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2000-into the future

The “Kiss world” since 1999 has been strange. In one way it has been almost kind of schizophrenic. One day Kiss has done/released something cool, and the day after they have done/released something that has made me embarrassed to be a Kiss fan.

The year started with Kiss telling the whole world about the farewell tour. On the interviews Ace seems to be “in another world”. The word was that he had got the flue (sure). I was actually pretty sad because it was all supposed to come to an end. The tour started and all reports seemed like the tour was much better than the Psycho Circus tour. The stage was much cooler any way..

I was dying to go to the States and see them once before they ended it all. But my economy would not allow it. Håkon went with a couple of other people from Kiss Army Norway, and had a really great time. Both on the Kiss concert and “Kiss sightseeing” in New York. I had told him to buy me Kisstory II and the “Farewell Tour” tour book. When he come back he had only bought the tour book. He had looked at Kisstory II and thought the book was so incredible bad for the price that he did not want to spend my money on it. Anyway I ordered it later, and he was right, it wasn’t worth the money I paid for it.

During this period I also started to collect all the KISSVISION tapes on DVD-R. It was time to replace all the VHS tapes. Not only was the quality much better but I also saved a lot of space.

Kiss toured Japan and Australia in 2001. André was abel to attend one of the shows on the Japanese tour when he was on vacation in Japan. On all the shows Peter Criss had been replaced by Eric Singer. It didn’t look very good with Eric in make-up. But it sounded a lot better. Eric is at least twice the drummer Peter is today.

In the fall Kiss released their box-set and Gene release his autobiography “Kiss and make-up”. The box-set was great. As a fan of Kiss demos there were a lot of new never before heard stuff on it. The different editions I found a little stupid as long as the music were the same on all editions. And when it comes to Gene’s book. Lets just say that I can understand that the other didn’t like him talking to much in the beginning of their career. Most of what the man has to say is pure nonsense in my ears. And I do think he has alienated a lot of fans with his rhetoric’s in the last couple of years. Neither is he able to remember the facts from his career correct. Not that I feel he has to remember everything. But he could at least check his facts before he put them into a book.

Gene and Paul did a lot of promotion for the box-set and the book in late 2001. Ace also appeared on Eddie Trunks Kissmas show together with Anton Fig just before Christmas.

In 2002 we saw the “Lane Bryant show” and the last appearance with Ace Frehley at the closing ceremony at the winter Olympics. For their next two appearances Tommy Thayer had taken his place.

Most of the information on the situation between Kiss and Ace we got through Eddie Trunk during this period. In most interviews Ace has seemed to be drunk or stoned. It almost seems like the only “real contact he has to earth” is that he can’t stand Gene and Paul. His bad mouthing of Gene and Paul during his “birthday bash” was more or less embarrassing and childish in my opinion.

The first sign of Peter returning to Kiss was he appeared in an interview for Gene’s “Tongue Magazine”, a great and honest interview. Gene’s magazine is usually quite simple minded in my view. But the Peter article and Bill Aucoin articles that followed later were great.

Kiss flew to Australia in the fall of 2002 to announce their Symphony concert in 2003. There was still an uncertainty to if Ace would be playing with them. On the press conference it was just Gene, Paul and Peter that appeared. Soon after Ace made it pretty clear, that the possibility for him appearing would be slim.

They the appeared on a the Ramones tribute album “We’re a happy family” with the song “Rock’n’roll radio” and I must admit that I think it’s the best they have sounded since Revenge, possibly since the 70’s.

In February 2003 they played “Symphony Show” in Melbourne. I must admit that I think the project was quite stupid. And I cannot still see the reason why they did it. But it turned out quite good. And it was a great way to introduce Tommy Thayer to the public.

I soon got the DVD’s for both the symphony show and the Japanese tour that followed. So it was quite clear that Tommy was the perfect replacement for Ace.

Now both the official CD and DVD from the Symphony show have been released. Especially the CD has started to collect dust, even if it’s quite good. The problem with the record is that it’s just another greatest hits record for me. And I have too many of them already.

The Kiss related events that have made me most excited this year is really the two Gene demo’s from his lunchbox edition of his last book (Sex, money, Kiss) and the Kiss/Aerosmith tour. The bootlegs I have heard from this last tour seems pretty good to me.

Then there is the future. I am not sure at all what that will bring. Kiss must release something new if they are going to continue in my opinion. The “nostalgia act” that tour right now will be fade away really fast without any new material. I know Gene has said that he doesn’t see any reason to record a new Kiss album. So we will just have to hope that he changes his mind.

At least we can look forward to solo albums from Gene, Paul and Peter next year. And maybe an European tour?