There was no better way to end the DTE Energy Music Theatre’s 2021 season than with the band that branded Detroit Rock City.
Mike Ferdinande / For MediaNews Group
Kiss performs at DTE Energy Music Theatre Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. (Mike Ferdinande / For MediaNews Group)Kiss shouted it out loud for two unapologetically bombastic hours on Friday night, Oct. 15 — a month and a half later than planned due to COVID-19 infections contracted by band co-founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. But better late than never, as the saying goes, and the stalwart Kiss Army, more than 10,000 strong, braved rain and chill to get one more look and listen to the band on its End of The Road farewell tour.
Seeing Kiss IN Detroit Rock City — where the group recorded much of its breakthrough 1975 “Alive!” album — is different than most anywhere else, of course. “No city has treated us better than Detroit,” Stanley declared early during Friday’s show, recalling appearances at the Michigan Palace and Cobo Arena. Detroit’s name was invoked repeatedly throughout the night, and vintage footage shown during the concert hailed from the Michigan Palace as well as Kiss’ famed 1975 visit to Michigan’s Cadillac High School.
Friday’s setting also made this show perhaps a bit more special. DTE’s tight set-up brought the quartet more up-close and in-your-face than an arena, with side wings that put the band members within spitting — or, in Simmons’ case, blood-spewing — distance of the front rows. The explosions were a little louder, the fireworks brighter, the sound more impactful. When Stanley flew overhead to the center of the DTE pavilion for a couple of late-show songs, he felt practically on stage with the fans surrounding him.
The members of Kiss are seasoned pros, of course, so any show is going to be unlike anything else on the road. But on Friday the band played with a palpable extra exuberance and a visible comfort at being “home.” Stanley’s smiles were genuine, and the playful back-and-forth between he and Simmons about the vocal harmonies before “Black Diamond” was a loose exchange they might not engage in elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Kiss gave the multi-generational Army — plenty of family “outings,” lots of folks in band make-up — all the totems they’ve come to expect from “the hottest band in the world.” The opening “Detroit Rock City” alone offered more pyrotechnics than most bands have in an entire show, with the group lowered to the stage on airborne platforms. Guitarist Tommy Thayer “shot” the lights out — loudly — during his post “Cold Gin” guitar solo. Eric Singer levitated and executed some engaging camera choreography during his drum solo. Simmons, per usual, blew fire at the end of “I Love it Loud” and spit blood before being lifted to the rafters for “God of Thunder.”
The 20 songs took a troll through Kiss’ catalog, right up to 2009’s “Sonic Boom,” and, as is also usual, demonstrated a musical heft Kiss seldom gets credit for. There was an understandable focus on the group’s first two and half years of recording, with plenty of tracks from “Alive!” and 1976’s “Destroyer,” but deep cuts like “War Machine,” “Heaven’s On Fire” and “Say Yeah” held their own alongside the likes of anthems such as “Shout It Out Loud,” “Deuce,” “Love Gun” and “I Was Made For Loving You.” “Lick It Up,” meanwhile, morphed into part of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” with Stanley and Thayer recreating that song’s synthesizer pattern on their guitars, building to its famous scream before going back into the main song.
Interestingly, there were no words of farewell on Friday despite Kiss’ stated intent to end its touring career by the end of 2022. If the confetti-filled “Rock and Roll All Nite” was the last we’ll see of Kiss in these parts, it’s been a memorable run. But if the band decides to squeeze in one more visit to Detroit Rock City before the road really ends, it gave the fan corps plenty of reason to be there yet again.
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