Jeff Giles | Ultimate Classic Rock

At this point, it’s almost a bigger deal when a major band doesn’t rely to some extent on pre-recorded music during live performances, but it’s still kind of embarrassing when a group gets caught miming. Just ask the members of Kiss, who were forced to answer questions about what was actually “live” after a recent gig.

The band’s currently in Japan for a brief run of tour dates, and as you can see in the above clip, they’ve added their new single “Samurai Son” — one of two songs they recently collaborated on with Japanese pop group Momoiro Clover Z — to the set list. But as they told followers in a new tweet, some of what audiences are hearing isn’t being played by the guys onstage.

That announcement might seem like a bold admission from a band that’s earned the right to do whatever it wants without needing to make excuses, but as Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons quickly pointed out, the group might not have been moved to post the tweet if they hadn’t been caught. True to form, he even managed to mix some old-fashioned Simmons showmanship into his reply.

https://twitter.com/genesimmonsego/status/570215361141809152

Whatever their reasons for doing it, we applaud Kiss for ‘fessing up without being defensive about it — and that goes double for Simmons, who added in another tweet that the band “came clean and admitted it … albeit it was after we got caught and it was all over YouTube.”