Added: Nov 18, 2008

From: TroppoSpacchiuso

Duration: 2:8

Rock legends Kiss performed a special concert in Melbourne's Albert Park after the Australian Grand Prix. The band, who have recorded 32 albums, will performed immediately after the March race. KISS concert was opened by Vanessa Amorosi. "Let me see - high octane, roaring horsepower testing the threshold of sound and speed. And then the Formula One Grand Prix!" enthused vocalist and guitarist Paul Stanley. "No way we'd miss this! We'll be firing on all cylinders and the audience will need their seatbelts."The Kiss concert will be free to all ticket holders and is the centrepiece of an impressive programme of events devised by organisers to entertain fans throughout the race weekend. "There have never been more reasons to go to the Grand Prix," explained Drew Ward the chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. "With Formula One racing more competitive than ever, the V8 Supercars back in a new format, the Kiss concert and other new attractions planned, it's simply unmissable."The Australian Grand Prix will take place from March 14-16, 2008.It had topped nearly 40 degrees in Melbourne this Grand Prix Sunday. And the rev-heads who'd been standing in the pelting sun and drinking beer all day were surprisingly sedate as they waited, chatting amiably, for KISS as little kids in Starchild make up ran in between their parent's legs.The speaker stacks jumped suddenly in volume, as the Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again' blared over the crowd. You could feel it thumping through the ground, it's a throwdown if ever there was one. The giant black, KISS emblazoned flag dropped to hide the stage, and you knew they were behind there, the hottest band in the world! KIIIIIIIIIIIISS!!Frontman Paul Stanley said they had no intention of slowing down. "Good economy or no economy, we have no intentions of stopping," he said. "Kiss music is universal, ageless - we always find a new audience." Stanley was joined by Gene Simmons, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer. The band will play after the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday night. Hey! Fireworks! The flag drops and the band have hit the stage with 'Deuce', and close-ups on Gene Simmons face show that he is already blinking sweat and greasepaint out of his eyes. It's hot in the crowd; onstage under lights, surrounded by flames, wearing several extra kilos of spike laden costume and facepaint . Paul Stanley gets off easier wearing only a unitard up to his waist. if you're a dude pushing sixty and looking like that, you'll be happy. Or you'll be Iggy Pop. If you're still letting rip, screaming for high notes and just about getting them all, you'll be happy about that, too.Gene Simmons spits blood during his bass 'solo' (come on, showman yes. Great musician? No) and the effect is still awesome, even after the countless thousandth time -- awesome because you can see that he is loving it. It seems with so much of KISS' enterprise, that the music, the show, is the last thing that ever happens with the giant branding industry which swirls around it and its 100 extra-curricular activities. But when the Demon is winched straight up in the air on a wire and planted in his 8 inch heels on a lighting rig 10 feet above the stage, legs wide and roaring out 'God of Thunder' like his life depended on it, you can be reminded that this, is rock and roll. "If you wanna be lectured to by someone at a rock and roll show, you're in the wrong fucking place tonight!" Paul Stanley shrieks to the crowd, chewing out some equally well know and equally huge rock bands who use the stage as a political vantage point. "If you wanna hear bad news, turn on the TV. THIS IS A KISS SHOW!" And what is that? Pure, unadulterated escapism for 2 hours. It's like being in a circus. Not to be outdone, Paul Stanley flies on a wire over the crowd and lands on a small stage in the middle of the field and tears into 'Love Gun'. The encore takes us through 'I Was Made For Loving You', a disco riff so ferocious not even Blondie came up with it. Gene Simmons spits fire. By this point, pretty much everything on the stage is on fire. 'I Wanna Rock and Roll All Nite' is capping off the show, and there are confetti canons showering the crowd in silver shards. There's flames shooting up from the stage. There's those pinwheel fireworks covering the backdrop, there's actual fireworks in the sky. There's fit-inducing strobes going off, there's a showering curtain of golden sparks falling to the stage. Somehow KISS avoid spontaneous combustion and scream out "We'll never forget you!" And it was good.

Channel: Comedy

Tags: gene  grand  kiss  melboure  paul  prix  simmons  stanley 

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