Kissology Vol. 3

[BubbaVO]

Many of us are still hacking away 30 years later thanks to that guy, no matter what he's done or what his low points have been over the years! I hear his newfound sobriety is supposed to be having a very positive impact on his playing. He always brought much-needed humor to the dickwad Gene $immons in interviews ("Awk!!").

I'll be sure to post a review post show...

Our first rock record was Rockn'Roll over. At that point, it was sayonara to Shini Suzuki. Hello Ace. He's still not the most technically proficient guitarist. But his solos definitely grooved and were lyrical. One of my guilty pleasures is playing New York Groove.

Glad to hear he's still sober. Please pass on best wishes to him.

Gene took himself way too seriously. Ace certainly was willing to ham it up. Even Paul would get fed up with it. There's a You Tube video out there with Paul just sticking it him with a look and Gene really getting mad.

The fact that Ace is still a draw and gathers this much traffic on a non-Kiss website sure is testament to his influence and staying power. Good for him!

[elduave]

BTW a friend in Atlanta was the first person to show Ace the hidden message from Gene and Paul under the tray in the CD case. She said he just looked at it for a minute or two but did not say a word.

Hadn't heard about that. What was the message?

My Ace encounter story was at Jaxx, long after the show was done. I was sitting on the stage with the girl that would bed me that night, Richie Scarlet, and Ace. Ace was eating chicken wings in a long leather coat, I was just kinda watching him, not really knowing what to say to my "hero" and first guitar inspiration. Finally I said, "wow, if I'd known I would be casually hanging with you I would have brought my Les Paul for you to sign". He said, "nah, I don't sign guitars anymore, people just sell 'em for profit". I said "well, good thing I didn't bring it". He continued to work on his chicken wing.

I'm going to see Aly and AJ on Friday.

[Steve Haynie]

Pull out your KISS My Ass CD and take the jewel case apart. The part that the CD snaps into has to come out. On the "inside" of the back cover there is a message that says something like "To Ace and Peter-- We couldn't have done it without you. Gene & Paul" in handwriting. You might be able to see it through the hole in the center of the snap thing. The jewel case on my copy was made of opaque plastic, but I have seen one in clear.

Ace made some fans mad by not signing guitars after a certain point. At the Atlanta KISS Expo some people were told that while in line with guitars. He would sign a pickguard as long as it was not attached to a guitar. Someone told me a story about somebody at another KISS convention showing up with one of those Washburn Ace Frehley models and getting so mad that Ace would not sign it he smashed his guitar outside.

At the same convention in Atlanta there was a guy set up selling guitars. He had a Les Paul with Ace's signature on it and kept trying to get a picture of Ace with or near the guitar. The price for a signed Les Paul Standard in the late 90's? Try around $3000 - 3500 when the guitar should have been around $2000 - 2500. (The same guy wanted way too much for a Gibson Ripper bass, and he sold a de-Kahlered Ibanez Iceman bolt-neck without a case to a non-guitar player for $400 when that guitar should have been $200 or less.) When Ace saw people upcharging a thousand bucks for a Les Paul because of his signature he stopped signing guitars.

[David B]

BTW a friend in Atlanta was the first person to show Ace the hidden message from Gene and Paul under the tray in the CD case. She said he just looked at it for a minute or two but did not say a word.

Hadn't heard about that. What was the message?

Ace + Peter

This album couldn't have happened without what the four of us started 20 years ago.

We miss you,

Paul & Gene

Eric, we'll never forget you.

[elduave]

Pull out your KISS My Ass CD and take the jewel case apart. The part that the CD snaps into has to come out. On the "inside" of the back cover there is a message that says something like "To Ace and Peter-- We couldn't have done it without you. Gene & Paul" in handwriting. You might be able to see it through the hole in the center of the snap thing. The jewel case on my copy was made of opaque plastic, but I have seen one in clear.

Thanks. I actually bought it on vinyl so, I had no idea!

[LordOfTheThighs]

For those who are going to see Ace play, a little of what to expect.

One of my fav Frehley written KISS songs:

Parasite

Ace is playing in Columbus Ohio in the near future. I'm hoping to make it to the show.

[MCChris]

Ace is supposed to be playing Atlanta around March.

Please, oh please do not let it be the same night Robin Trower is in my area.

You might also want to beg for the omission of "Rock Soldiers" from his set. Probably the worst song of all time, in any genre.

[Steve Haynie]

Correcting my previous post:

Ace will be in Atlanta in February!

