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Kiss brings 40 years of rock history to the stage

Kiss takes its 40th anniversary tour to Irvine on July 5 and the Forum on July 8

Published: July 3, 2014 Updated: 4:02 p.m.

Fresh off its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Kiss is on a co-headlining tour with Def Leppard.

Irvine: 7 p.m. Saturday, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, $40-$179

Inglewood: 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., $39.50-$99.50

Earlier this year, Kiss received a big dose of vindication when the original edition of the band – singer/guitarist Paul Stanley, bassist/singer Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss – were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Today’s edition of Kiss – with guitarist Tommy Thayer having replaced Frehley and Eric Singer on drums – is following up that event with a tour that marks the 40th anniversary of the group, which comes to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on Saturday and The Forum in Inglewood on Tuesday on a co-headlining tour with Def Leppard.

When the band came on the scene in 1973, music fans hadn’t seen anything quite like Kiss, with groundbreaking pyro-filled stage shows and the makeup and costumes that the original band members wore.

Looking at the world today with pervasive social media, camera phones and the public’s hunger to know as much as possible about its celebrities, Stanley doubts that Kiss could have kept the secrecy that came with the makeup and helped create a larger-than-life image for Kiss.

“I think that certainly in all walks of life in terms of public figures, there is a certain mystique that is gone because everything is known,” Stanley said during a mid-June teleconference interview with a group of reporters. “I think mystique is healthy. And I think to glamorize and fantasize is a good thing. I’m not sure that Kiss could have accomplished what we did initially in this time because (in the ’70s and ’80s) we could make sure that photos weren’t available and the paparazzi didn’t have photos of us out of makeup. We could create this mystique.”

The commercial breakthrough came with the 1975 concert release, the double LP, “Alive.” Featuring the hit “Rock and Roll All Nite,” it opened the door to a string of hit studio albums that continued through 1979’s “Dynasty.” Simmons, in a separate late-June phone interview, said the group could sense that something was happening by the time of “Alive.”

“It wasn’t about the albums,” Simmons said. “It was about the crowds getting bigger and bigger. And it was about the fervor, how crazy the fans were getting. So we weren’t looking at the charts or the numbers or anything like that because remember, we’re playing five and six shows a week. ... But we did realize that within a year and a half of our debuting, we were playing Anaheim Stadium, headlining.

“We knew something was up,” he said. “We don’t have any hit singles, and here we are (in Anaheim) headlining over all sorts of bands who have been around for decades.”

So with the Rock Hall induction in the rear-view mirror, Stanley, Simmons, Thayer and Singer are doing what they consider far more important than awards – playing live. This summer’s 40th anniversary tour (with Def Leppard as the opener), Stanley promised, will more than live up to past live extravaganzas.

“I believe that this is the greatest and really the best stage that we’ve ever had,” Stanley said. “The band is firing on all cylinders, so between that and the fact that we’re psyched up for this and we’re celebrating our 40th year, we’re out there to do a victory lap, although the race isn’t over yet. There will be more races. But this is a celebration of everything we’ve done until today.”

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