Kiss is off through Europe right now, but will head back to North America with the self-proclaimed "Hottest Show on Earth." The expanded leg of the 2010 summer concert tour schedule will kick off July 23rd in Cheyenne, Wyoming at Frontier Days and end on September 24 in Phoenix at Cricket Wireless Pavilion. Between Kiss tickets will be available for 26 more shows, from the East Coast traveling as far west as Sandy, UT.
The latest Kiss tour comes after the group reunited for a 35th anniversary tour in the summer of 2009. The group is already selling tickets in Europe for the Sonic Boom Over Europe: From the Beginning to Boom tour. The re-emergence of the hard rock group from Brooklyn follows Gene Simmons reality show and the realization that a whole generation of fans is nearing retirement and suddenly has the time and funds to relive their youth in a two hour span of pure celebratory rock excess.
In 1971 lead singer and bass guitarist Gene Simmons and backup singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley were struggling to succeed with their group Wicked Lester. The group had a record deal, but repeated failures to sell albums led to the creation of one of the signature rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s that would become known for tickets to insanely entertaining live shows, KISS.
He group started out by finding drummer Peter Criss in an ad placed in Rolling Stone. Inspired by theatrical rock acts like Slade and the New York Dolls, the group adopted the practice of wearing makeup and adding pyrotechnics to their stage show. KISS became whole when they found lead guitarist Ace Frehley through an audition process. The groups demonic persona helped sell concert tickets, land them manager Bill Aucion, and a record contract by 1973.
The group's first three album, Kiss, Hotter Than Hell, and Dressed to Kill, barely broke the Gold standard and did little to help its struggling music label. While the group struggled on vinyl, they ruled live. The label took the live show KISS fans paid good money for and made it into a live album that would start the group's domination of the late 1970s.
Destroyer was followed by Rock and Roll Over, Love Gun, and Dynasty. Each attained platinum status and each moved the closer to rock-god status. Simmons, a.k.a. the Demon, Stanley, a.k.a. Starchild, Frehley, a.k.a. Spaceman, and Criss, a.k.a. Catman had become a huge act whose tickets could sell out in seconds. However, the band management kept pushing for bigger and bigger promotion. Four solo albums were disastrously released on the same day, an amusement park was rumored but never built, and a movie flopped.
Tensions also tore at the success. Criss became upset and his drumming skills declined. In 1979 he left the group. Frehley was similarly fed up with a musical direction (concept albums) that he abhorred and soon after he would leave as well. The group tried to keep the departures quiet, but the unrest and altering lineups could not be denied for very long as the group's album sales fell sharply. KISS concert tickets also sold less and less, especially after they stopped wearing make up and Simmons became more interested in a movie career than a singing career.