December 27 Jaxx West Springfield, VA

December 28 Jaxx West Springfield, VA

December 29 The Norva Norfolk, VA

December 31 Crocodile Rock Allentown, PA

February 22 Center Stage Atlanta, GA

February 23 House of Blues New Orleans, LA

February 24 House of Blues Dallas, TX

February 29 The Bear's Den Niagara Falls, NY

March 9 Emerald Theater Mt. Clemens, MI

April 11 Astoria London, England

[cmatthes]

You might also want to beg for the omission of "Rock Soldiers" from his set. Probably the worst song of all time, in any genre.

It's a tie for Ace between that one and "Torpedo Girl".

Ugh!

[Jeff R]

February 23 House of Blues New Orleans, LA

I may have to try and make this one...

[Steve Haynie]

From blabbermouth.net

Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley and his new band — consisting of guitarist Derrek Hawkins, bassist Anthony Esposito and drummer Scot Coogan — kicked off a four-date East Coast mini-tour Thursday night (December 27) at the Jaxx nightclub in Springfield, Virginia. The group's setlist was as follows:

01. Rip It Out

02. Hard Times

03. Parasite

04. Snowblind

05. I Want You

06. Rock Soldiers

07. Shot Full Of Rock

08. Into The Void

09. Breakout

10. Stranger In A Strange Land

11. Strange Ways

12. New York Groove

13. Shock Me

14. Rocket Ride

15. Medley

16. Love Gun

17. Cold Gin

18. Black Diamond outro

19. Deuce

[cmatthes]

Replace "Rock Soldiers" with "2000 Man" (or even "Do Ya"!) and It'll be perfect!

[David B]

Replace "Rock Soldiers" with "2000 Man" (or even "Do Ya"!) and It'll be perfect!

"Stranger In A Strange Land" doesn't need to be there either.

[cmatthes]

-->

"Stranger In A Strange Land" doesn't need to be there either.

Yeah, if he wants to play that one now He's gonna have to play without an Ace in his deck!!

[LordOfTheThighs]

01. Rip It Out

02. Hard Times

03. Parasite

04. Snowblind

05. I Want You

06. Rock Soldiers

07. Shot Full Of Rock

08. Into The Void

09. Breakout

10. Stranger In A Strange Land

11. Strange Ways

12. New York Groove

13. Shock Me

14. Rocket Ride

15. Medley

16. Love Gun

17. Cold Gin

18. Black Diamond outro

19. Deuce

Drop Deuce, Love Gun, Black Diamond outro. These are obviously KISS songs which have much closer ties

to Gene and Paul, than to Ace. Swap them out with some other more Ace oriented songs. IMHO anyway.

The rest of the setlist is really cool.

After checking TicketBastard, I found that the Columbus show has been postponed. It was set for Feb 2, 2008.

Hopefully it'll get rescheduled.

[Steve Haynie]

At one time Ace said Deuce was his favorite of the old KISS songs. It may have been his audition song, too.

[Matt Mattson]

#2 is interesting to me on the set list. I wasn't aware he was covering my stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsJ0ebNHXIM

[cmatthes]

Tonight's setlist at JAXX:

Rip It Out (Ace blew the vocals a few times out of the gate and there was a big miscue from the band after the second verse, but they picked it up. He looked a little shaken at first)

Hard Times ( a couple more missed shots at the mike )

Parasite (rocked)

Snowblind

I Want You (Great vocal by the drummer!)

Rock Soldiers (My cue to take a piss)

Shot Full of Rock

Into the Void

Breakout

Stranger in a Strange Land

Strange Ways (Anthony Esposito sang, Ace air whammied)

Strutter

NY Groove (yes, the lightup Les Paul!)

Gimme Shelter (cover, no vocals)

Shock Me (Ace's solo was WAY overextended because the pyro/smoke in the Les Paul wouldn't catch for a long time. After it ended, and the house spotlight guy didn't get the clue and blew the strobe/fog effect, Ace grabbed the mike and said "Well that SUCKED!", but pulled it together and went into...)

Rocket Ride

<Encore 1>

Deuce

Love Her All I Can

Love Gun

<Encore 2>

Cold Gin

Black Diamond Outro

Got to sit and shoot the bull at the adjacent Chinese restaurant with Greg, Skeez and the ever-lovely Nitebob prior to the show - lotsa laughs, stories and photos! (I owe somebody a pink drink ) Thanks again gang!

There were some rough patches, but it was loud, fun and well, it was ACE. Too tired to do a more detailed review right now...the band was young, but VERY strong!

[BubbaVO]

There were some rough patches, but it was loud, fun and well, it was ACE. Too tired to do a more detailed review right now...the band was young, but VERY strong!

Thanks for the review. I was tempted to head over to Crocodile Rock...now, I'm not so sure. Messing up lyrics, pyro guitars that don't light, spot lights that didn't quite work...all that was missing was that he didn't step on a dwarf dancing around an 18" stonehenge. Ace in my memory banks is cherished. Don't see the point in messing that up now.

