KISS: STORY BEHIND THE SCENE

Like the music, the Kiss stage show has gone through a lot of changes over the past four years. But, be it musical or visual, the band is—and always has been—the heaviest of heavy metal!

Before they signed their record contract, obviously they had a lot less money to throw around. Back at the Hotel Diplomat, finances dictated that the stage be just a simple platform for the musicians and their instruments. The costumes then, for the same reason, were essentially black t-shirts, leather jackets, and black Danskin tights. While their makeup was less perfectly applied back in the early days before they’d had years of experience, it looked just about the same, with one exception—Paul. Did you know that as late as November 73 Paul wasn’t a Starchild at all? Instead, he painted a black Lone Ranger-style mask across his eyes!

By their first tour, of course, Paul was sporting the star. It was then that they also began to use the drum riser (which is much less complex and wouldn’t go as high) and the huge Kiss logo (which is still the same today). The costumes may have become slightly fancier (more rhinestones) and better made, but for the most part, their stage look and set remained unchanged until the Destroyer tour.

For that show, the band donned new, sleeker costumes, with Gene adding plastic shoulders and scaly plastic gargoyle feet. But the stage set was something else again! It weighed many thousands of pounds, required several large semi-trucks to carry it, and took a good twelve hours to set up. At this point, the band sometimes had to carry as many as fifteen roadies on tour with them!

The Destroyer staging was designed by the top Broadway design firm, Jules Fisher Associates, who also put together the sets for Bowie’s Diamond Dogs tour and the Stones’ last American trip. As specified by Kiss and their konsultants, the set looked like a destroyed city with crumbling turrets in front and a crumbling wall in back, both of which could be mounted by the musicians via several sets of stairs. Peter’s drum riser, on which there now rested two huge papier mache mastiffs as well as his drums, was larger than its predecessor, could travel higher into the air and, says Peter, was “a lot steadier.” In any event, the Cat was taking no chances and had his drums nailed to the platform! There were vertical flame-thrower machines powered by gas jets on either side of the band and, to the rear, there was a giant and complicated lightning bolt machine originally built for the movie Frankenstein -in the 1930s. It took the stage crew nearly six weeks to learn how to properly operate.this other Frankenstein’s monster! Due to the tremendous amount of traveling, ail the equipment broke down on occassion, and frequently it was a mad, desperate race with the clock for the crew to get everything in shape for a concert.

The new Kiss show, which we are about to see in the States, is completely different. Where the stage has always resembled* something out of medieval times, the new set is completely futuristic, being almost entirely constructed of clear lucite and chrome. To the rear of the stage are stairways again, but this time each step lights up as a member of the band steps on it. The drum riser will now have the capabilities to cantilever out over the first rows of the audience, as well as travel 20 feet in the air. In keeping with the changeover in the staging, the costumes have once again been altered, now looking like the spacey cover of Love Gun: Gene’s chest is bared and he is chained to his metallic top; Paul has rhinbstone stars on his sleeves and chains on his boots; Peter wears a sort of crossed bandoleros top and sports zippers all over his leather tights; and Ace’s spacesuit is now completely silver.

Can this heavy metal get any heavier??? We can hardly wait till the tour after this!