ACE FREHLEY: Goofball Savant - LIVE in Lawrenceburg, Indiana March 12, 2022

By any normal standard, this concert was a train wreck. Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley confidently commandeered the Lawrenceburg Event Center stage on Saturday March 12th 2022 with swagger, spontaneity and humor, accompanied by a first rate backing band, performing a satisfying set list that spanned the full scope of his long career. Fans ate it up. At this stage of the game, it is safe to assume there are few if any casual observers in the audience at an Ace Frehley concert. It is only those unlikely outsiders listening in that would have found this show to be a puzzling, muddling mess. House lights dim as the intro tape begins. The original Spaceman and his band take their places on the stage to the strains of Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra". "Rip It Out" from Ace's 1978 solo album right into "Parasite" from the 2nd KISS LP Hotter Than Hell is an opening one-two punch that any KISS fan would relish. Dialing the way-back machine even further, Ace greets the Lawrenceburg crowd and quickly launches into "Strutter'', a classic from the 1974 KISS debut. Just three songs in and the strength of Ace's current backing band is already apparent. Some have said the additional guitar players do all the heavy lifting. And in fact the band members take lead vocal duties on half the songs in the set. But Ace was always an auxiliary vocalist and two additional Les Pauls playing through Marshall stacks gives this band a meaty backdrop for Ace to solo over. Free from all but the most basic rhythm guitar duties, Frehley was off the leash and indulging in his trademark fiery solos throughout the night. All sense of the familiar is lost when Ace and his band play a cover of "Emerald" by Thin Lizzy. Certainly some of us in the crowd are familiar with the original, if not Ace's rendition from the 2016 covers collection called Origins Vol. 1. But it comes as a surprise this early in the set and there was a creeping sense of the audience's patience being tested. Nonetheless, the song is anchored by a 10-ton riff and some stellar guitar harmony segments that Ace and his band nailed with ease. Phil Lynott's vocal range in this particular tune doesn't really challenge Ace too much. Still, he lazily lags behind the beat as he half sings and half speaks the lyrics. This was the moment when I first began to realize that our loose and loopy hero remains, as ever, totally unconcerned with coming across as overly professional. Getting the rickety runaway train back on track somewhat, Ace continued with another one of his signature tunes, "Rocket Ride". I have to admit I had to wonder what he was thinking by moving on from there to another pair of covers. But the medley of Mountain's "Never In My Life'' and Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times" was in fact one of the highlights of the evening. Frehley has released two albums of cover tunes and he is clearly enjoying revisiting some favorite songs of his youth. Paying tribute to the heroes of his past seems to put a little extra spark in his playing and when it was all said and done I had to concede that the show actually benefited from the cover tunes he chose to include. Much like "Strutter'' from earlier in the evening, I found it curious that the KISS classic "Detroit Rock City" was part of the set. Once again letting one of his backing musicians take the lead vocal, I think perhaps this is Ace just grabbing his rightful piece of the great KISS legacy. The memorable riff and iconic guitar solo of the original recording certainly would not have been the same without his contribution. I rather enjoyed its unexpected appearance here and the song sounded great. With every guitar on the stage detuned at least a half step or more, this performance took on a sludgy, almost Grunge-like sound. Taking some of the tempos at a little slower clip than the original versions only added to the uneasy sense that maybe Ace has lost a step or two. Friends warned me about this before the show, perhaps hoping to recalibrate my expectations. But for a man who will be 72 years old this year, Ace truly sounds as good to me as he ever did. Perhaps not pushing the energy levels as high as he once did, or maybe at his age no longer able to do so. Much like Angus Young, the slop fire Blues of Jimmy Page has always been one of Ace's heaviest influences. It's not necessarily about speed or flash or even hitting all the notes, so much as it is about the push and pull dynamics, milking the drama and intensity out of what is actually very few notes played in repeating patterns, stuttering phrases and unpredictable bursts. The guitar style I saw and heard Ace Frehley playing in 2022 is largely unchanged, his light undimmed, since first emerging on the scene in the 1970s. Page is a huge influence to be sure. But with Zeppelin and KISS releasing their debut albums within just a few years of each other, I believe it's also fair to call them contemporaries and peers borne of the same era. Speaking of contemporaries and peers, I must draw attention to the fact that Ace Frehley's between-song banter on this night reminded me very much of the late great Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls. Uncannily so. In particular, this exchange: "Are you guys ready for a Rocket Ride?" Crowd roars its approval. Pause. "I'm actually talkin' to tha girls…" The