With makeup!
Hmmm. I suspect this is more an IMHO or Cafe Society, but welcome to the board nonetheless.
I’d prefer to see KISS play “Far, Far Away.”
Aren’t they a bit of an embarrassment? As “rock” bands go, wasn’t their “rock” rather twee? “I wanna rock and roll all night; and party eve-r-ee day!” And don’t get me started on “Beth.”
The stagy camp makeup antics, faux-Satanism-lite (stupider even than Ozzy’s poses). Geez.
To answer your OP: Removing the makeup made it seem marginally less silly/effeminate. Though it did expose Gene S. for a pretty fugly dude, though that’s certainly no bar to rock stardom (lack of talent or taste can be, though not always as we’ve seen).
[Moderator Hat ON]
It’s a survey, but there’ll be talk about the band, so off to Cafe Society.
[Moderator Hat OFF]
In a plane crash! 
I’d rather not acknowledge them, with or without the make-up.
The Band, on the other hand…
With. Gene Simmons is a SCARYUGLY man without the makeup.
Maybe, but the first album was pretty great. 100,000 years, Black Diamond…good stuff.
I was at that age when Kiss came out where I should have been a big Kiss fan but I never got into them very much. Even when I was 13 I thought they were kind of lame even though most of my friends all had their Kiss Army patches. I was just discovering the punk rock so I had no time for Kiss.
Ace was fuckin’ cool though!
I still listen to the first record. In fact, I’m going to listen to it right now!
An “embarrasment”? Have you no sense of fun? Have you no Rock in your soul? KISS were not meant to be taken completely seriously. They were a fun, silly rock and roll band par excellence… They were rock camp at its finest and produced several awesome albums: Kiss, Dressed to Kill, Alive, Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, and Love Gun, just to name a few. Their work from 1974-1978 was impeccible. They are most definitely NOT an embarrassment in the rock echelon.
I don’t listen to KISS very much, but they are undeniably a great band.
And per the OP: with makeup.
Doesn’t matter. I think they were one of the first bands back then to look all wild. I don’t know if they or the NYDolls did it first, though.
The Dolls did it first. Kiss opened for them when they first started out.
Of course, Alice Cooper was doing that shtick way before the Dolls and Kiss, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was doing it even earlier.
Personally, I find that kissing with makeup, especially lipstick, can be a very messy and unpleasant experience for all.
What?
Oh, you mean THE BAND.
ZJ
I thought they weren’t very good and certainly not rock and roll.
They made pop and pretended to play rock and roll.
That aside I just bought the DVD with the Melbourne Symphonic for a laugh.
One thing I really noticed is that the singer (I don’t know the guy’s name) sounds exactly like Mr. Slave with a lisp !!!
Lifelong Kiss freak here- one’s “guilty pleasure” file begins and ends with these guys. Once made great, punchy, at times super-hooky hard rock with a determined lack of sophistication. Early standards like “Shout it Out Loud” and “Rock and Roll All Nite” are about as perfectly crafted radio rock as you’ll find.
The non-anthem side of their oevure consists of what I call the “crassics”- thumping, buzz-saw guitar songs with lyrics generally too lunkheaded to be believed: “Calling Dr. Love,” “Makin’ Love,” “Deuce” (with its immortal opening line, Get up and get your grandma outta here. John Greenleaf Whittier kneels in awe.) That being said, they came off like Oxford grads next to, say, Grand Funk.
As to the OP, Kiss had unquestionably shot its creative wad by the time they de-greased. But that early stuff . . . ah. Turn off the brain and get the head bobbin. This is what air guitar is for!
My six year old is a big KISS fan; he particularly loves Ace. Let me tell, you, I had no idea KISS had that many songs or albums and I really had no idea we had them in our house till my husband got my son into them! What I can’t decide whether I hate or love about KISS is the predictable lyrics. I just learned the song “Love Gun” (which I think just might be about a penis) this summer and was able to sing along the very first time.
Everybody now:
“I really love you baby; I like what you GOT!
Something something; and get HOT!”
Well, I admit I may not know all the words. But I did totally know that get HOT part.
Oh, holy crap, guess what’s playing on the radio this VERY second!!!
Ace singing “2000 Man”. Coincidence, no?
I’m picturing the video we have at home of him singing it on MTV Unplugged, so I vote for “with makeup”. Otherwise faccia brute .
I’m not a huge fan, but KISS just wouldn’t be KISS without the campy, over-the-top appearances. They were never really about the music; that was just a pretext for looking like freaks in the public eye. So definitely, with makeup.
I dunno - their first five or six albums seem to have gotten pretty good critical acclaim. I think they’re a little better than they’re getting credit for here. They were big when I was an adolescent, and although I was never a huge fan, some of my friends were and I heard a lot of them. There was lots worse at the time.
The thing is, if KISS hadn’t done the whole makeup and devil tongue thing, they probably would have gotten much more critical acceptance. On the other hand, if they hadn’t come up with that gimmick, we probably would never have heard of them.
But as makeup and big hair bands go, they kick Twisted Sister’s ass.
I saw KISS when they were fairly new. Their stage show was like NOTHING I ever saw before, and I saw the Alice Cooper Killer tour.
The blood, the costumes, the boots with teeth-OMGTHE BOOTS WITH TEETH!
good times.
You’re right. As far as music critics go, there is pretty much agreement that the first five or so KISS albums where solid albums. Allmusic.com (which actually is a pretty good and fair assessor of music) gives all their albums, from their debut to Alive II, 4 or more stars (out of 5.) They are NOT considered jokes by most music critics. I mean, Christ, listen to their albums.
Allmusic isn’t exactly the site to trust when you want to gauge a band. They seem to rank a band against itself, rather than simply judging their music on an overall scale. Almost all the bands you can find on the site have received 4 stars for at least one of their albums. Hell, Ashlee Simpson got almost got 4 stars.
But…but without “Beth” there would be no KISS Navy!
