Author Archives: Steve Stierwalt

Gene Simmons names the best live band of all time: “Nobody’s like them”

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What makes a good live show? Is it the sound quality? The atmosphere? The pyrotechnics? The audience interaction? The setlist? According to Gene Simmons, the ultimate defining quality of live excellence is how the band holds itself—if it ignores what others are doing and focuses on everything it has to offer, that’s when the true magic happens.

Of course, many Kiss fans will likely argue that this is precisely the appeal of their favourite band. With their energetic and visceral on-stage presence, it’s hard to find anyone that did it like Kiss. In fact, this exact calibre of uniqueness garnered them legions of fans, even if their sound and image seemed off-putting or artificial for some in the beginning.

But a live show isn’t just about whether a band stands out. It’s in their attitude, their silent ability to shun critics, and their unspeakable prowess under the spotlight, the kind that says: “We’re all here together for one night of fun, why not enjoy it?” According to Simmons, there’s only one band that holds this kind of magnitude on the platform, and that’s AC/DC.

AC/DC has been enjoying a widely popular run of live shows lately, which just goes to show that, five decades on, they hold the same type of appeal. Simmons’ love for the band runs deep, mostly because he witnessed their trajectory as a band that went from putting in all the work to one that couldn’t have slowed down if they tried.

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Gene Simmons pays a visit to Wisconsin’s Northwoods to celebrate grand opening of newest Rock & Brews (and again stops for ice cream)

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WABENO – Gene Simmons is becoming something of a Wisconsin northwoods regular, and even in the leather pants and rock star cowboy boots, he fits right in.

The KISS legend was back at Potawatomi Casino Hotel Carter on Tuesday to open the newest and 25th Rock & Brews restaurant in the franchise he co-founded with bandmate Paul Stanley.

He hammed it up with local media, swiping microphones and flipping up the collars of his interviewers, and sat down with Green Bay’s WIXX-FM morning show co-hosts Huggie, Natalie & Corey for a chat minus the usual radio questions.

He posed for photos with the kitchen staff, members of the Forest County Potawatomi Community color guard, kids in KISS makeup and T-shirts, elders with walkers and “every person on the planet” at the invite-only ceremony. He signed KISS memorabilia, did the honors of the ribbon-cutting with a pair of giant scissors and impromptu danced to Prince’s “1999” in between meet and greets like only he can.

“He could do it all”: Gene Simmons names the greatest guitarist of all time

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Just when everyone thought The Beatles had done all that could be done with rock music, the 1970s arrived. Following the momentous hippie phase of the late 1960s, this new decade was marked by more anarchistic countercultural revolutions in the punk wave alongside progress in the realms of heavy metal, glam rock and prog-rock. Somewhere amid this chaos was the New York City glam metal group Kiss.

In the early 1960s, rock bands mostly stuck to dark suits, later embracing colourful, fluffy jackets and shoulder-length hair in the psychedelic era. By the time the 1970s rolled around, glam rockers like David Bowie and Marc Bolan operated at the fashion vanguard, the former with colourful flare suits and orange hair and the latter with a fetching stovepipe hat and cheek glitter.

Taking heed of such developments in style and showmanship, Kiss made icons of themselves by layering their faces with white makeup and elaborate suits that developed throughout the years. As bassist Gene Simmons unravelled his six-inch tongue on stage before tearing into an early hit like ‘Deuce’, there could be no mistaking who stood on stage.

Behind all the glitz and glam, however, Kiss were serious about their craft and prided themselves on innovative composition. Invariably, their music was hard-hitting, inspired by early metal innovators like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, with an appreciation of catchy bass hooks and uptempo rhythm guitar work.

As the band’s co-lead vocalist, prolific songwriter and bassist, Simmons relied on inspiration from all corners of the musical map. As a bassist and composer, few of Simmons’ luminaries could measure up to Paul McCartney, whose songwriting prowess seemed to outshine his melodic grasp of the bass throughout the 1960s. “When I was growing up as a Beatles fan, I heard a Beatles song, and you’d listen to it, and you’d go away humming it,” he reflected in a 2016 conversation with Rock Cellar. “You only later realise that every once in a while, you’re humming a bass part.”

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Lies the Internet Told About KISS

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We’re here to debunk some lies the internet told about KISS.

If you’ve ever seen our Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? series on YouTube, then you know how many things written on the internet about different musical artists tend to be false — especially because anyone can edit a Wikipedia page.

Fortunately, we’ve been able to speak to many of them and uncover the truth. Each episode features an in-depth interview with a musician where we read them bits from their Wikipedia page, and they tell us whether the information is factual or not.

This week’s episode is all about KISS.

Over the years, we’ve spoken to Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley on separate occasions, so we compiled clips of all the lies that were written about the musicians’ history into one video. You’ll hear the incorrect versions of the stories found on Wikipedia, followed by what actually happened, as told by Simmons and Frehley.

Of course, even members of the same band remember some things differently at times.

In the video, Simmons and Frehley discuss the timeline of the band, the contributions of certain members, the inspiration for a couple of their songs, their iconic makeup and even some tidbits from their lives outside of the group.

You’ll even get to hear what Simmons has Siri refer to him as.

“I don’t know if any orgies were ‘thrown’. Those things had a way of happening on their own”: in 1977, Kiss were on top of the world – and Paul Stanley was loving every second of it

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Andy Warhol, Studio 54, Madison Square Garden and two albums – this is what it was like being in Kiss in 1977

Kiss in make up posing for the camera

(Image credit: Fin Costello/Redferns)

By 1977, Kiss were the most famous rock’n’roll band in America – and they knew it. In 2012, singer and guitarist Paul Stanley looked back at the year of Love Gun, Alive II, Madison Square Garden and some dedicated hedonism.

1977: How was it for you?

It was an incredible time for us. Everything had kind of exploded and we found ourselves trying to fortify Kiss’s place in rock’n’roll. I wanted to see the band become the biggest it could possibly be. To reach the Olympus of Rock.

There were two Kiss albums that year. One was Love Gun, which featured Plaster Caster. Were you ever ‘commemorated’ by Cynthia Plastercaster?

That song was more of a fake homage to the person who spearheaded that movement. But no, I never had it done to me. It always sounded a bit painful. I can think of better things to do with an erection than stick it into a load of dental gel.

The other Kiss album that year was Alive II.

Sonically, I never felt the studio albums lived up to what we were doing live. They just didn’t have the kick, the balls or the sonic enormity of what we did live. Alive II captured the experience of being at a Kiss show and what we stood for.

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ACE FREHLEY Live At Orlando’s Hard Rock Live; 4K Video Of Full Set Uploaded

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Original KISS guitarist, Ace Frehley, performed at at Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida on June 21, and YouTube user Shane Cordwainer has uploaded 4K video of the entire set. Check it out below.

Ace and his band performed the following setlist (as per Setlist.fm):

“Shock Me” (KISS song)
“Shout It Out Loud” (KISS song)
“Cherry Medicine”
“Rock Soldiers” (Frehley’s Comet song)
“Love Gun” (KISS song)
“10,000 Volts”
“Parasite” (KISS song)
“New York Groove” (Russ Ballard cover)
“Rip It Out”
“Detroit Rock City” (KISS song)
“Love Her All I Can” (KISS song)
“Cold Gin” (KISS song)
“Strange Ways” (KISS song)
“Deuce” (KISS song)