KISS - The End of the Road For Real

In the final week of their existence as a live band, KISS has faced one of the biggest dramas of their half-century career. Having started out in 1973 as a band that would do anything to get attention - and not really receiving much for the first couple of years - they now live in a tech-obsessed world that allows their legion of fans worldwide to follow their every move. When 71-year old singer Paul Stanley came down with the flu last week, the band was forced to cancel three of their last eight performances. Stanley himself has said, “I thought it might be my time.” The KISS Army contingent of clickbait nation was justifiably in a panic. Would the band have to cancel the big farewell show set to take place at Madison Square Garden on December 2nd? From the very beginning it’s been all too easy to write off KISS as a big joke. Pick literally any phase of their 50-year career and you’ll find no shortage of people willing to call it a laughable load of shit. Of course no band lasts that long without real skill and a focussed determination bordering on insanity. Try keeping a band together for just six months. Seriously. Much less one that dresses up in heels and clown make-up. See? I can’t even resist making fun of them myself. And I've been a fan since 1976. Of course, we all know who’s laughing now. Among the many easy targets the band set up for themselves has been the number of so-called farewell tours they’ve launched since 2000. The current trek was mounted in 2019 and twice ground to an unscheduled halt due to Covid-19. (Stanley lost his long-time guitar tech and friend Fran Steuber to the disease and the band now faces wrongful death charges from Steuber’s widow.) Now, three and a half years later as the End Of The Road tour is in its final stretch, Stanley frequently looks miserable and exhausted. On any given Tuesday, I could sit down and write a book about these guys. Like a lot of musicians and rock n roll fanatics of my generation, I feel I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them for the inspiration and escape they provided me in my youth. But I’ll keep this brief. Considering how difficult it can be to take them seriously, their final live performance in their hometown of New York City on Saturday December 2nd will truly be truly the end of an era. Even with a couple of the original band members long gone in the rearview mirror, these guys still put on the greatest show on earth. There will never be another band like them. Now you can go ahead and laugh at me too because I’ll surely shed a tear or two watching the pay-per-view of the show on Saturday night. * They've given us plenty of laughs over the years.

1981:

1979:

1988:

1985: