Kiss has been on a very, actually lengthy tour. The largest glam rock band of all time has been enjoying its Finish of the Highway tour for the final 4 years, and simply wrapped the ultimate present of its ultimate farewell tour in New York Metropolis at Madison Sq. Backyard on Friday. Kiss has executed a number of farewell excursions, however this time could be for good.
On the finish of the present, after Kiss completed enjoying its final tune (“Rock and Roll All Nite”), they disappeared in a hail of fireside and smoke. After the smoke light away, the lights went down, and on the display behind the stage, a digicam zoomed throughout a spooky lake on some improbable planet towards the silhouettes of 4 figures: the brand new digital avatars of Kiss, in what I suppose have to be their ultimate kind. Then Paul Stanley shouts:
“Kiss army, your love — your power — has made us immortal. The new Kiss era starts now. Oh yeah!”
Right here’s one video of it.
One other one reveals a a lot cooler side of this portion of the present: translucent screens with pictures of the band projected onto them, lending the present a decidedly futuristic Blade Runner really feel.
The avatars “performed” a tune, then the video ended and left the viewers with an image of the 4 avatars beneath the stylized KISS brand, superimposed with the phrase “A NEW ERA BEGINS.”
The “new era,” after all, is one in all getting cash from the avatars. The corporate behind the present, Pophouse Leisure, has already been doing so with younger, digital variations of ABBA in its ABBA Voyage present for over a 12 months. Kiss, a band that has doggedly merchandised its picture for half a century, looks as if a superb match for such a partnership.
Pophouse stated in a press launch at present that it’ll placed on “immersive, avatar-powered” live shows utilizing Kiss’ Industrial Mild & Magic-created avatars.
Watching large acts like Kiss use digital recreations of themselves isn’t shocking — in spite of everything, these are individuals who have made quite a lot of cash off of a picture they’ve created, so why not preserve that cash faucet open?
Do individuals actually need to go see a “live” present with no stay performers? Yeah, I feel they completely do. Bloomberg reported that these ABBA avatar reveals have been pulling in $2 million each week. And Selection wrote final week that the Eras Tour live performance video had handed $250 million in worldwide field workplace gross sales. Kiss and its avatars might do exactly wonderful — for extra concerning the band’s future, check out this 22-minute dialog about their transition to avatars.