KISS Explodes With Sonic Boom Today!

KISS Explodes With Sonic Boom Today!

It's finally here... KISS's new album, Sonic Boom, is in Walmart stores today!

This is the band's first new album in 11 years, and as fans, it's been eagerly... no, impatiently... excitedly... joyously awaited by fans such as myself. And, while often in my (younger) youth, I'd be at the store at midnight to get my hands on the new album du jour, I hadn't done this in over a decade... since the last KISS studio album.

Which is precisely why my husband and I decided we'd do exactly that. Last night after dinner, we put all the kids to bed early (in their KISS t-shirts and pajama pants, naturally) and told them we'd wake them up and go get each of them a copy of "Sonic Boom" at midnight. (We're very good parents... but once in a while, we will do something completely out of the box with the kids... so we want to make sure they're well-rested and up for the adventure.) This turned out to be a grand saga...

In conjunction with the release, numerous Walmart stores around the country are also promoting "KISS Korners" containing KISS merchandise... KISS t-shirts, throw blankets, Mr. Potato Heads, and even KISS M&Ms. Many of these things are priced to move - $5 KISS t-shirts, $10 throw blankets -- and we wanted to be able to buy this stuff before the rest of the KISS army invaded and cleaned the stores out.

(Yes, this happens. The weekend of the Detroit Cobo shows, Detroit-area Walmarts had their KISS Korners set up early, and every single piece of KISS merchandise flew out in less than two hours. We KISS fans are a devoted bunch... and we anticipated the same thing happening tonight.)

So that's how we found ourselves at Walmart around 11:30pm last night awaiting Sonic Boom. When our family arrived, the store was still in the process of setting up its KISS Korner, but our boys were more than happy to amuse themselves with the KISS Halloween masks while they waited...

After midnight, employees Kim and Rob (store #3597!) graciously opened numerous boxes of KISS memorabilia... and we loaded up our cart with goodies. $5 KISS t-shirts are unheard of - what a steal! We all got several of each design. The kids got their KISS M&Ms, which they've been anticipating for over a month now... and KISS throw blankets... and of course, a copy of Sonic Boom for each of them. (Children's lives are full of firsts, and we loved sharing the moment with them when they each bought their very first KISS album!)

It was a little crazy, a lot of fun... and we rocked all the way home. Hearing our 2-year-old sing the entire chorus of "Stand" louder than any of us was entertaining, to say the least. And, the album is phenomenal. This is the disc we've all been hoping they'd make for years now... and it was so worth the wait. (It's also only $12 at Walmart for a 3-disc set -- the album, a greatest-hits CD, and a concert DVD from the Buenos Aires show earlier this summer! That's a steal too!)

And this morning... Discover Card's fraud prevention department called to verify that we did indeed spend a sizeable sum of money at Walmart after midnight last night..!

Oh, you only live once... and this is our crazy KISS life.

Now I need to go make a cup of KISS coffee for my husband...