Kiss Return to Performing Following COVID Postponements
Kiss returned to the stage last night for the first time since members of the band contracted COVID-19.
Although they had to cut a couple of songs from the end of the show due to an approaching lightning storm at the outdoor venue, frontman Paul Stanley was pleased with the band's performance. "Great show tonight!" he tweeted. "I think it's important to tell you that getting through COVID doesn't mean you're over it. I'm surprised to have lingering symptoms that my doctors say will subside. How you might recover is a crap shoot. Being double vaxxed pushes the odds in your favor."
Stanley tested positive for COVID on Aug. 26, forcing the band to immediately cancel that night’s scheduled performance in Burgettstown, Penn. At the time, Kiss noted that “everyone on the entire tour, both band and crew, are fully vaccinated,” while adding that they had “operated in a bubble” during the tour.
Less than a week later, bassist and cofounder Gene Simmons also tested positive. “I was shocked,” the Kiss icon admitted in a Sept. 8 interview with Los Angeles TV station KTLA, “because everything was fine. The energy level was great, the appetite was great - great, great, great. And I never get sick. I'm one of the those arrogant guys [who says], 'I don't need aspirin. I don't get headaches.'”
Watch Kiss Open Their Irvine Show With 'Detroit Rock City'
Simmons suffered only “mild symptoms,” something he credited to his vaccinations. “I'm perfectly fine,” he declared to KTLA, before promising that Kiss would “shake the heavens" with their return to the stage.
To that end, Kiss put on a dazzling display in Irvine. Opening with "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud" from their 1976 studio breakthrough Destroyer, the group delivered an energetic set featuring many of their most beloved tracks.
After Stanley apologized for having to cut the show short and urged the crowd to "get out, get to some place safe" as soon as the concert was over, Kiss kicked into their traditional show closer, "Rock and Roll All Nite."
Kiss will continue their End of the Road tour with a stop in Mountain View, Calif., tonight. Dates on the trek currently run through 2022. The group has rescheduled five of the shows it was forced to postpone due to Stanley and Simmons' COVID quarantines. Information on the new dates can be found at the band's website.
Watch Kiss Perform 'Rock and Roll All Nite' During a Thunderstorm