Kissing is history, but Gene Simmons is having a blast calling up his life band with the new tool he has up his sleeve. A night of kissing without being a kiss was experienced last Tuesday at the Guíxols Arena, in the wildest night to remember in the annals of Porta Ferrada.
A metal evening, yes, doubled by the previous appearance of two bands leading up to the raised fist and a sea of black shirts on the track. Motörhits, a professional tribute band, put us in a situation with a real tribute to the late Lemmy Kilmister. A tanned frontman, with his sideburns and Rickenbacker bass, and merciless assaults on Death Row, Iron Fist, and Ace of Spades. And then Opus, the band that in the 80s represented the essence of the genre’s makara metal with two of its original members, spokesman Forto, with his vocal cords in miraculous health, and guitarist Paco Laguna.
Gene Simmons’ band finally appeared, sounding compact and faithful to the Kiss sound from the early days: the distant Deuce, the crushing war machine and the rarity that deserves not to be, Are You Ready? The great bass master, with his powerful, style-defining voice, is a wandering icon, but he’s ready to offer up funny commentary in Philo-Mexican Spanish (“muchas gracias, putos pendejos”) and welcome four very young fans on stage (with their faces plastered in old-fashioned costumes) to share the powerful melody of “Love It Loud.”
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We’ve seen Simmons revel in the degree of freedom and improvisation afforded him by this band, in which he’s not the sole singer, allowing him to shed his responsibilities. Drummer Brian Tichy belts out Motörhead’s Ace of Spades (yes, again). The group fits into this category of license, as does the amazing Van Halen House of Pain version of a 1970s demo (which Simmons produced). And some semi-obscure classics, like Parasite and Charisma, cross over into a full-fledged milestone like Shout It Loud.
It was a fun concert for fans who might have longed in the past to go beyond the traditional rock script of Kiss Stadium, albeit with a little bit of informality floating around with a few drops of tension: long dialogue on guitars, chattering with new variations of childhood songs. Fans and girls singing. Because the latter have the honor of singing with Gene Simmons, The Demon, the always exciting rock and roll all night long.
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