From the moment they first graced a club stage in 1973, envisioning themselves as the star children of Alice Cooper, the Beatles and the New York Dolls, Kiss have introduced themselves as “The Hottest Band In The Woooooorrrrld!” even when no one had ever heard their name. Never has anyone better worn the adage: dress for the job you want, not the one you have.
“You wanted the best, you got the best!” booms a voice over the PA, and over the heads of 20,000 fans gathered at the stadium hosting the Sydney leg of the band’s End of the Road tour – an allegedly final string of shows that began in 2019 before being endlessly interrupted by Covid. Down comes a huge, black Kiss-emblazoned curtain as pyrotechnics erupt, fireballs shoot towards the ceiling and four grown men in shiny black and silver clown costumes stomp out in unison to the opening riff of Detroit Rock City. Paul Stanley wails triumphantly, “I feel alright/On a Saturday night!” and we do too, already beaming at the unfettered rock’n’roll theatre of the absurd that is Kiss. (Detroit Rock City is about a young fan dying in a car wreck in his haste to get to a Kiss concert – which seems a huge bummer of a way to start a show, but as with all things Kiss, you just don’t think too hard about it.)
