11/14: ACE FREHLEY TOUR KICK OFF REPORT
Hosted the kickoff of the Ace Frehley Space Invader tour in NJ last night. If you followed on Twitter I did song for song coverage and posted a ton of photos. Also posted a few on my FB. Like most tour kickoffs there were a few technical issues during the show but it wasn’t really a huge deal and Ace had fun with it. He is also working in a new band and I think after a couple shows under their belt things should be very tight. This band really is great! Richie Scarlett back in the fold is a huge addition. I always loved Richie’s playing, performance, voice and attitude on stage and he is a perfect wing man for Ace. Their two Les Paul’s sounded amazing all night and there was some cool dual guitar stuff as well. Scot Coogan also is a great re-addition to the band. He is a killer drummer and has a phenomenal voice which enables Ace to play many Kiss/Paul Stanley vocal era songs that he was a part of like “Love Gun”, “King Of The Nightime World” and others. Hearing Scot belt these out was really pretty awesome, especially when you consider how well he plays at the same time! Ace is only doing Kiss material he played on and was a part of and it sounded great with Scot singing. New bassist Chris Wyse sang lead on Strange Ways and he is a great player and rounds out what is a killer band with all able to sing lead. Because of the technical issues the nearly 2 hour set was trimmed and Deuce and Detroit Rock City were not played, but Ace told me he will toy with the set as he goes. 3 songs from Trouble Walkin were in the set including opener Lost In Limbo and two from the post Kiss debut (Rock Soldiers and Breakout which was dedicated to Eric Carr who co-wrote it). Nothing from Second Sighting or Anomaly. Cold Gin was the set closer. I posted a photo of the set list on my FB. I know there has been an outcry from some fans for deeper obscure Ace / Kiss tunes liked Dark Light, etc. He may very well work some of that up as he goes. But the simple truth is with any band playing deep tracks live it makes about 10% of the crowd happy and loses everyone else, so there must be balance. Trust me, I LOVE deep tracks from bands and I’m burned on the usual hits. But the huge majority are not. One example is when Ace played Too Young To Die, a great track I love from Trouble Walkin. About 80% of the crowd had no clue. It is a balance every band has to deal with. The major amount of people buying tickets just don’t know the deep stuff. So that’s why you get Kiss hits scattered in with the solo hits and deep tracks. Four songs from the new album were in the set, the title track, Toys, Gimme A Feelin and Change, although Change was scrapped due to a tuning issue (like I said, first night mess ups). As I walked with Ace to the stage to intro him he said “oh shit, I forgot to put Rip It Out in”! So no doubt that will be added very soon. The plan is for Ace to do the announced dates, then break for the holidays, then do more US shows and European festivals next year. I hope this band sticks together and enough people come out to support this tour and have it make sense and grow. It really was a fun, raw, loud rock show that was loud and punchy and loaded with a great variety of Ace/Kiss classics. All confirmed dates at www.acefrehley.com I’ll be at the second night at BB Kings in NYC. Win tickets to those shows in ET’s Box Office on this site.
Well to be honest with you I am not a fan of the Trouble Walkin album at all.I love the cover of Do Ya,and Five Card Stud is pretty good too,,but to me that album is just
so overrated just like the Kiss Revenge album is.Sorry but I’d rather hear Insane,2,000 Man,,Into The Void,Do Ya,and Into The Night.Shot Full Of Rock 2 Young 2 Dies and Lost In Limbo are lame and weak to me.Again it’s just my opinion.He also should end the show with Rocket Ride and then make Deuce the final song of the encore.I still say Ace should have reunited with Tod Howarth and John Regan.
The whole “deep cuts” live is an interesting conversation. At this point I’d argue the people seeing Ace Frehley live are pretty much die-hards and would FREAK if he played something like “Dark Light”. I think an obscure KISS tune would engage the audience more than an obscure Ace solo tune, THEN I think you’d get a few “What song is this?” looks in the crowd. I think Cheap Trick is a band that gets it right. For big festival/arena shows they play the hits but at more intimate venues they’ll bring out the more obscure tunes. KISS is a band (and I love them, no picking on them here on my part) on the other hand who DESPERATELY needs to change their setlist. Not sure why they are so stubborn with playing the same songs on every tour since 2004. It must be hard to find a balance though for “classic” acts. I’ve SEEN people at a show when the band/performer announces “We’re going to play a song off our new album……” roll their eyes and look at their friends in disgust while either sitting down or going for a beer. Especially at big festival/arena shows. For Ace though I’d argue if he cranked out a “Dark Light” or a “Talk To Me” he’d get a LOT of happy people walking out the venue going to their bud “Man, wasn’t it kick as* that he played ______?”.
well i love ace (and eddie)i was there as well(n.b)and i have both worked for ace,and im a fan,i have seen him every tour solo,and like stated above i have worked for him,this show was def not one of my favs,it seemed like there was little practice,it was to me like they just showed up and started to jam,yes i know 1st night bugs needed to be worked out,but there is no excuse for his constant lateness,because of it we were jipped out of 3 songs,and to be honest i did not need 4 songs from his new c,d i did not think it was that great to begin with,the last one was much better,and he did no songs from that one,and the other selection i was not that thrilled with,why would you open up with an obscure song ,only to be fooolowed by another one,?there was no production at all,i mean come on ace thats one of the things your know for.give us a little huh,so all in all,it was ok,but it def was not worth the 2hrs drive each way in the rain and snow on a work night,sorry but thats how i saw it.at this stage of the game,there should be no excusses for a sloppy show like that,
Eddie
You should see if Ace would be interested in shooting one of the shows for a video release ?
Especially since he’s not doing a full tour and who knows if he’ll ever tour again……. Just saying
Good idea but he would need an offer to produce and release it. Not to mention the publishing on the Kiss songs might be a mightmare
Lead ass? Not exactly even sure what that mean? But thank you for taking the time to post and read and visit my site