YouTube user “fourtraxer ” has uploaded a 4K pre-show soundcheck video of “unmasked” makeup-less members of KISS performing the songs “Shock Me” and “Got To Choose” on Saturday, October 9 at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Florida.
Earlier this month, KISS frontman Paul Stanley said that the final concert of the band’s “End Of The Road” tour will likely happen within the next year and a half.
KISS launched its farewell trek in January 2019 but was forced to put it on hold last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“End Of The Road” was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but has since been extended to at least the end of 2022. The trek was announced in September 2018 following a KISS performance of the band’s classic song “Detroit Rock City” on “America’s Got Talent”.
“I believe strongly by the beginning of 2023 we will be finished,” Stanley told Ultimate Classic Rock in a new interview, adding that “it seems only natural [for the final show] to be in New York. That is where the band started, and that was really the background for the band getting together and writing these songs and played loft parties and played clubs starting with an audience of probably 10 people,” he said. “It seems we should go full circle.”
Stanley went on to say that unlike KISS‘s 2000-2001 tour, which was also supposed to be its last, “End Of The Road” will truly be the last time KISS performs live. “It’s a different time than we had pondered [farewell tours] in the past,” Stanley explained. “The fact is that, physically, it’s incredibly demanding to do what we do. Look, we played [recently] in Austin, an outdoor show, 100 percent humidity. We’re running around for two-plus hours, not only with guitars, but I’ve got 30-plus pounds of gear on. There’s a point where you go, ‘You know what? This is more challenge than I want.’ And I only want to do it as long as I can do it smiling.
“There’s really no thought about changing our minds,” he continued. “It has nothing to do with personalities in the band or tensions or a difference of opinion or musicality. It’s purely practical. You can play beat the clock, but ultimately the clock wins.”
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, drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley, KISS‘s first “farewell” tour in 2000 was the last to feature the group’s original lineup.