lazy, lilting New York City accent. The refried, revved up Chuck Berry licks. The fuck-it-all attitude. The sense that his old band needed him more than he needed them. I could be talking about either one of those guys, Ace or Johnny. Thunders lived hard and died young in New Orleans under suspicious circumstances back in 1991. He never once made any money that he didn't turn around and spend on heroin almost immediately. Ace too earned a reputation as an alcoholic drug addict and fuck up. But his connection to KISS always gave him a cash cushion to fall back on, covering his tracks and moving on, rising like a Phoenix every few years with a new record and touring band. Ace even reunited with KISS for a few lucrative years before quitting and striking out on his own once again. Sadly, Thunders never had that opportunity. But to this day he enjoys a great deal more street cred than Frehley. My understanding is that Ace has been sober since 2008. For a guy who was famously imbibing as a mere child, he may in fact be enjoying the longest period of clear-headed thinking in his entire life. Although he had some absent-minded lapses of focus when delivering a couple of his stage raps in Lawrenceburg that would not give you the impression of a man who was necessarily thinking clearly. After all, the "Space Ace" appellation was given to him many years ago by close friends quite familiar with his permanently addled brain waves. After "Detroit Rock City", Ace played "Rock Soldiers" from the first Frehley's Comet LP released in 1987. It would have been nice to hear more from Ace's catalog of solo albums like this, perhaps in lieu of those cover tunes. But the man is an experienced road dawg if nothing else. And maybe he feels like he gets a better crowd response when he plays a Led Zeppelin song, as opposed to, say, "Trouble Walkin'". I've no doubt about that particular comparison. But, as great as they were at this show, tunes by Mountain and Thin Lizzy could easily be swapped out in favor of more originals, be they solo material or old KISS tunes. And now we come to the part of the program when our captain seemed most in danger of steering the ship directly into the rocks. Asking the audience if they remembered his first solo album, Ace said, "Here's one from that rekkid called 'Hard Times'." The only problem with that statement is that it's actually a KISS song from the Dynasty LP. And, unless I'm mistaken, I believe I saw a YouTube clip from last Fall when Ace made the same mistaken claim. Had he been introducing that song incorrectly for 4 or 5 months without anyone correcting him? Granted, by the time KISS recorded the Dynasty album in '79 they had already figured out how to make a record without having to be in the same room with each other. Ace's memory of recording his solo album the year before might blend into one blurry recollection of an era when he also recorded "Hard Times" for the Dynasty sessions with little or no involvement from the other guys in the band. With Anton Fig on the drums, Ace overdubbed every other instrument you hear in that song. On this night, whether or not the man himself knows what album it's from, Ace nails "Hard Times". Now, I would love to tell you that "New York Groove" sounded just like the record. This was one of those moments when you knew that every single person in the crowd knew the song. But I wasn't so sure that everyone on the stage knew the song. This is where our captain allowed the ship to drift rudderless into the rocks and the result was not pretty. Ace performed the song with a guitar outfitted with flashing lights, another holdover from the 1979 Dynasty tour undertaken just a year after "New York Groove" was a big hit for Frehley. Considering the song's popularity, you would think the band would know it better. Here's what happened: After an awkward intro during which Ace struggled to strap on his flashy axe, the band settles nicely into the song with the crowd singing along. This is a song that modulates up a half step after the first chorus. That basically means that everyone in the band changes the key that they're playing in all at the same time, moving up from, say, the key of E to the key of F. It's an old trick, used to heighten the drama or excitement level of a song by lifting the music up a step or two. The transition comes off without a hitch. So far so good. Long about the 4 minute mark, far enough into the song to feel confident about bringing it in for a smooth landing, the guitars drop out and leave the drummer tapping out the pulse for one more singalong before the big finish. One of the highest charting songs he was ever associated with, Ace is maybe slipping into auto pilot here. The evening's audience participation factor hits its apex as an enthusiastic crowd chants the familiar chorus, "I'm BACK! Back in the New York GROOVE…" The 3-chord progression in the chorus is straight out of the Who's "Baba O'Riley". Sing the words "teenage wasteland" to yourself and you'll hear those three chords repeating in your head. After a satisfactory sing-along, the band kicks back in all at once for what should have been the song's climactic ending. Best I can figure is that somebody on that stage forgot that they had modulated earlier in the song. Because when they all kicked back in together after the sing-along somebody on that stage was playing in the wrong key. Perhaps due to a poor monitor mix that caused one or more musicians on