Of course, since Jimi Hendrix it is strictly forbidden to smash a guitar, but when Paul Stanley finally does it, it feels like a huge relief.
Not only because you grant the 70-year-old singer-guitarist after 49 years, 50 albums and countless appearances during 35 tours, make up his wrinkled face for good to enjoy his well-deserved retirement. But especially because the Amsterdam farewell show in which his hard rock band Kiss just didn’t seem to want to stop.
The foursome turned the Ziggo Dome into an apocalyptic Efteling on Thursday evening and chased no fewer than 23 songs through it. In just over two hours, a thousand bombs and grenades exploded, flamethrowers spat out a constant conflagration, confetti cannons blew cool, streamers and huge Kiss balloons fell from the sky, the futuristic space gladiator Tommy Thayer (say: the surrogate Ace Frehley ) rockets through his guitar neck, drummer Eric Singer (say a light version of Peter Criss) was lifted with his drums to the top of the Ziggo Dome and Stanley flew over all heads via a cable car to a tiny private stage at the back of the hall.
Undisputed legacy
Such a mighty spectacle, leave that to Kiss. Stanley predicted in advance what to expect in Amsterdam: “Good stuff: we got old stuff… we got older stuff… and we got oldest stuff!”
Kiss deserves a thousand percent respect for that legacy: the living legends have put countless bands and musicians on the right track by making them believe in the Ultimate Rock ‘N-Roll Dream at a young age: through their music (which is much more catchy than the standard announcement “The hottest band in the world!” suggests), but especially through their iconic image on covers, photos, posters, pyjamas, lunch boxes, piggy banks, comic books, pinball machines, chewing gum and popsicles.
The legacy is undisputed, but so is the cash grab and all-is-marketing mentality of dollarharker and co-founder Gene Simmons. The 72-year-old bassist with the longest tongue and fattest bank account in rock history still haunts a dangerous vampire with an ax-like bass around his neck, spewing fire as well as gallons of blood.
living dolls
That predictability was not so much the problem with this celebration of the past, but the slowness and drawn-out was. Kiss played as if the band were paid by the hour. After the ironclad opening salvo ‘Detroit Rock City’, ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and ‘Deuce’, the unnecessary time wasting began as the likes addicted Stanley couldn’t stop fishing for compliments. Like a puppeteer constantly having children call out for Jan Klaassen, he begged his (also aging) Kiss Army to shout his name out loud. That lasted and lasted – like Kiss’s career – all way too long. It could have been a thrilling farewell show, it was Madame Tussauds with live dolls on platform soles.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of July 23, 2022
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