KISS Electrifies ACC Despite Rocky StartSure, they wanted to rock and roll all night, but KISS short circuited just one song into their Air Canada Centre show Friday night.
After an explosive fireburst display, the veteran rockers were about half way through their opening song, King Of The Night Time World, when they appeared to lose power causing the audience to boo loudly.
Without an active microphone, singer-guitarist Paul Stanley held up his hands and mouthed that the group, rounded out by bassist Gene Simmons, drummer Eric Singer and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, would be back “in about five to ten minutes” and they walked off stage.
Shortly thereafter, and with little in the way of further reaction from the KISS army, the quartet returned and Stanley explained what was going on: “There is a problem with the electricity and the power at the ACC, but we have fixed it and we are here to kick your ass,” he said.
After checking their gear, the group then launched into Deuce and the show, as they say, went on for another two-and-a-half hours.
“It started to look like we might have to reschedule,” said Stanley, 57, afterwards, prompting more boos. “Last night (on Thursday), Montreal said they’d kick your ass. Tonight, Toronto, you have to prove them wrong.”
KISS were in hot water in these parts earlier this year when they failed to announce an Oshawa date on the first leg of their KISS Alive/35 Tour even though the city had won an online poll to have the band play a concert there.
They since scheduled a show for Oct. 7 in Oshawa, the day after the release of their first studio album in 11 years, the guitar-rock driven Sonic Boom, which was represented in Friday night’s set list by the new single, Modern Day Delilah.
Basically, other than the sound and electricity problems, it was the same KISS act, different decade.
Some 37 years after forming in New York City, with original lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss, the black leather and studs, platform boots and black and white Kabuki makeup were back along with the loud sound, pyrotechnics, dry ice and stunts galore.
Simmons, 60, pulled out his fire-eating routine during Hotter Than Hell and later spewed blood, showing off his famous long tongue, and flew up to the lighting stand to sing lead vocals on I Love It Loud in the best bit of the night.
Stanley also sailed over the heads of the audiences on a pulley and wound up on a smaller rotating stage on the floor for Love Gun.
Their streamlined stage, meanwhile, was dominated by the word KISS in large white lights and rows and rows of small video screens resembling TV sets.
Thayer put on a major guitar solo display, with yet even more fire and explosions, and Singer did the obligatory drum solo on a rotating stage but nothing really matched the white confetti, steam and firebursts, and the three mini stages that elevated Simmons, Stanley and Thayer, during the set-ending Rock And Roll All Nite.
Still, the encore songs, Shout It Out Loud, Lick It Up and Detroit Rock City, came awfully close.
