musicians just struggle along, so that’s why I wanted to work more behind the scenes and get into more management, production and stuff. Working with KISS just started out as a part-time job in 1993-94 working on the KISSTORY book kind of as a photo editor, I just felt it was something that I was interested in and it was better than when I worked in construction there for about a year because I had to make ends meet! I was just happy to have a job. So I started working part-time for Gene and Paul literally doing anything and it wasn't even KISS-oriented to begin with. I remember being over at Paul’s and he said, we need you to go through these photos for KISSTORY and I thought that it was amazing looking at all these great KISS photos and picking things out. But then he'd say, hey, but tomorrow come over a little early because I'm painting my bedroom so would you help me paint the house (laughs)? One day I was at Gene’s and literally he said, my gutter is stuffed, could you get up there and take out the leaves? So I was just doing anything and why not? Over the next few years I guess I proved that I was just hard-working, very dedicated and on time, plus I knew KISS so they knew that here’s a guy that we can have work for us that can help solve a lot of these things or coordinate or do these projects because he knows KISS inside/out and he’s a really hard worker so it was kind of a natural thing. That’s how it all evolved. We did KISSTORY and then the KISS Conventions started. The whole concept was to do this Star Trek type of fan convention that the band would appear at, and do a Q & A and do an unplugged set - it was all new. We put together a KISS museum that included all the original KISS outfits, and it happened in major city ballrooms, we organized it and did it all ourselves, an in-house thing. I just happened to be there at the right time and they said, here, you go to every city and setup the ballrooms at the Hiltons and all of a sudden it was more than a full-time job. I was working almost 20 hours a day, but I loved it because it was enjoyable and interesting to me. It wasn’t like work; it was just doing KISS stuff. When the reunion happened the next year (1996) and it kind of took off from there, working my way up the ladder, but there was no big goal to be the guitarist in KISS. JH: You were in HARLOW. TT: Yeah, HARLOW, SHAKE THE FAITH and also before HARLOW was a band called AMERICAN MAN with TODD JENSEN and a couple of other guys. It was all around ’89, ’90, ’91, just trying to find a place to go kind of. I was trying to make something happen, which is difficult, trying to get another record deal and so on. Music was changing too as you know and things just weren't popping and that’s why it was great to have a job working for these guys by ’93, ’94. JH: What is your favorite stuff to play? TT: Probably the early stuff, more like the first two or three albums up to KISS ALIVE, that’s my favorite stuff; "100,000 Years". I mean I love playing all the other stuff like "Detroit Rock City" but my heart, really to begin with, is in that early stuff so anything off of the first three albums is just real special. It’s funny though because one of my other favorite songs to play is "God Gave Rock And Roll To You" JH: So what’s your favorite part of the show, walking out at the beginning, the encore with the confetti coming down, what? TT: There is always a real magic right when you come out onstage, just that initial excitement. There is something really urgent and exciting about when the curtain drops and you're running out there and a huge crowd going crazy. I felt the same feeling the very first time I was ever onstage when I was 14 or 15 years old playing at the junior high school dance. There is something about being onstage and walking out there when you've got a crowd that’s into it, it’s really a magical thing, it’s a rush. We haven't been on tour for a while and when you're away from that you kind of miss it. JH: As a fan what has been your favorite stage or production? TT: I think my favorite is the Farewell Tour, which up till now and what we did on the last tour was very similar, but we put video monitors in where some of the guitar cabinets were and I think since 2000 it’s my favorite KISS set because it's huge. It’s got three-tiers with all 4 x 12 cabinets and now we have video screens mixed in with the cabinets and I think it’s most impressive. There is a huge video screen in the middle, two KISS signs - It’s the most massive and impressive-looking set. Some people might say, oh I love the LOVEGUN set from ’77 but what's interesting is if you really look at a video or old photos, it’s not that big. People remember it as huge with the staircases that lit up and it did look great, but it wasn't as big in real life as people remember it. The lighting wasn't anything more than a basic box truss with about 100 lights. For the time it might have been amazing but compared to the production today it’s really a popcorn fart. |
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