Kiss has been on a huge and long tour. The largest glam rock band of all time has been on tour for the last four years with its End of the Road tour, and it finally finished its final farewell tour in New York City at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Kiss has done multiple farewell tours, but this one might be the last.
Kiss makes a show to remember
After the band concluded their final song (“Rock and Roll All Nite”), they vanished in a storm of fire and smoke at the end of the show. After the smoke cleared, the lights dimmed, and a camera zoomed over a frightening lake on some wonderful planet towards the outlines of four figures: the new digital avatars of Kiss, in what I assume must be their ultimate form. Then Paul Stanley exclaims:
“Kiss army, your love — your power — has immortalised us.” The new Kiss era has begun. Oh, yes!”
Here is a video of one of them.
At its final show in Madison Square Garden, Kiss revealed ageless digital avatars that will go on to represent the band in entertainment.
Another depicts a far more interesting part of this segment of the event: transparent displays with images of the band projected onto them, give the show a distinctively Blade Runner atmosphere.
A video of the live performance- HERE
Innovation “kisses” the music stage
The avatars “performed” a song, and the video finished with a photo of the four avatars beneath the stylized KISS emblem, overlay with the slogan “A NEW ERA BEGINS.”
The “new era,” of course, is one of profiting from avatars. Pophouse Entertainment, the firm behind the event, has been doing so with young, digital versions of ABBA in its ABBA Voyage show for over a year. Kiss, a band that has relentlessly marketed its image for half a century, seemed to be a suitable fit for such a collaboration.
Pophouse announced today in a news release that it will host “immersive, avatar-powered” concerts with Kiss’ Industrial Light & Magic avatars.
It’s not unusual to see huge bands like Kiss utilise computerised recreations of themselves – after all, these are individuals who have made a lot of money off of an image they established, so why not keep that money tap open?
Do people really want to witness a “live” concert that doesn’t have any live performers? They most certainly do, in my opinion. According to Bloomberg, the ABBA avatar gigs are bringing around $2 million every week. Last week, Variety reported that the Eras Tour concert DVD had sold over $250 million globally. Kiss and its avatars should be alright – for more on the band’s future, check out this 22-minute talk regarding their avatar transition.