11/07/2013
A KISS FOR CALGARY: ROCKERS GOING STRONG AFTER 40
Great White North is band�s heartland
By Francois Marchand
Canadians have always embraced KISS.
In the shock rock band�s early days, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were playing rooms a far cry from the arenas and stadiums they are now known to fill with pyro and solid rock thunder.
�Canada has always been great to us,� Stanley told Postmedia News. �Our first tour included lunch rooms and cafeterias of schools in Edmonton and Calgary when nobody knew who we were. So we�ve always had a great time, whether it�s in Moncton, Sudbury, Lethbridge � places where people go, �What are you doing here?� and we say, �You don�t decide where you�re born but we decide where we play.��
Forty years later and with a 20th studio album in tow � the old school, Detroit-style rocker Monster � little has changed about KISS�s philosophy: Rock and roll all night, party every day.
Doing so, KISS continues to offer a fan-oriented experience like no other band can, a recipe that has generated millions of KISS Army members, and licensing and merchandising revenue like few acts on the planet boast.Great White North is band�s heartland
By Francois Marchand
Canadians have always embraced KISS.
In the shock rock band�s early days, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were playing rooms a far cry from the arenas and stadiums they are now known to fill with pyro and solid rock thunder.
�Canada has always been great to us,� Stanley told Postmedia News. �Our first tour included lunch rooms and cafeterias of schools in Edmonton and Calgary when nobody knew who we were. So we�ve always had a great time, whether it�s in Moncton, Sudbury, Lethbridge � places where people go, �What are you doing here?� and we say, �You don�t decide where you�re born but we decide where we play.��
Forty years later and with a 20th studio album in tow � the old school, Detroit-style rocker Monster � little has changed about KISS�s philosophy: Rock and roll all night, party every day.
Doing so, KISS continues to offer a fan-oriented experience like no other band can, a recipe that has generated millions of KISS Army members, and licensing and merchandising revenue like few acts on the planet boast.
�The whole idea with the KISS Army Depot (in Vancouver) was to let the fans run their own store,� Stanley said. �It�s a guerrilla store, so-to-speak. It circumvents the big business and it allows the fans to have the say of where it goes.�
A number of the pop-up stores have appeared across the country in some of the cities where the band will be stopping: Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary.
�Our sympathy goes to anybody who has to live through a natural disaster,� Stanley said of last summer�s Calgary cancellation. �Calgary is a great example of the resilience people have. (We will) try to cheer everybody up a bit.�
If in 1973 KISS�s brand of hyper-sexualized, overly macho rock draped in leather costumes and trademark symbolic characters makeup were made to shock � Stanley�s Starchild, Simmons� Demon, Frehley�s Spaceman and Criss� Cat Man � today the band is an instantly recognized and respected entity.
�The media said, �They are cannibals, they�re from outer space.� We ignored all that stuff,� Simmons said. �That�s all kid�s stuff � do what you and don�t worry about what people think or say or anything. When we started out, we played our instruments, we wrote our songs � we got on stage and we were who we were.�
�It was shocking when we first started out because it was new,� Stanley said. �You had the magician pulling the rabbit out of the hat. Ultimately, you have to have content. Maybe the shock value is gone, but now it�s a monument, an institution. It�s something that�s lasted 40 years.�
Buoyed by its fan base, KISS was a modest shocker hit early on.
Albums like KISS (1973), Hotter Than Hell (1974) and Dressed To Kill (1975) contained more than a few songs now considered band classics (Strutter, Deuce, Rock and Roll All Nite), but it wasn�t until the band�s first live album Alive! that things really took off, thanks to a concert-styled compilation featuring KISS�s singular live energy and a raw, nerve-slicing edge courtesy of producer Eddie Kramer.
A slick re-invention thanks to Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd) with 1975�s Destroyer made them a band that would hit the top of the charts with Beth, a decidedly un-KISS piano ballad sung by Criss.
The �80s and �90s were not as glorious: The band removed the masks, faced upheaval and multiple lineup changes, and faltered.
It wasn�t until they put the makeup on again that KISS thrived once more, finding renewal via 1998�s Psycho Circus (which yielded the first concert experience incorporating 3-D visual elements) and continuing via the solid Sonic Boom (2009) and last year�s surprising Monster, the latter two produced by Stanley and Greg Collins.
Asked if he took some inspiration from Ezrin or Kramer to rejuvenate KISS�s sound, Stanley said: �Truth be told, there have been times when we had people who got producer credit who weren�t much more than engineers. Bob Ezrin was a producer. Certainly I think of him often when we�re in the studio � �What would he do?�
�But, you know, I�m fortunate enough to have seen some of the greatest bands play when I was a kid � Zeppelin, Humble Pie, the Stones, Derek and the Dominoes. Perhaps what we brought to the band now and in the last few albums is something that�s classic and timeless. I think the band sounds better than ever.�
Simmons heaped praise on Stanley�s design of the band�s latest live show, which features a spider-like stage construction that�s arguably the most advanced KISS fans have ever seen.
Stanley made it clear that even though the band�s current band members may one day call it quits (Eric Singer now sits behind the drums instead of Criss and Tommy Thayer plays Ace Frehley�s licks), he would like KISS to live on forever.
�I think I�m really great at what I do but I don�t think there isn�t someone else that can do it at least as well,� he said.
�There was a time when everybody said, �Oh, it�s gotta be the four original members.� Well, those people are 50 per cent wrong now. I will be proud to be replaced at some point, because it only means KISS is everything that I hoped it would be. I�d like to sit in the audience and see the greatest band without me in it � but not any time soon.�
KISS plays the Scotiabank Saddledome Friday at 7:30 p.m.
