Video of their first show
We've all played the game: If I could go back in time what would I change.
I know one thing I wouldn't change....spending unheard amounts of teen time totally focused on every frickin KISS poster Tiger Beat Magazine stuffed into their paperback bindings. The album covers poisoned the Rock n Roll stew while the introduction of comic books kept me from being acceptably normal.
I fail to hold the correct number of fingers required to count the number of times Montana made Baptist preachers and missionaries commanded, "Stopped listening to Kings In Satin Service!"
It forced me to buy paint. Oh hell yes and it burned when spread across this perfectly ripe Radio face. I swear to God I didn't get a single crud poppin pimple due to my special mix of Noxzema cream with acrylic blacks, reds, bright whites and grays.
I didn't want to be. I was the fifth member of KISS. Gene Simmons proved it backstage December 1985 when he didn't order bodyguards and unforgettably dressed women to escort me out the back door. My biggest regret was staying for the show. I still remember Ace Frehley replacement Bruce Kulick asking me why I was headed for the exit. My only response was, "Are you kidding me? Missing the show will cause pain. I have to go feel something because being back here with you guys tonight has made me effing numb."
My greatest KISS moment had nothing to do with the band. Artist to artist Paul and I stood together discussing the texture of paint on a canvas after its been mixed with Mont Blanc ink. I wasn't there to speak with or about the man behind the star. From the canvas we did speak. Offering technique rather than guitar picks and lyrics. Brush strokes that peaked the paint versus fingertips adding curve to a faded evaluation seemingly attractive enough to invite wanderers to believe in a communication of expression.
As for Simmons have sex with a billion plus women. I flat out don't believe it. The men of KISS were and still are comic book heroes designed to influence the mindset of teenage boys. The greatest marketing idea Gene ever came up with was the idea of convincing our organs that it's possible to be everything to everybody and have a lot of fun in the sheets. Just make sure you put on a raincoat.
January 30th, 1973 proved to be a pivotal day in many teen boys lives.
According to Classic Rock Magazine, less than 10 people witnessed the first live performances by Kiss at the Popcorn Club (soon to be renamed the Coventry) in Queens, N.Y. According to bassist Gene Simmons, the group was paid $50 for performing two sets that evening.
Simmons and guitarist / co-frontman Paul Stanley had recently left their previous group, Wicked Lester, recruiting drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley for their new outfit. Their goal, as Simmons explains in a series of anniversary posts on the band’s official site, was to “put together the band we never saw on stage.”
After their first manager quit, declaring the new band’s music “the worst crap he ever heard,” Simmons took over, cold-calling the Popcorn and convincing them to hire the band for a three-night stand for $150.
As you can see in this photograph from that era, the band’s trademark facepaint and costumes were still in an embryonic phase, but those first shows featured many of the songs on which the group would build their reputation in the coming years: ‘Deuce,’ ‘Black Diamond,’ ‘Watchin’ You’ and many more.
Since those humble beginnings, of course, Kiss rose in relatively quick fashion to the top of the music industry. By the end of the decade they were arguably the biggest rock band in the world, and to date the group has released 20 studio albums and pioneered the merchandising of rock music.
Frehley and Criss would leave the group in the early ’80s (returning for a few years in the late ’90s), but Stanley and Simmons endured several career ups and downs to earn the group its current place among rock’s most enduring and popular bands. They recently dominated the fan-voted 2012 Ultimate Classic Rock Awards, winning in six categories largely on the strength of their most recent album, ‘Monster.‘
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