Legendary Rockers KISS Coming to Saint John

KISS Monster Tour 2013 rolls into Saint John's Harbour Station on July 31st.
KISS Monster Tour 2013 rolls into Saint John’s Harbour Station on July 31st.

Promoting their latest CD, Monster, legendary rock group KISS is coming to New Brunswick. As part of the Monster Tour 2013, the group will perform July 31st at Harbour Station in Saint John. Special guest for the tour is Shinedown.

January 2013 marked four decades since Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, then members of a band called Wicked Lester, joined up with drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley to form KISS.

Forty years later, having racked up 28 US gold albums along with 40 million US and 100 million in world sales, Simmons and Stanley, with long-time members guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, return stronger than ever. Released through Universal Music Enterprises, Monster is the 20th studio album in their historic career.

The 12-song (plus bonus track), straight-ahead rock ‘n roll album features collaborations from all four members in an effort that shows KISS at the top of its game. Monster is the group’s first studio album since the band’s 2009 smash success, Sonic Boom.

“We weren’t interested in making just a great KISS album, but a great rock album that lived up to the bands we loved growing up,” explained Stanley, “the ones who got us to play music in the first place.”

Monster represents KISS’ nod to the music that first inspired them to pick up their guitars and flame-throwers and don make-up to entertain millions.

With the same line-up that also played on 2009’s Sonic Boom, Monster is a true KISS band effort, with all four contributing to the writing and everyone getting a turn at lead vocals. This is an album that immediately does for the new century what great KISS discs like Destroyer did for the ’70s, Creatures of the Night for the ’80s and Revenge for the ’90s.

“In many ways, this band started as a fantasy and evolved into a flesh-and-blood entity,” says Stanley. “The fact is, we’re not cartoon characters. We’re real people who have spent 40 years doing what we believe in. The make-up of those personas is part of what we are, but underneath, we’re human beings.”

“We’re about authenticity,” says Simmons, the mastermind of not just the band’s music but a multi-million-dollar merchandising empire that includes everything from coffee table books to coffins. “The KISS Army is ruthless. They’d skewer us if we put out records that weren’t great. We pushed ourselves on this album, to make not just ourselves but our fans proud. We try to hit a home run every swing we take. If we’re going to win, win big.”

Tickets for KISS in Saint John go on sale this Saturday, April 6 at 9 am. Tickets range in price from $79 to $94 (including tax and applicable surcharge) and will be available at the Harbour Station box office, by phone at (506) 657-1234, 1-888-267-2800 and online at www.harbourstation.ca, www.livenation.com and www.evenko.ca.

For KISS VIP packages, fan club memberships and complete tour and ticket information, visit: www.kissonline.com, www.livenation.com and www.evenko.ca.

KISS is presented by Live Nation and evenko.

About Live Nation Entertainment:

Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment and E-commerce company, comprised of four market leaders: Ticketmaster.com, Live Nation Concerts, Artist Nation and Live Nation Network. Ticketmaster.com is the global event ticketing leader and one of the world’s top five E-commerce sites, with almost 27 million monthly unique visitors. Live Nation Concerts produces over 22,000 shows annually for more than 2,300 artists globally. Artist Nation is the world’s top artist management company, representing over 250 artists. These businesses power Live Nation Network, the leading provider of entertainment marketing solutions, enabling nearly 800 advertisers to tap into the 200 million consumers Live Nation delivers annually through its live event and digital platforms. For additional information, visit www.livenation.com/investors.

About evenko:

evenko is a Quebec company, which has become the most important independent promoter and producer in Canada. Presenting more than 1,000 musical, family and sporting events annually throughout the province of Quebec, Atlantic Canada and the eastern United States, evenko plays host to the biggest entertainers in the world and invests in the development and promotion of Quebec artists. evenko is also the creator and producer of two major festivals, the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival and Heavy MTL which are held at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal. In January 2013, Pollstar, the industry’s most respected source, ranked evenko 8th worldwide in the Promoter category while the Bell Centre was ranked No.2 arena in North America and the 5th top arena worldwide in the category of top Arena Venues. The evenko trademark is the property of L’Aréna des Canadiens Inc.