Timeline: 2023 - Kiss Call It A Day, Yet Decide To 'Live On' As Avatars
By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor
In the rock and roll handbook, chapter 2023, page 1202, the corporate entity, and rock and roll band, Kiss, has closed up shop. The illogical platform boots, leather and chains ballerina outfits, greasepaint, fake blood, and pyro all packed away. The desire to “rock and roll all night” now long gone, and along with it, the need to “party every day”. The script reading, "it's all about the fans," now filed away while the tales of past glories are stocked up and ready to roll out.
If that all sounds a bit cynical, well, so? We're talking about Kiss! Don't get me wrong, note for note, power chord for power chord, Kiss were alright in my book. They wrote very catchy songs, and yes, the kids loved 'em. I was too old to get swept up in Kisstory, Kissology, or any other Kiss related racket. I had already been through an Alice Cooper obsession from 1971 through 1973, but Alice Cooper were a different animal all around. They were sharper, more like vaudeville meets Dada meets the Little Rascals, whereas Kiss were pure comic book style, super hero fantasy. It should come as no surprise that one of Kiss’ first connections in the music business was record boss Neil Bogart, who was the head of Buddha Records, a subsidiary of Kama Sutra, and home to the Bubblegum Empire of the late 1960’s, before starting up Casablanca Records in 1973, with Kiss being one of his first signings.
I was never a fan of horror films, science fiction, fantasy or super heroes, so the whole of Kiss never held any appeal. The songs, however, did. I loved the bubblegum sounds of the Ohio Express, the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Archies, and so on. If you listen to a lot of what Kiss was doing, it was very rooted in that to the point where Kiss could easily have stood for keep it simple stupid! Kiss was smart enough not only to do just that, but to bring in some nice loud electric guitars and a rock and roll attitude. That merger of simple pop music, married with hard rock attack, was perfect to build their show around, thus making it a sure-fire connection to the youngsters! Bassist Gene Simmons once stated that Kiss didn't want to be as big as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, they wanted to be as big as Coca-Cola.
So now, five decades after their first album, the band, what's left of them legally anyway, are calling it quits. Now remember, they called it quits before, giving an all-out 'Farewell Tour' back in 2000. Well, that didn't quite last, in fact, most farewell tours are doomed to stay true, just ask the Who, Motley Crue, and many others. It's too tempting for the ego and the bank account to strike up the band one more time. The truth is, Kiss' biggest fault was the way they took themselves way too seriously, trying to project this shadow of significance, when the light shone clearly that, despite any loftier notions, it's only show biz baby!
This time, however, was going to be different. Simmons claimed it was getting too hard physically to go out on tour at their advanced age, and put on the same show, wearing some 50 pounds of gear, breathing fire, and so on. He had stated they wanted to go out on a high note (even if that high note was prerecorded) while they still could. So Saturday December 2nd, at Madison Square Garden, was the exclamation point on the end of the Kiss sentence.
Of course, moments after the show ended, it was announced online that Kiss would continue after all. No more touring, no more stomping around in big boots and blood, they would, instead, carry on into the future as avatars, thus completing the circle started way back with Neil Bogart. Kiss could now become the Archies! They will live on in what is essentially the modern equivalent of being cartoon characters by being avatars. Oh joy!
ABBA has already done it, holding 'live' performances of Avatar based Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anafrid for the rabid ABBA fans who are, arguably, even more driven than the Kiss Army! Billing the 'future' as 'KISS - A NEW ERA BEGINS,' Simmons along with Paul Stanley, both founding members, will carry on the Kiss brand, name, and image, marketing, until the virtual cows come home. With the continued and extremely frightening advancements in A-I technology, all signs point to nothing ever ending, thus helping to squash new creative blood and ideas, and adding to the stagnation of art, music, and culture at a rapid pace. Scary because it was doing just fine losing any meaning or significance without the help of A-I!
"Kiss Army, your love, your power has made us immortal," shouts Paul Stanley in a press release video for 'Kiss – A New Era Begins,' "We can live on eternally!" This should come as no surprise to fans, or haters, as it was already assumed that they would either begin a franchise of Kiss tribute bands, or perhaps a stage production centered around Kiss music, anything but a graceful exit. And, in all things Kiss, it makes sense as, despite a handful of really catchy songs, they were never about the music, but rather the spectacle, the visual overload and the celebration of bombast, and hey, it's harmless fun for the masses who love to slather on the sauce with little regard to the cut of meat underneath. “The band deserves to live on,” says Stanley, "because the band is bigger than we are."
And who am I to laugh, cry, or more to the point, care what Simmons and Stanley do. They earned it, let them have their digitally enhanced fun, and never ending income. Much like crappy TV shows, lousy radio, and insane politicians, you don't have to watch, listen or follow...as long as something else is on as well.