"New Edition" Style KISS
By: Danny Milligan

Well, after reading numerous of the Sound Off submissions, I have to admit to having a gut-wrenching disappointment about the "band formerly known as KISS".

History of myself: first encountered Kiss in 1976, at the age of 10. Have bought EVERY album since the Elder on the day of release, bought the Ace solo albums until they started feeling like a total waste of Ace's Talent. Even bought the Vinnie Vincent albums, which shows how low someone who loves KISS will go to hear or touch anything even remotely related to KISS.

I can remember running my Aunt's phone bill through the roof at the age of 14, calling Dennis Woloch in New York to try to get any information about the band he was willing to impart.

Absolutely stunned by the reunion, and took my wife to see it. Was so in shock that I was actually in the same building with the reunited Kiss that the concert left me in a daze, and can't recall really much of the show at all.

Announcement of the Studio album, and I was in heaven.

Bought the Psycho Circus album, and was totally let down.

I have to agree with most of the critics. I have invested too much emotion and caring over the last 24 (!!!) years, to watch what is happening now. KISS is a joke. It gives me a pain in my gut to say that, because there was a time when I would defend them with a ready retort or even-readier fists. But how can you deny it now, when Gene and Paul rub your nose in it?

They have run the KISS show for so long, that they would rather run it into the ground, kill off all the true-fan support, make shitty records, then to give up even a little creative control to Peter and Ace, who, after all, helped put KISS where they are now.

Sure they should've done some of the 80's songs. A great song doesn't matter just because you didn't play on the record. Don't be like Sammy Hagar, who had to virtually be paid extra to do a Roth-era Van Halen song on stage.

KISS is (or is supposed to be) something beyond just the individuals in the band. It is a concept for the fans, that will continue beyond even the original members. When a fan goes to see a tribute band, do you think they care if it's the real thing up there? No!!! It's all about the feel and the attitude.

The best thing that could happen is for a "New Edition" style Kiss to come forth...the older members retire, and let younger, fresher (and less money-hungry) members of the KISS Army step in as replacements. If you want to see someone who is true to the original idea behind KISS, it would be a fan. They want it to remain, and don't want a lot of screwing around with the formula.

But, as I stated above, Gene and Paul would rather murder the dream than actually give the fans what they've always promised us: KISS.

The only way a fan can see KISS the way it used to be (and should have stayed), is to go see a tribute band. The tribute bands are the only ones who love the sound and feel of KISS enough to keep it clean, and keep it simple, and keep it KISS.

Let's face, Messrs. Simmons and Stanley: the Farewell Tour and retirement (or whatever it is you're doing) are the best things that could happen to KISS....get out of it, before you make all of us wish we'd never even heard of you.

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