[cmatthes]

Thanks for the review. I was tempted to head over to Crocodile Rock...now, I'm not so sure. Messing up lyrics, pyro guitars that don't light, spot lights that didn't quite work...all that was missing was that he didn't step on a dwarf dancing around an 18" stonehenge. Ace in my memory banks is cherished. Don't see the point in messing that up now.

In all fairness, the lighting issue was the house (JAXX), not ACE's crew. I think that once he gets some shows back under his belt, things'll be fine. The band is damned good.

[alantigold]

<Encore 1>

Deuce

Love Her All I Can

Love Gun

I'm sorry, isn't "Love Her All I Can" one of the songs Kiss pulled out that Ace & Peter supposedly couldn't play?

Alan

[cmatthes]

I'm sorry, isn't "Love Her All I Can" one of the songs Kiss pulled out that Ace & Peter supposedly couldn't play?

Alan

I don't know anything about that, but the drummer sang it and it was REALLY well done.

[alantigold]

I'm sorry, isn't "Love Her All I Can" one of the songs Kiss pulled out that Ace & Peter supposedly couldn't play?

Alan

I don't know anything about that, but the drummer sang it and it was REALLY well done.

It was one of the songs trotted out on "Rock The Nation", I believe, and Gene (and maybe Paul) used it as an example of the kind of stuff they couldn't do w/Ace & Peter because they couldn't play it. So I'm glad to hear (because I forgot to ask) that it was well done. I'm through two discs of volume 3, and so far, I'm not seeing Ace & Peter as being major problems onstage. Offstage may very well have been another story, but I also suspect that Gene was looking for any excuse to jettison Ace & Peter to pay the other guys less.

Back to the Tiger Stadium show, it was definitely rough in parts, but not horrible by any stretch. Some missed notes here and there, but that's not unusual for the first full show of a tour. By far, I thought the worst moment was after the solo in "Deuce", and it was Mr. Stanley who derailed the train there. But the MTV footage was dynamite - they were very tight. The Dodger Stadium stuff so far has been pretty good. I'm still disappointed at how much they cut from the shows - and almost always Ace or Peter songs or vocals.

Alan

[Jason01]

I really wanted II 'cause of the Largo '79 bonus disc (my first KISS show) but the 1st one I bought had the wrong bonus disc and so did the others when I tried to exchange. So, if anyone has II with Largo bonus, I'll buy it off ya.

SH, I believe KISS performed Christine Sixteen on Letterman w/Gin Blossoms.

I'll have to check out the hidden stuff...

I got volume 2 with the largo bonus disk for christmas and watched it. I am a big Kiss fan and that bonus disk was the real reason I wanted to get it (Dynasty was my first LP). I watched the Largo disk anxiously and was hugely disappointed. The sound was crap, the video was bad, the band played like crap (paul even forgot the words at one point) and you could just see that the band was falling apart and no one was having fun anymore. If that show would have been my first exposure to the band there probably would never have been a second. That said though, there was also some really good stuff on Volume 2. The Sydney 1980 show was fantastic! The stuff in Rio with Vinny Vincent playing was cool to see too. If you've seen Kiss Exposed you've seen snippets of whats on here.

[elduave]

I really wanted II 'cause of the Largo '79 bonus disc (my first KISS show) but the 1st one I bought had the wrong bonus disc and so did the others when I tried to exchange. So, if anyone has II with Largo bonus, I'll buy it off ya.

SH, I believe KISS performed Christine Sixteen on Letterman w/Gin Blossoms.

I'll have to check out the hidden stuff...

I got volume 2 with the largo bonus disk for christmas and watched it. I am a big Kiss fan and that bonus disk was the real reason I wanted to get it (Dynasty was my first LP). I watched the Largo disk anxiously and was hugely disappointed. The sound was crap, the video was bad, the band played like crap (paul even forgot the words at one point) and you could just see that the band was falling apart and no one was having fun anymore. If that show would have been my first exposure to the band there probably would never have been a second. That said though, there was also some really good stuff on Volume 2. The Sydney 1980 show was fantastic! The stuff in Rio with Vinny Vincent playing was cool to see too. If you've seen Kiss Exposed you've seen snippets of whats on here.

Hey now! The Largo '79 show was my first Kiss show (3rd concert overall benind Beatlemania @ Warner Theater & Barry Manilow @ Kennedy Center). I'll buy the Largo disc off ya. All the local retailers I could find that where supposed to have Largo had the wrong disc packaged (duplicate of disc 2)!

I just realized I repeated the fuck out of myself. Doh.