Sure, we all joked that Kiss' final show at Madison Square Garden on December 2 wasn't really the final show. But deep down, we knew that we weren't really joking – Kiss wasn't actually fully going away. This is the band that quite literally sold air guitar strings at one point – the Kiss brand as a live experience was absolutely not dying if there was still money to be made. Turns out we were all right.
Right at the end of their final show, Kiss announced that they would continue on as avatars and continue to "perform live." The avatars were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and were both financed and produced by Pophouse Entertainment, the same company who did London's Abba Voyage show.
"Kiss could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents. That's what you could do with this," said Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Entertainment, to the Associated Press.
Added Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley: "People say, 'Well, what are you gonna do when you stop?' Well, the band will never stop. Because we don't own the band. The fans own the band. The world owns the band.
"I mean, we've spent 50 years building it to this point. And by working with ILM and working with Pophouse, we're all sharing this vision of taking Kiss to a completely different level beyond being just a music band. And we've always thought of ourselves as more than just a music band.
"What we've accomplished has been amazing, but it's not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are. It's exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalized."
Said Kiss bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons: "We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we've never dreamed of before. The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he's ever done before."
I guess we'll see how this goes. The Dio hologram didn't do so hot, but the Abba Voyage shows was raking in $2 million per week at one point. Given this is Kiss, my guess is that it'll trend more toward the latter.
