The previous Kiss studio album, “Psycho Circus,” did little toprove that the band still had creative life in it.
The disc was billed as the return of the original Kiss, since itcame in the midst of the reunion of guitarist/singer Paul Stanleyand bassist/singer Gene Simmons with the two other originalmembers, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. “PsychoCircus,” though, ended up being a lackluster effort on a musicallevel, and far less than advertised when it came to being called atriumphant return of the classic Kiss lineup.
Instead, Frehley and Criss hardly played on that 1998 CD, withstudio musicians handling what ostensibly were their parts. Theband also had several outside writers contribute to roughly half ofthe songs.
So Kiss had something to prove when the band decided last yearthat it wanted to make a new studio CD. For one thing, this was anew lineup for Kiss, with guitarist Tommy Thayer making hisfull-fledged debut, and drummer Eric Singer, who since 1996 hasbeen the band’s drummer whenever Criss wasn’t in the lineup, backon board.
Interestingly, the band decided that if Kiss was going to failon this album —- the newly released “Sonic Boom” —- there wouldbe no one to blame but the band members themselves, as Stanley tookthe reins on the project.
“I think the most important thing that I noticed about thisrecord was it was really done well; one, there was no outsideproducer,” Singer said, commenting in a recent phone interviewabout Stanley’s role in the CD. “I think working with greatproducers can be a really great thing. People can get you to thinkoutside of the box or think of things differently than you mightordinarily do it, and sometimes bring a certain type of performanceout of you that you might not be able to get yourself. … Butultimately at this point, nobody knows how to make a Kiss recordbetter than Kiss. I think that was kind of the mindset.”
But it wasn’t just Stanley who went into “Sonic Boom” ready tostep up to the plate.
“Everybody went in with the attitude of hey, we know what wewant to do,” Singer said. “We want to make a rock ‘n’ roll record.We want to do it organically, which means us recording the recordlive, everybody playing on the record, no outside writers, nooutside musicians —- do it the right way, the real deal, like theway records were originally made.”
The decision to keep “Sonic Boom” an in-house project has paidoff. The new CD has been greeted by many reviewers as the best Kissalbum since such classic early releases as “Dressed to Kill,””Destroyer” and “Love Gun” —- and a CD that actually sounds muchmore like the work of the original Kiss than “Psycho Circus.”
The success of “Sonic Boom” represents a welcome turn offortunes for Kiss. The reunion tour of 1996-97 with the fouroriginal members was a major success as a live venture, but by theend of the decade, it appeared the band’s days were numbered. Inearly 2000, the band announced it would do a farewell tour thatwould run from that summer into 2001. Before the tour was over,Criss split with the group, and Singer, who had joined the groupafter the 1991 death from cancer of drummer Eric Carr, rejoinedKiss to finish the tour —- which, of course, turned out to be farfrom a final jaunt.
By 2002, Frehley had also played his final gig, with Thayerfilling that slot. When the band returned to the road in 2003 toco-headline a tour with Aerosmith, Criss had been brought back,prompting Singer to say he would never again play with Kiss. Thistime, Criss lasted only for about a year, and as shows becamesporadic during the next four years, it truly looked as if Kissmight actually fade from the scene.
But in 2008, with the 35th anniversary of the band’s formationin New York City looming, Kiss announced it would begin the “KissAlive/35 World Tour,” with Singer and Thayer joining Stanley andSimmons. Singer said he was angry at the band after it brought backCriss in 2003, although he had no complaints about the groupcashing in by reuniting the original lineup. Before rejoining Kiss,Singer said he cleared the air with Simmons and Stanley over theband’s handling of firing, re-hiring and firing again.
“I told Gene how I feel about how they dealt with me in certainthings,” Singer said. “I always understand the business side ofthings. It’s not called music friends. It’s called music business.I’m fully aware of that. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I getit. The only thing I ever said was, there is a way to do it, youknow? I’m a big boy and you should just tell people your intentionswhen you want to do something, just be aboveboard. That’s the bestway to deal with it. That way you keep the door always open. AndGene, he respects my opinion about it.
“But you know something, the relationship I have now with Geneand Paul and the band is the best it’s ever been for me,” thedrummer said. “They get along really good now, and they’ve hadtheir ups and downs. … How can you not have a relationship andexpect it to not be peaks and valleys? But once I came back, Iremember saying if I’m going to come back, then it’s got to beunder the right kind of situation. I don’t want to keep playing,literally, musical chairs. But I think when Paul called me up andsaid come back, he basically said, ‘This is what I want to do. Iwant you to play drums.’ And that was it.”
Playing drums with Kiss is exactly what Singer is doing as the”Kiss Alive/35 World Tour” continues, stopping Nov. 27 at the SanDiego Sports Arena. The stage show continues to be as spectacularas ever. In fact, Singer noted, the band has an entirely new stagewith high-tech video screens and the usual array of visualeffects.
Of course, some traditions continue.
“There are certain things that have become synonymous with Kiss,Gene breathing fire or Gene flying and spitting blood,” Singersaid. “Those kinds of things you have to do. … it would be acardinal sin to not have those certain Kiss staples, just likecertain songs that have to be in the set. It wouldn’t be rightwithout them.”
On the early part of the tour, the band played almost the entire1975 “Alive” album. But Singer said the set is evolving to include”Sonic Boom” material.
“As we get into fall, we’re going to start gradually working inmore new songs off of ‘Sonic Boom’ and morphing the set list,tweaking it as we go along,” he said. “But it’s a work in progress.We kind of (always) figured it was going to be ‘Kiss Alive 35’eventually morphing into the ‘Sonic Boom’ tour.”
Kiss, with Buckcherry
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27
Where: San Diego Sports Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., SanDiego
Tickets: $15.50-$126
Info: 619-220-8497 or ticketmaster.com
Web: kissonline.com
