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ACE FREHLEY Blows A KISS To The Past And FutureFrom: Allentown Morning Call Posted: December 28, 2007 ACE FREHLEY is a long way from wanting to rock 'n' roll all night and party every day. He still likes the ''rock 'n' roll all night'' part -- as he will prove at Allentown's Crocodile Rock on New Year's Eve-- but the partying bit has grown stale for the former KISS guitarist. ''I'm doing well,'' he says in a thick Brooklyn accent from a New York City studio, dividing his attention between answering questions and working with a guitar roadie on modifying one of his trademark special-effects Les Pauls. ''I've been clean and sober for a long time now.'' Clean and sober, maybe, but back in the rocking world for sure. He has assembled a new band -- guitarist Derek Hawkins, bassist Anthony Esposito and drummer Scott Coogan -- and is working on a new CD due for release in March or April. ''It's gonna be a special night,'' Frehley says of the Croc Rock gig, the fourth stop on his latest tour. ''We're all pumped up for it. We'll come in ready to tear the place apart. The new band really kicks [butt]. We're gonna do KISS classics, Frehley's Comet classics, new stuff. It should be a great night.'' Frehley says the intensity will be jacked up because a group of friends from New York are heading to Allentown for the show. And what about celebrating New Year's Eve afterward? ''I'll leave it a question mark for now,'' Frehley says. ''If I said I was gonna celebrate at the hotel, they'd probably be mobbed and wouldn't like that.'' Paul Daniel Frehley answered a Village Voice audition ad to become one of the founding members of KISS in 1972. KISS' combination of anthemic teen-angst rock, driving rhythms, playful fretwork and spectacular pyrotechnics were as responsible for the band's success as the trademark makeup and GENE SIMMONS' ever-uncoiling tongue and always-ready Polaroid camera (the equivalent of today's ''Tommy Lee cam''). The 56-year-old guitarist revived his Spaceman face-paint days in KISS a few months ago, when he was featured in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial. ''I was trying to get them to sponsor the tour, man,'' he says (and you just know he isn't joking). ''It was a lot of fun to do.'' Coincidentally, Frehley's tour is kicking off just after last week's DVD release of ''Kissology: Volume Three 1992-2000.'' ''I didn't even know it was going on,'' Frehley says of the latest KISS concert release. ''Nobody checked with me. It's a mystery to me. I didn't get a … phone call. They didn't confer with me. Gene always takes the ball and rolls with it. ''It used to [tick] me off, but I've been away from [Kiss] for five years, so it's like water off my back. I'm excited about the new band, the new tour. As long as I get my [royalty] checks [from KISS record sales] … .'' Frehley says the buzz about his upcoming album is that it harkens back to the days of his first solo effort, ''ACE FREHLEY,'' the only commercially successful of four solo albums released by the members of KISS in 1978. Frehley's hit from that album, ''New York Groove,'' is included in the new Kissology concert DVD set. He is also responsible for writing ''Cold Gin,'' a song that became an anthem among teen drinkers in the mid-1970s. ''And I didn't even drink gin then,'' he quips. The new KISS DVD also features the band performing ''Detroit Rock City'' at the Palace of Auburn Hills. ''We opened up the reunion tour in Detroit,'' Frehley says. ''That was a rush, man. It was sold out. It was insane. Detroit has always been an excellent audience for us. We were headlining larger venues in Detroit when everywhere else around the country, we were still playing smaller venues. People thought we were from Detroit for a while, we were so popular there. ''But that's the past,'' he adds. ''It was all good stuff. Now I'm doing my own thing and I hope everybody enjoys it.'' ACE FREHLEY, with Broken Frame, 8 p.m. Monday, Crocodile Rock, 520 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, 610-434-4600, http://www.crocodilerockcafe.com. Tickets: $25; $30 day of show. |
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