bearkiss

got an email sunday saying tune into the official kiss website at www.kissonline.com at 3pm edt monday for a major announcement...

and here it is:

KISS is celebrating 35 years of rockin' the world like no other band has ever done before. The legendary band, currently touring soccer stadiums of South America, announced from Brazil today that their upcoming U.S. and Canadian tour will be the world's first to put fans in charge of where their favorite artist plays. By partnering with Eventful, the leading social media company for events, fans will "Demand" where KISS will perform on their latest trek across the top-voted North American markets beginning this September. No matter where the fans say — from stadiums to cornfields — if there are enough votes, KISS will be there! And in order to keep the competition fair for smaller cities, final site selection will weigh population size versus total votes.

Today at the zero hour of exactly 3:00 p.m. EDT, an official video announcement by the band's Paul Stanley, Eric Singer, Tommy Thayer and Gene Simmons (see video at KISSonline.com) kicks off this first-ever promotion. Immediately following the video's debut run, fans across the U.S. and Canada can cast their votes at www.eventful.com/KISS to have their town included on the KISS 2009 North American tour. Fans will be able to vote, and check the tally of what cities are in the lead, 24/7 across the Web at the previous sites; as well as on KISS' MySpace and Facebook, Ticketmaster's KISS page, VH1Classic.com, and many more.

Even after garnering more than 30 gold and platinum records and in excess of 90 million albums sold worldwide, KISS continues to prove the band makes the fans their #1 priority.

"KISS has never followed the rules — we have always broken them. KISS has never listened to critics-we have always listened only to the fans," said Gene Simmons. "It's time to give back to the fans with bigger shows and longer set lists. And for the first time anywhere, we want our fans to tell us where they want us, and when."

Said Paul Stanley, "No band has ever given their fans the power to decide what cities they play, and no fans deserve it more than ours. We're leaving the next U.S. and Canadian tour up to the Army. When they stand up, they will be counted!"

Just for voting for their town, all KISS fans will have the opportunity to purchase pre-sale tickets prior to the general on-sale. In addition to joining in on the major campaigns launched by rock radio in each city, fans are also incentivized to create their own viral videos online, motivating their fellow residents to participate in casting votes for a KISS show in their city. City-specific "best-of" compilation reels of these videos will be shown on jumbo screens at venues before each concert.

On this upcoming tour, fans will be treated to a set of some of rock's greatest hits, including "Rock and Roll All Nite", "I Was Made for Lovin' You", "Detroit Rock City", "God Gave Rock & Roll to You" and "Shout It Out Loud", among many others. The band is currently recording its first new studio album in 11 years (produced by Paul Stanley).

Supermallet

I went ahead and requested they play in Los Angeles, which I'm sure they will anyway. Now if only I could choose the specific venue.

Hokeyboy

Christ.


So much for South Florida. At the very least, I can hope for Tampa or Orlando.

cdollaz

Cool idea.

Imprint

I vote they play on the lawn of the Hall of Fame.

B5Erik

I'd have to take time off of work and fly in if they did that. That would be hilarious - and a great way to mock the voters of the HOF.

Hokeyboy

Holy cow, Miami metro was #11 last time I checked. Hope springs eternal!!!

And not for nothing, but that IRON MAIDEN show last week was pretty damn sweet.

Finally heard "Children of the Damned" live for the first time! But alas, no "Prisoner".

chino77

as much as i hate kiss. this is pretty cool.

cungar

Rest assured this will provide more ammunition for Gene and Paul to boast about why KISS is the greatest band ever.

Supermallet

They don't actually need ammunition at this point. They're going to say it anyway.

bigjim25

Wonder if they'll play Detroit

Giantrobo

Pretty much

islandclaws

I guess this is good if you live in the sticks or something, but I live in SoCal and there isn't a snowball's chance in hell they won't be playing near me. I know exactly what venues they'd perform at, so requesting my local city won't do much.

Personally, I hope they play Irvine Meadows.

B5Erik

That's what I'm hoping for.

BearFan

Too bad they are not letting people voting on the set list or who wears whose makeup

Rypro 525

i wonder if this means that per it getting enough votes, they would actually play a club or 2

nodeerforamonth

I wouldn't be against that only if they contacted everyone who voted for the club show and gave them first dibs on tickets for the club show. (No use voting for a show you have no chance of getting into!)

lovgun7

i gotta be honest ... IM A HUGE KISS FAN ... but they seem to refuse to admit that here in the states the pretty much lost alot of steam and i think them touring here has pretty much run its course ... if they play L.A ill buy a ticket but this is just a way for them to go around the fact that a full blown U.S tour wont as big a money maker as them touring over seas.

Hokeyboy

I'll see KISS if they come to my town, and I'm a HUGE fan, but it's not like I'll be as gung-ho nutball to see them as I was for, say, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Van Halen, etc. Heck, even seeing Ace Frehley last year was more exciting.

The fact is, they're most likely doing a "Greatest hits" setlist that they've played a zillion times before. I'd much rather have them do a club tour -- even without make-up, whatever -- and do some more obscure stuff, songs they rarely or never play, great material like "Magic Touch", "X-Ray Eyes", "Rain", "Jungle", "Love Theme From Kiss", "Two Timer", ... etc. etc.

Ah well. Groin.

astrochimp

Cant believe they are playing at Casino Rama here,or will it be "Kissino Rama"?

bearkiss

I agree completely with the set list - I just saw the set list for the brazil shows from last week and it's the exact same one they've been doing for the last 6 tours! (alive 35, rock the nation, world domination, farewell, psycho circus, & reunion)... I'd give anything to be able to vote on the set list! that was the beauty of seeing the paul stanley solo tour 2 years ago - he played "magic touch" and "a million to one" - 2 kiss songs that had never been played by kiss ever!

Supermallet

Isn't this tour going to be in support of the new album? Hopefully they'll change some stuff up because of that.

bearkiss

I agree that I HOPE they do that... but even on their last "new album" tour with Psycho Circus, they only played 3 songs from it! And on their previous "new album" tour before that for the album Revenge, they also only did 3 from it! In fact, that's about the most they ever did from any new album in the 80's as well (Hot in Shade, Crazy Nights, Asylum, Animalize, Lick it Up)... you have to go back to the 1982 Creatures tour to see a tour where they played heavily from the new album!

B5Erik

Actually, on the Revenge tour they played 5 new songs (Unholy, I Just Wanna, Domino, Take It Off, and God Gave Rock and Roll To You).

For the Lick It Up tour they played 4 songs per set from the new album (sometimes 5 - Lick It Up, Young and Wasted, All Hell's Breaking Loose, and Fits Like A Glove, with Gimme More occasionally being played).

But, having said that, I expect 3 songs from the new album, and considering the massive catalog of songs to choose from it's hard to take more than 3 slots away from classics.

Jason

I wonder if they're going to follow the pack and play one of the classic albums from start to finish. Be interesting if they played different ones in different cities, but that's probably too much to ask.