Kiss was on a really long tour. The biggest glam rock band of all time has been playing its End of the Road tour for the past four years, and wrapped up its final farewell tour on Friday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Kiss has done several farewell tours, but this time might be a good one.
At the end of the show, after Kiss finished playing its last song („Rock and Roll All Night”), they disappeared in a hail of fire and smoke. After the smoke clears, the lights go down, and on a screen backstage, a camera zooms in on the silhouettes of four figures across an eerie lake on a fantastical planet: the new digital avatars of Kiss, what I think I’m meant to be. their final form. Then Paul Stanley shouts:
„Army of kisses, your love – your power – has made us immortal. A new era of kisses begins now. Oh yes!”
Here is a video of it.
Another shows off the coolest aspect of this part of the show: translucent screens with footage of the band projected onto them, giving the show a decidedly futuristic look. Blade Runner feel
The Avatars „perform” a song, then the video ends and leaves the audience with an image of the four Avatars under a stylized KISS logo superimposed with the phrase „A New Era Begins”.
The „new era”, of course, is one of making money from avatars. The company behind the show, Pophouse Entertainment, has already been doing its ABBA Voyage show with young, digital versions of ABBA for more than a year. Kiss, a band that has doggedly commercialized its image for half a century, seems perfectly suited for such a partnership.
Pophouse said A press release announced today that Kiss will perform „high-speed, avatar-powered” concerts using Industrial Light & Magic-created avatars.
It’s no surprise to see big acts like Kiss tap into digital entertainment – after all, these guys made a ton of money using an image they created, so why not keep that cash flow open?
Do people really want to go see a „live” show without live performers? Yes, I think they absolutely do. Bloomberg reported Those ABBA Avatar shows are bringing in $2 million each week. And Variety wrote Last week the Eras Tour concert video surpassed $250 million in worldwide box office sales. Kiss and its incarnations could do well — try to find out more about the band’s future This 22 minute conversation About their transformation into avatars.