KISS chose to celebrate their 40-year anniversary with a nine-show run—complete with flash pots and laser lights—at Las Vegas's Hard Rock Hotel in 2014, the year the band was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since Kabuki makeup and samurai-inspired costumes have always been part of the act, the two original members—64-year-old singer-guitarist Paul Stanley and 67-year-old bassist Gene Simmons—could pass for years younger, a fringe benefit they probably didn't anticipate when the band formed in the 1970s. While Peter Criss and Ace Frehley showed up for the induction ceremony, they are not part of the current lineup, although guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer pick up the reins just fine. The band opens and closes the 16-song set with the anthem-like numbers "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock and Roll All Nite," while saving the more reflective material, such as the Rod Stewart-inspired "Hard Luck Woman" and the hit ballad "Beth," for a bonus acoustic section in which they perform MTV Unplugged-style (seated, sans makeup). Throughout the main show, Stanley communes with the fans at the front of the stage, Simmons unfurls his tongue whenever a camera moves in for a close-up, and Singer and his drum kit float up in the air on a riser towards the end of the set. Between the concert and the acoustic set, every key KISS track is included (with the exception of "Cold Gin"). Bundled with an audio CD (of the main concert), this is presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo on DVD, and Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD 5.1, and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)
KISS Rocks Vegas
(2014) 114 min. DVD: $21.98 (audio CD included), Blu-ray: $26.98 (audio CD included). Eagle Rock Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). Volume 32, Issue 1
KISS Rocks Vegas
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