Kiss: Half A Century Of Rock

With explosions, fireworks, platforms, screens; with Paul Stanley flying over the audience and Gene Simmons throwing fire, plans to say goodbye to the stage, after 50 years, Kiss, the legendary band that will play on Wednesday at Arena 1 on the Costa Verde of San Miguel, with the tour ‘ The End of the Road World’.

The tour of Latin America began a week ago in Chile. “They descended from the heights to bless the 15,000 souls,” wrote the Chilean media about the concert, which is described more as a show, a ritual typical of the so-called ‘hottest band on Earth’.

The first time Kiss announced its end was 20 years ago, when guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss were still part of the band. According to Simmons, they left because of “unprofessional behavior” and drugs. They have been playing with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer for 18 years, but, as the vocalist points out to Culto, the group that introduced phrases like “you want the best, you have the best! The hottest band in the world: Kiss!” it cannot continue when its members approach 80 years; nor can they continue to carry a 40-pound outfit. “You want to stop when you’re still a champion,” he said.

Simmons. ‘The Demon’ after 2 hours of makeup. Photo: diffusion

The history of Kiss began in the seventies, when Simmons and Stanley played in New York. For ‘The Demon’, rock concerts were “boring” and they decided to create characters inspired by horror movies and put together a different staging: two hours of makeup, extravagant costumes, smoke and even fake blood. “Kiss has achieved thirty gold records from the RIAA (considered the American group that has received the most certifications of this type). In addition, he has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide and twenty-five million in the United States alone. It has also been among the top forty places on the Billboard 200 26 times,” says GQ magazine.

In May 2021, the documentary KISStory was released and, although there were no further revelations for the fans, the problems of the band were made clear, some wanted to maintain the bohemian spirit, others to see Kiss as a company. “We were a universal phenomenon,” says Stanley. “We became billionaires and it was too much, too soon,” adds Ace of the group that entered the Rock Hall of Fame 8 years ago.

For his part, outside the documentary, Gene Simmons has not stopped giving his opinion. He claims that “rock is dead” and that the last rock band is the Foo Fighters; of Elon Musk has spoken about not allowing hate speech on Twitter and also weighed in on the pandemic. In fact, on Thursday he insulted the anti-vaccines. “A million Americans have died. About 10 million worldwide have died from this. I know the conspiracy idiots tell you it’s not true. It is. So I got vaccinated twice, then I had a booster, and I’m about to get another one,” he told iHollywoodTV.

The first time Kiss played in Peru was in 2009 at the National Stadium. Then in 2012, Simmons came along as part of the ‘Rock N’ Roll All Stars.’ This Wednesday’s concert – twice postponed due to the pandemic – would have around 20 songs and would close with the hit ‘Rock And Roll All Nite’.❖