Ace Frehley

HQ, Adelaide – 4th Feb 2010

The wait has been long for Adelaide fans of the original KISS axeman Ace Frehley, not since the 2001 KISS “farewell” (ha) tour, have they been able to see The Spaceman in action and never before in his solo capacity. This tour marks the first time Ace has performed in Australia as a solo artist and also coincides with the release of his first solo album in almost 20 years Anomaly. Following the disappointment of Adelaide being left off the original tour announcement, and many punters frantically organising interstate trips, I along with the army of Adelaide Kiss and Ace fans were stoked to see Adelaide get a gig when the tour was re-scheduled.

As I rocked up to the venue it quickly became apparent that the KISS Army are not dead, as flooding into the venue were masses of KISS shirts. It is widely regarded as one of the most recognisable and profitable brand names “KISS” and tonight only further confirmed it. Although not sold out, it was still a pretty reasonable turn out considering the distinct lack of promotion this gig received.

Triple J unearthed winners Sydney’s L.U.S.T. had the daunting task of opening for Ace and were clearly honoured to filling the support slot. The four piece surprised many a punter (me included) with their unique brand of rock, seamlessly fusing ’70s punk with the guitar driven trash of ’80s hard rock. Tracks like First Tattoo and Bad Reputation had many of the growing crowd nodding their heads in appreciation.  L.U.S.T. put on a punchy 30 minute set and would have definitely made a few new fans. Check these guys out they are a self confessed “hard punch to the throat”.

Then it was time for The Spaceman himself to take the stage, Ace was greeted with a deservingly raucous cheer and quickly jumped into back to back KISS classics Rocket Ride and Parasite which had the old school KISS fans singing and shouting along. Sporting long hair, a pretty mean looking goatee and a pair of dark sunglasses, Ace’s look is a far cry from the trademark futuristic white, black and silver make up made famous by his days with KISS. Ace powered through a set consisting of both Ace originals and KISS classics. Unfortunately for Ace, due to the popularity of KISS, his originals were not met with the same enthusiasm as the KISS numbers, but songs like Snow Blind, Outer Space and Rock Soldiers showed off his solo achievements. Not surprisingly the biggest cheers of the night were for the KISS covers, Hard Times and Shock Me were very well received, but the energy level went through the roof when Ace delivered one of his trademark solos complete with smoke bomb and flare ablaze on his Gibson before rocking into the final song of the main set, the ever popular, Shout It Out Loud.

Ace returned to the stage after a brief break to play a 3 song encore comprising of Rip It Out followed by the popular KISS classics Love Gun and Cold Gin, which left everyone in the club leaving on a high. Then just as quickly as it had come, Ace was thanking and telling us he would see us next time. Who knows if we’ll ever see him again in Adelaide, but what treat to see one of rocks absolute legends in such an intimate venue.

Set list
Rocket Ride (KISS)
Parasite (KISS)
Snow Blind
Sister
Outer Space
Speedin’ Back To My Baby
Rock Soldiers
Love Her All I Can (KISS)
Talk To Me (KISS)
2,000 Man (Rolling Stones cover)
New York Groove
Hard Times (KISS)
Foxy & Free
Shock Me (KISS)
(Ace’s Guitar Solo)
—–
Shout It Out Loud (KISS)
Rip It Out
Love Gun (KISS)
Cold Gin (KISS)