KISS kicked off the summer 2021 leg of its “End Of The Road” farewell tour last night (Wednesday, August 18) at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The concert marked the band’s first full-length live appearance in front of an audience since March 2020.
KISS frontman Paul Stanley tweeted after the show: “FIFTEEN THOUSAND PEOPLE TONIGHT! Mansfield, You left me humbled. Thank you. My deepest attitude of gratitude.”
The band’s setlist was as follows:
01. Detroit Rock City
02. Shout It Out Loud
03. War Machine
04. Heaven’s On Fire
05. I Love It Loud
06. Lick It Up
07. Calling Dr. Love
08. Say Yeah
09. Cold Gin
10. Tears Are Falling
11. Psycho Circus
12. 100,000 Years
13. God Of Thunder
14. Deuce
15. Love Gun
16. I Was Made For Lovin’ You
17. Black Diamond
18. Beth
19. Do You Love Me
20. Rock And Roll All Nite
KISS‘s farewell trek was launched in January 2019 and was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but is now expected to last well into 2022.
KISS‘s current lineup consists of original members Stanley and bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, alongside later band additions, guitarist Tommy Thayer (since 2002) and drummer Eric Singer (on and off since 1991).
Formed in 1973 by Stanley, Simmons, Peter Criss (drums) and Ace Frehley (guitar), KISS staged its first “farewell” tour in 2000, the last to feature the group’s original lineup.
This past June, Simmons told a Philadelphia new outlet why “End Of The Road” is KISS‘s last-ever tour: “I’m 71, although I’m in great shape. The hand doesn’t shake. I never got high or drunk in my life. I never smoked cigarettes; I never did anything of that… So, we’re in great shape and we can’t wait to get out there and do what we do. But there is such a thing as getting off the stage while the getting’s good.
“I was a massive Muhammad Ali fan. He stayed in the ring too long,” he continued. “Go out on top. If you’re gonna go surfing, ride that tsunami — that’s a hundred-foot wave — and then don’t get back out there when there’s a little baby [wave]. Go out on top.
“So, we are going out one last time. We started off the New Year New Year’s Eve in Dubai, where it was completely safe, with the largest pyro show of any entity other than the military, and the Guinness book of [world] records was there to capture it. Hundreds of millions of people on earth recorded it, and so on. It was streamed. I hate streaming. I want people to witness it live. You don’t wanna watch a Godzilla movie; you wanna be in the city as it’s being destroyed when Godzilla‘s coming down. That’s what you want.
“So, we’re gonna go out on top,” Gene added. “I don’t wanna stay on stage too long. You don’t wanna ruin the legacy. So you can go to Las Vegas, play golf at the KISS golf course at the Rio hotel. You can go on the Kiss Kruises… You wanna have some pride in what you do, and don’t wait too long. It’s like picking fruit — pick that fruit when it’s ripe. Don’t wait too long; it’ll get rotten. There’s a point of diminishing returns. This is the right time. And we’re gonna do a hundred and 10 more cities around the world, and then we’re gonna hang up our boots. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be KISS in other forms. There’s a Netflix movie coming, our four-hour documentary, there’s gonna be a KISS cartoon. It’s gonna be Planet KISS — and by the way, that’s trademarked too — and you’re just all living in it.”
In its 48-year career, KISS has accumulated 23 gold and platinum albums — more than any other U.S. band.
