The US rock band Kiss (“Detroit Rock City”, “I Was Made For Loving You”) wants to give its last concert on Sunday night. In their hometown of New York City, the masked cult band around the two founders Paul Stanley (71) and Gene Simmons (74) will perform in the famous Madison Square Garden, finally ending their farewell tour after five years.
The “End Of The Road” tour began in January 2019, was interrupted during the corona pandemic and then extended several times.
“New York City has been a part of our ethos and history for more than four decades,” Kiss wrote on their Instagram channel, “that’s why we found it fitting to crown our careers on stage at Madison Square Garden.” The farewell concert will be in the paid Broadcast live stream on the internet.
Debut in New York in 1973
Kiss made their debut in a New York club in January 1973 and within a few years had become one of the most successful rock bands in the world – thanks in part to spectacular stage shows with lots of fireworks. The band had already completed a farewell tour once. But after the “Farewell Tour” in 2000, Stanley and Simmons changed their minds and continued playing with a changed line-up.
In the dpa interview about the “End Of The Road” tour, which took Kiss to Germany several times, both Simmons and Stanley cited the “50 pound” stage costumes as the main reason for their departure. “If we stood on stage in sneakers and jeans, we could still play rock’n’roll when we were 90,” said Stanley, making people sit up and take notice. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the group temporarily took off their famous make-up and glittering costumes.
And Gene Simmons also leaves a small back door open. “I say it here and now, my hand on the Bible,” said the 74-year-old in a recent “Rolling Stone” interview. “It will be the last Kiss appearance in make-up.” Future Kiss concerts without masks and costumes are therefore not ruled out.
