Ever since the moment I first got my hands on a fully intact vinyl copy of KISS’ 1979 Dynasty album via a secondhand find as a teenager, I’ve been a loyal, card-carrying member of the KISS Army. But the one and only time I was able to actually catch the band live back in 2012, I could not help but feel there was still something missing…namely the absence of beloved original guitarist Ace Frehley.
But after the week I had just endured, I wasn’t sure I’d even make it to Frehley’s show at the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, FL on Friday, June 21. It was both my sick wife Brooke, and teenaged son Jacob – who had been too young to see KISS with me all those years ago – that helped each motivate and convince me not to miss the Spaceman again by saying “But you love KISS!” (hard to argue with that logic!).
Local Orlando rockers Sick Dogs were still on stage by the time Jacob and I had arrived that night, and although they put in admirable enough effort, their harder-edged sound seemed slighty “off” for the setting. But the moment Frehley hit the stage with 1977’s “Shock Me,” I knew we had made the right choice to catch Ace (who claimed he was literally just dropped off in a car just moments before taking stage).
The immortal KISS anthem “Shout It Out Loud” followed before Ace dropped a new track, the catchy “Cherry Medicine” (which unfortunately a good portion of the crowd did not seem to care much about at all), but the epic Frehley’s Comet track “Rock Soldiers” from 1987 got everything back on track.
Another KISS classic followed in the form of “Love Gun,” which drummer Scot Coogan (also of L.A. Guns) took over the lead vocal duties for, though not before a slight “mishap” the first go-round as the band stopped the song early in it’s offset to berate the lighting techs for improper placement of the spotlight (I can’t make this up!).
The title track to Frehley’s latest album “10,000 Volts” gave the audience a much-needed jolt of electricity before going into “Parasite.” Then the intro to “God of Thunder” segued into a couple from Frehley’s 1978 solo album in the form of “New York Groove” and “Rip It Up.”
From that point forward it was all KISS classics (“Detroit Rock City,” “Cold Gin,” “Strange Ways,” and Frehley’s self-proclaimed, all-time personal favorite, “Deuce”), instrumental jams, and solos (complete with Ace’s signature smoking guitars, of course) before Ace and company (which also currently consists of guitarist Jeremy Asbrock and bassist Ryan Cook, each of Gene Simmons’ solo band, too) exited stage.
Of course things could not simply end there though; within minutes, the band was back on stage to close things out with arguably one one of the biggest rock anthems of all time, the immortal (albeit overplayed) “Rock and Roll All Nite.” It was the only fitting end cap for a night already full of legendary rock, from one legendary rocker.
