KISS – KISS Rocks Vegas

The legendary KISS invaded and took control of a whole bunch of movie theatres and cinemas across the globe on 25 May by means of their glorious rock ‘n’ roll, more specifically the kick-ass concert movie entitled "KISS Rocks Vegas".

As the title suggests, the movie captures the band live on stage in late 2014 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, but there is more to it than that. We shall get back to that shortly. Luckily, the movie was screened at select cinemas in Norway, and naturally, we just had to check it out. Truth be told, I didn’t really get into KISS until a few years ago, which was only because my wife love their records and spin them all the time, but it didn’t take long to convince me that KISS is fucking awesome! Funny how that works. Anyway, "KISS Rocks Vegas" was, simply put, a blistering performance where Stanley, Simmons, Thayer, and Singer delivered every damn note with passion and intensity in front of a rapturous crowd that seemed to revel in everything KISS. I was really curious beforehand as to whether the movie would be all polished and somewhat artsy-fartsy in terms of how it was shot and edited, but, luckily, it was anything but that. In some ways, it was slightly rough around the edges, which only enhanced the splendid feeling of witnessing the band in real life. It was very hard not to clap between the songs, because it honestly felt like they were playing right in front of you.

The sound was crisp and clear, yet slightly raw too, which made it very dynamic and organic. The selection of songs was great with some of my personal highlights being "Parasite", "War Machine", "Black Diamond", "Creatures of the Night", and "Tears Are Falling". The stage show was bombastic and surreal in places, and was cool to just sit back and take it all in. The interview segments that preceded the actual concert movie were quite interesting to watch and a great way to introduce what we were about to see.

"KISS Rocks Vegas" was definitely a different and unique way of experiencing KISS live. It was very different to merely watching a concert film at home, for instance. This one was really captivating and fascinating. Sure, it will never compare to actually seeing them live in the flesh, but that is beside the point. I did overhear some fans say that they were disappointed in the selection of songs that KISS had chosen to perform, but the general feeling was that this particular movie ruled, and there was a lot of excitement in the air when the fans congregated outside the movie theatre afterwards. As to ourselves, we were smiling and humming KISS tunes all the way back home afterwards.