KISS... the new ABBA

Philly_Q

From the people who brought you the ABBA Voyage show in London... just when you thought (or more likely didn't think) they were going away, KISS are continuing as avatars!  Well, this comes as a total surprise...

https://blabbermouth.net/news/kiss-announces-new-era-plans-to-continue-as-avatars

RocknRollDave

Creaky band who can’t sing very well anymore more replaced by younger, more tuneful version of themselves.

Philly_Q

I wonder how long it will be before they morph the Eric and Tommy avatars into Peter and Ace?

stickyfiddle

This isn't remotely surprising. The real band was due in Dubai in October but cancelled. I have a feeling they struggled to sell tickets because this is the 21st century... 

axisus

I actually love the idea of this stuff. I think waaaay in the future, they will find new ways of recreating the stars of today playing on stage for a live experience. I'm not surprised that KISS are in early on this, Gene knows business!

merlin

Apparently they cancelled because it's now illegal in The Emirates for men to wear codpieces in public. 

fretmeister

It was decades ago that they said they wold recast their 'characters' when they couldn't do it anymore.
I'm not surprised - this was always the general plan, just that the new tech allows them to do it without paying as many people!

Philly_Q

In the Blabbermouth article, Gene also mentions continuing with actual live shows using stand-in musicians, although that was in an earlier interview before this avatars announcement:

"The KISS show will live on in different ways. Yes, that's being planned. It'll also be four to ten different traveling shows. So, you'll be able to be in Japan and have Japanese actors, musicians being us, and at the same time you could go to Vegas or New York or London."

digitalkettle

KISS...waste of a good disco band.

monquixote

They've been openly talking about doing this for years.

I think technology has just got to the point where it's now possible.

Philly_Q

Oh yeah, it's no surprise, they had indeed talked about continuing in some manner.  I just think it's interesting that they didn't even wait until the end of their "last ever" show at Madison Square Garden before announcing this.  No messing about!

EricTheWeary

Anyone wanting to trawl back through the annals of The FB will find that I suggested this. I want royalties! 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Anyone wanting to trawl back through the annals of The FB will find that I suggested this. I want royalties! 

Gene will drag you through every court on the planet to deny you that opportunity.

octatonic

Can I have an avatar of me attend so I don't have to bother?

scrumhalf

Will the avatar of Gene's syrup look more like hair than the syrup itself? 

prowla

octatonic said:

Can I have an avatar of me attend so I don't have to bother?

That'd be great - an audience of avatars too!

octatonic

prowla said:

octatonic said:

Can I have an avatar of me attend so I don't have to bother?

That'd be great - an audience of avatars too!

... and just as pointless.
I dont go to a rock band to hear the original recording.
I want them to play a version of the song, mix it up, improvise.
Not have it be the same thing over and over.

I've said before that a lot of rock music is more like historical reenactment than an art form.
You know those people who dress up in American revolution outfits and run around a field with a plastic sword.

When music doesn't evolve it goes stale and this is the pinnacle of that.
I can almost understand it with a group like Abba.
But a rock band.. why?

Frank Zappa said something quite profound about audiences, or at least one type of audience:

"Most people can't deal with that abstraction--or don't want to. They say: "Gimme the tune. Do I like this tune? Does it sound like another tune that I like? The more familiar it is, the better I like it. Hear those three notes there? Those are the three notes I can sing along with. I like those notes very, very much. Give me a beat.

Not a fancy one. Give me a GOOD BEAT-something I can dance to. It has to go boom-bap, boom-boom-BAP. If it doesn't, I will hate it very, very much. Also, I want it right away-and then, write me some more songs like that--over and over and over again, because I'm really into music."

This is for that sort of audience.

That is not me.

Philly_Q

octatonic said:

I dont go to a rock band to hear the original recording.
I want them to play a version of the song, mix it up, improvise.
Not have it be the same thing over and over.

That seems to be increasingly rare, though.  At least with the big name "legacy" bands.  We hear more and more about artists "playing" to pre-recorded tracks.  But I'm sure there are still many rock bands further down the tree playing the old-fashioned way.

As you say, the two (or more) approaches are for different sorts of audiences.

Philly_Q

scrumhalf said:

Will the avatar of Gene's syrup look more like hair than the syrup itself? 

Well, it's based on the wig he wears onstage.  So yes, it looks much more like hair than his "real" hair.

distressed

I wonder how many "good old days when things were real" boomers would it attract.

RocknRollDave

stickyfiddle said:

This isn't remotely surprising. The real band was due in Dubai in October but cancelled. I have a feeling they struggled to sell tickets because this is the 21st century... 

I remember reading years ago that the reunion concerts in London (possibly Finsbury Park? I forget) back in, I think, the 90’s (?) didn’t sell well, and the plans for the perimeter fences were regularly getting brought in tighter and tighter for the smaller-than-originally expected crowd.

For credibility, this was part of a discussion between various British concert promoters regarding the then-current state of UK festival/ large gig ticket sales in Select magazine.

KISS simply aren’t particularly big in the UK, and I suspect this is echoed in other territories.