Untitled Composition VI: KISS, July 24th

This blog was drafted quite some time ago, so any references to when something took place is out-dated.

I get a lot of shit for liking KISS; and I understand why to a certain extent. I'll admit that a lot of KISS songs are pretty dated and a little cheesy, and that they had their big flops with albums such as Dynasty that rubbed disco/pop-hating fans the wrong way. But how could anyone deny that this is not incredibly fucking cool?
I was born into a house with a major KISS loving dad, and there are many times I can remember being awoken at 8am on any given Saturday to the song "Unholy"; ironically, despite my severe annoyance with my dad's weekend ritual, this is my favorite song by KISS.

And because my dad is incredibly hard to shop for (he never wants anything), any and all christmas gifts have been KISS related. Undoubtedly, KISS is by far the most merchandised band. Lego characters, the fm radio, boxes of unopened KISS collectors cards, action figures, a gene simmons mask, and a few other items of schwag are now stored in the basement of my parents home. On a visit back to my home town sometime last winter, the tupperware tote containing said KISS items had made its way to the living room; my parents wanted to sell all of it for my "college fund". My brother and I firmly disagreed and they have since been declared family heirlooms. You'd be surprised how much some of those things are worth $$genesimmons$$

Did You Know?

Gene Simmons is so filthy fucking rich because he profits the most from KISS.

While members such as Peter Criss (the cat man) and Ace Freely (Spaceman)

were too fucked to function, Simmons was (is) the backbone of the band.

Thus, Simmons gets all the bread.

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanely (the Starchild and the he/she) are the only two

original members currently touring;

but they're really all that matter anyways.

For many reasons, I think KISS is fucking cool.

To begin my explanation, I need to drop a few names. One of my favorite bands is the Gorillaz, specifically the album "Demon Days". And the best live show I have ever seen is Gwar.

What do these two bands have in common? Neither band has any human band members and are constructed from ideas.

Based entirely on comic book characters by Jamie Hewlett, the Gorillaz is a completely fictional band. The lead singer, 2D, is verbalized mostly by Damon Albarn of Blur; however, his voice in interviews is Nelson De Freitas, a British actor.

Noodle, the female guitarst, joined the band at the age of 10. In need of a guitarist, the band posted an ad and shortly after received a FedEx package containing the young Japanese-speaking girl. She was named after the only word she knew in English: Noodle.

And so on and so forth...

Gwar

The same goes for Gwar, except I don't know all the gritty, gruesome details about their legend. Honestly, I don't even listen to their music. But again, the members of the band are completely fictional. Their shows consist of giant, monsterous costumes, stage props such as swords and penis guns, and special (puppet) guests who are decapitated or disemboweled. Oh, and they spray copious amounts of blood, semen, and urine all over the audience. It tastes like Kool-Aid!

Because these bands are based on ideas that are materialized/aestheticized, we call these bands "conceptual"; and thats cooler than your average band. So up yours, the Beatles!

To bring this back to the original topic, KISS is a concept. Although the story and image is not nearly as elaborate as Gwar's or the Gorillaz, KISS is an early example of a successful, profitable, and conceptual band.

Did You Know?

In Germany, it is illegal to display the SS insignia previously utilized by the Nazis. Because KISS is spelled with two runic letters that are similar to Nazi insignia, the last two letters in KISS are modified in the Deutschland.

My dad has seen KISS several (possibly seven?) times; the first time being in 1977. This past weekend* the family and a few straggler friends attended KISS at the grand Minot State Fair. According to my dad, this was the best KISS performance he has seen. Here's my review:

Because the band came out with a Wal-Mart exclusive $$ album "Sonic Boom" in 2009, they dedicated a majority of the first half of the concert to songs off of this album..... That I assume no one has really heard (or knew about). The songs themselves, and my general impression of this album that I've never really listened to, is that KISS isn't cut out to produce music that will stimulate us anymore; this is mostly due to their relatively cheesy, sometimes easy lyrics that are masked by hard rock music. In short, theyre a little out dated to produce anything that will announce a "rebirth" or come-back to the band as far as releasing new records.
To make up for the audiences general disinterest/confusion of the first half of the show, they amped up the stage effects. Also, Stanely demanded a lot of screaming and response from the crowd; a useful tactic, yet a bit tiring on the voice if I do say so myself.

Even though the songs were unfamiliar, the stage performance was classic; all band members were in full swing: Band members pointed at the audience a lot, Stanely shook his ass for the big screen many dozens of times, there was pyro, band members were lifted above the stage, and each member had his time to shine and performed a theatrical bit.

to top it all off, there were at least three instances where all of the members lined up next to each other and rocked side to side in unison. classic.

Even though the first half of the show was a bit of a disappointment (despite rocking a few classics between their new songs) , the encore was made up entirely of their hits. Although they didn't play any of their "raunchier" songs, the second half of their show was what everyone had hoped for. and as always, and there was a ton (more) pyro and fireworks.
Ultimately, despite the bands aging, they can still play a pretty bad ass show.

~*!Now its time for family photos!*~

(more coming soon)