Photo Gallery: KISS at United Center

Brassneck | March 3, 2019

Gene Simmons of KISS

“The End Of The Road” is certainly an ominous sounding thing to call a tour. But that’s precisely what KISS is doing as they enter their fourth decade as a band. Is it a farewell? Well, considering that they’ve used that phrase before, know one knows for certain. But if it is indeed the harbinger of finality, the Detroit quartet is going out with a bang. Their performance this past weekend at Chicago’s United Center left no flash pot undetonated, no laser light not illuminated, no rock and roll cliche left unchecked and not single fan set home disappointed.

KISS have always been the “fans’” band. Guitarist Paul Stanley stated during the performance that the now inducted Rock And Roll Hall of Fame’s are actually despised by said institution. It-paraphrasing here-was the will and determination of their fan base that made it happen. Also evident was that the band has transcended some three generations of music fans at this point, with families, some adorned in matching kabuki face paint, treating each performance as a nuclear-units-night-on-the-town.

So, if it is indeed the end of an era, a packed house reveled in spit up blood, fire breathing bass players, a guitarist who flies through the arena and a drummer whose riser takes him two stories into the atmosphere for a solo. In other words, what KISS has, for forty years strong, typically called just another Saturday night!

– Recap and gallery by Curt Baran