Kissing is history, but Gene Simmons is having a blast calling up his life band with the new tool he has up his sleeve. A night of kissing without being a kiss was experienced last Tuesday at the Guíxols Arena, in the wildest night to remember in the annals of Porta Ferrada.
A metal evening, yes, doubled by the previous appearance of two bands leading up to the raised fist and a sea of black shirts on the track. Motörhits, a professional tribute band, put us in a situation with a real tribute to the late Lemmy Kilmister. A tanned frontman, with his sideburns and Rickenbacker bass, and merciless assaults on Death Row, Iron Fist, and Ace of Spades. And then Opus, the band that in the 80s represented the essence of the genre’s makara metal with two of its original members, spokesman Forto, with his vocal cords in miraculous health, and guitarist Paco Laguna.
Gene Simmons’ band finally appeared, sounding compact and faithful to the Kiss sound from the early days: the distant Deuce, the crushing war machine and the rarity that deserves not to be, Are You Ready? The great bass master, with his powerful, style-defining voice, is a wandering icon, but he’s ready to offer up funny commentary in Philo-Mexican Spanish (“muchas gracias, putos pendejos”) and welcome four very young fans on stage (with their faces plastered in old-fashioned costumes) to share the powerful melody of “Love It Loud.”