By Francois Marchand
Canadians have always embraced KISS.
In the shock rock band�s early days, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were playing rooms a far cry from the arenas and stadiums they are now known to fill with pyro and solid rock thunder.
�Canada has always been great to us,� Stanley told Postmedia News. �Our first tour included lunch rooms and cafeterias of schools in Edmonton and Calgary when nobody knew who we were. So we�ve always had a great time, whether it�s in Moncton, Sudbury, Lethbridge � places where people go, �What are you doing here?� and we say, �You don�t decide where you�re born but we decide where we play.��
Forty years later and with a 20th studio album in tow � the old school, Detroit-style rocker Monster � little has changed about KISS�s philosophy: Rock and roll all night, party every day.
Doing so, KISS continues to offer a fan-oriented experience like no other band can, a recipe that has generated millions of KISS Army members, and licensing and merchandising revenue like few acts on the planet boast.Great White North is band�s heartland
By Francois Marchand
Canadians have always embraced KISS.
In the shock rock band�s early days, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were playing rooms a far cry from the arenas and stadiums they are now known to fill with pyro and solid rock thunder.
�Canada has always been great to us,� Stanley told Postmedia News. �Our first tour included lunch rooms and cafeterias of schools in Edmonton and Calgary when nobody knew who we were. So we�ve always had a great time, whether it�s in Moncton, Sudbury, Lethbridge � places where people go, �What are you doing here?� and we say, �You don�t decide where you�re born but we decide where we play.��
Forty years later and with a 20th studio album in tow � the old school, Detroit-style rocker Monster � little has changed about KISS�s philosophy: Rock and roll all night, party every day.
Doing so, KISS continues to offer a fan-oriented experience like no other band can, a recipe that has generated millions of KISS Army members, and licensing and merchandising revenue like few acts on the planet boast.
�The whole idea with the KISS Army Depot (in Vancouver) was to let the fans run their own store,� Stanley said. �It�s a guerrilla store, so-to-speak. It circumvents the big business and it allows the fans to have the say of where it goes.�
A number of the pop-up stores have appeared across the country in some of the cities where the band will be stopping: Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary.
�Our sympathy goes to anybody who has to live through a natural disaster,� Stanley said of last summer�s Calgary cancellation. �Calgary is a great example of the resilience people have. (We will) try to cheer everybody up a bit.�
If in 1973 KISS�s brand of hyper-sexualized, overly macho rock draped in leather costumes and trademark symbolic characters makeup were made to shock � Stanley�s Starchild, Simmons� Demon, Frehley�s Spaceman and Criss� Cat Man � today the band is an instantly recognized and respected entity.
�The media said, �They are cannibals, they�re from outer space.� We ignored all that stuff,� Simmons said. �That�s all kid�s stuff � do what you and don�t worry about what people think or say or anything. When we started out, we played our instruments, we wrote our songs � we got on stage and we were who we were.�
�It was shocking when we first started out because it was new,� Stanley said. �You had the magician pulling the rabbit out of the hat. Ultimately, you have to have content. Maybe the shock value is gone, but now it�s a monument, an institution. It�s something that�s lasted 40 years.�
Buoyed by its fan base, KISS was a modest shocker hit early on.
Albums like KISS (1973), Hotter Than Hell (1974) and Dressed To Kill (1975) contained more than a few songs now considered band classics (Strutter, Deuce, Rock and Roll All Nite), but it wasn�t until the band�s first live album Alive! that things really took off, thanks to a concert-styled compilation featuring KISS�s singular live energy and a raw, nerve-slicing edge courtesy of producer Eddie Kramer.
A slick re-invention thanks to Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd) with 1975�s Destroyer made them a band that would hit the top of the charts with Beth, a decidedly un-KISS piano ballad sung by Criss.
The �80s and �90s were not as glorious: The band removed the masks, faced upheaval and multiple lineup changes, and faltered.
It wasn�t until they put the makeup on again that KISS thrived once more, finding renewal via 1998�s Psycho Circus (which yielded the first concert experience incorporating 3-D visual elements) and continuing via the solid Sonic Boom (2009) and last year�s surprising Monster, the latter two produced by Stanley and Greg Collins.
Asked if he took some inspiration from Ezrin or Kramer to rejuvenate KISS�s sound, Stanley said: �Truth be told, there have been times when we had people who got producer credit who weren�t much more than engineers. Bob Ezrin was a producer. Certainly I think of him often when we�re in the studio � �What would he do?�
�But, you know, I�m fortunate enough to have seen some of the greatest bands play when I was a kid � Zeppelin, Humble Pie, the Stones, Derek and the Dominoes. Perhaps what we brought to the band now and in the last few albums is something that�s classic and timeless. I think the band sounds better than ever.�
Simmons heaped praise on Stanley�s design of the band�s latest live show, which features a spider-like stage construction that�s arguably the most advanced KISS fans have ever seen.
Stanley made it clear that even though the band�s current band members may one day call it quits (Eric Singer now sits behind the drums instead of Criss and Tommy Thayer plays Ace Frehley�s licks), he would like KISS to live on forever.
�I think I�m really great at what I do but I don�t think there isn�t someone else that can do it at least as well,� he said.
�There was a time when everybody said, �Oh, it�s gotta be the four original members.� Well, those people are 50 per cent wrong now. I will be proud to be replaced at some point, because it only means KISS is everything that I hoped it would be. I�d like to sit in the audience and see the greatest band without me in it � but not any time soon.�
KISS plays the Scotiabank Saddledome Friday at 7:30 p.m.