the stage to not be able to hear themselves properly, no adjustment was made by any of them and the band trudged along playing in at least two different keys for what seemed like a small eternity before the song finally, mercifully came to a wobbly conclusion. All that just to say this: It was painful. So why was I smiling? One of the many things I love about Ace is that he just doesn't give a fuck. But to let his already high levels of I don't give a fuckness go so far as to allow the performance to sound terrible, to not hear how truly horrible it sounded, to be sleepwalking through the gig, for even just a moment or two, and not truly listening, to not care? It's laughably preposterous. That's why I think something was wrong with the stage monitors. I have to assume that the band could not hear themselves for it to sound so bad. My father was a consummate professional musician in his day. He took me to my first KISS concert back in 1979. If he had been with me at this show he would have been riled up for sure. I can hear him now: "Ace needs to stick his foot in somebody's ass." Frehley certainly isn't the only member of KISS to be accused of phoning it in and laughing all the way to the bank with the fans' hard earned money. In my mind, this part of an otherwise stellar performance will just have to live on as an unresolved conundrum. Ace is goofy. Perhaps even experiencing the first signs of senility. When I was a kid, still just beginning to learn about the guys in KISS and their individual personalities, something about Ace always seemed a little bit off kilter. And that was 45 years ago. He has lived in his own world, playing by his own rules, making and pissing away millions of dollars, a living, breathing, drinking, smoking, cackling, snorting, puking, passing out, car crashing, middle fingers flying manifestation of I FUCKIN' TOLD YA SO. An incomparable and contradictory amalgamation of New York City street smart dumb guy guitar genius, draggin' his feet with his head held high, proven right after a half century still standing and still delivering. Next up was "Strange Way", another Frehley composition from the second KISS album Hotter Than Hell. Ace does justice to an almost impossibly contorted guitar solo from the original recording, proving once again that he can still play with the same fire and fury that always seemed to flow from his fingers so effortlessly. For the next tune, Ace straps on an even more famous guitar from his collection: a Gibson Les Paul that billows clouds of smoke from a mock pick up during his guitar solo. Perhaps just making sure all is in readiness, Ace fiddles with the knobs as a wee puff of smoke escapes from the guitar. He tells a quick story about his 1973 audition for KISS, by way of introducing the song "Deuce". But every single person in the crowd knows that the smoking guitar means it's time for "Shock Me", not "Deuce". His sidemen give him the corrective nudge as Ace acknowledges his cerebral flatulence with a laugh, "Well, ya know...I got a little fuckin' brain damage from all the drugs!" Including smoking guitar gimmickry and extended solo, "Shock Me" clocks in around 12 minutes. Passionately mailed in vocal performance followed by freeform solo guitar freak out that's been a set piece in the Frehley canon since before you were born. He reprises a few snippets from KISS Alive! and Alive II, a pinch of "La Grange", a dash of "Day Tripper". At full pitch, Ace takes off on a shred fest for a precious few minutes before crashing back down to earth. Making zero concessions to showmanship, he saunters slowly back and forth across the stage while peeling off a stream of consciousness string of his greatest licks. It's the moment we've all waited for, but admittedly it doesn't pack the same punch as it once did. The set proper closes with what is arguably Ace's best known composition. Even his former bandmates in KISS never leave the stage without playing "Cold Gin", another classic from their debut album. I was pleasantly surprised when Ace and his band tagged a little bit of "Black Diamond" at the end of the tune. One last blast of nostalgic bombast. For the inevitable encore Ace returns to the stage and says, "Here's the song I was talkin' about when I fucked up that intro earlier." Since he'd inadvertently introduced the tune some 30 minutes earlier, "Deuce" was something of an anticlimactic encore. It was well done and well received but it came as a surprise to no one, taking much if not all of an encore's usual anticipation out of the equation since we all saw it coming. He's the same stumble bumble stubborn Bronx boy goofball savant he always was, and Frehley still insists on doing things his own way and making his own kind of sense in shrugging defiance of anyone's expectations. He's an American original, a laconic comic, and arguably one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. At times this performance was a meandering, unfocused fiasco. But if it had been a slick and polished over rehearsed professional production I am certain that I would have left disappointed. As it happened, I did not.

ACE FREHLEY Loose & Loopy in Lawrenceburg - March 12, 2022 CD1:

1 Intro -> Rip It Out -> Parasite 2 Strutter 3 Emerald 4 Rocket Ride 5 Never In My Life -> Good Times Bad Times 6 Detroit Rock City CD2: 1 Rock Soldiers 2 Hard Times 3 New York Groove 4 Strange Ways 5 Shock Me -> guitar solo 6 Cold Gin -> Black Diamond outro 7 encore: Deuce