Gene Simmons was in Ridgefield, Washington on April 23rd for Ilani Resort’s grand opening of Rock & Brews, which as you know is owned by Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS. The ribbon cutting took place at noon. Simmons said a few words about the partnership with Ilani followed by a ceremonial blessing of the venue. Rock & Brews in Ilani is a spacious establishment with hard rock themed decor. There’s also a decent sized stage for live music. The Gene Simmons Band christened the stage later that night for their only performance in North America before departing for a gig in South America before spending the rest of the spring in Europe. The ‘new and improved’ Gene Simmons Band features guitarist/vocalist Jason Walker, guitarist Brent Woods, drummer Brian Tichy and Simmons on bass/vocals. Walker pulls off the Paul Stanley material with ease and is extremely charismatic.
Simmons and Co. hit the stage @ 8:00 pm until 10:00 pm. I assumed we’d get 70 minutes tops. This was a pleasant surprise. There were several standout moments, for starters Tommy Thayer made the trek to see Gene perform, but it was a dual purpose as he was peddling his wine earlier in the day, but still Gene took the time to point out that he was in the audience. More on that in a bit. “Weapons of Mass Destruction ” made the set from Gene’s 20-year-old ‘Asshole.’ I think that flew over people’s heads, because only a true KISSTARD knows the album and who performed on the studio cut. From ‘The Vault’ he unleashed ‘Are You Ready’ which is a fantastic tune that he has included in the solo set since 2018. That tune is so great that he possibly could have opened the show with it. Tommy Thayer was called on stage to help on “Parasite” and on ‘Lick It Up,” which went over wonderfully. Notable tunes that I can’t get enough of regardless of how many times I have seen KISS perform them are, “Deuce,” “War Machine,” “I Love It Loud,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “Love Gun,” “Cold Gin,” and “Let Me Go Rock & Roll.”
Gene playfully offered up his band mates to any of the ladies in the venue throughout the night, saying “You they’re single, right?!” Simmons singled out a woman who was texting during the performance saying, “So are you going to text home all night?!” A humanoid with a sliver of common sense would show some embarrassment and tuck the phone away for the rest of the performance, but she however continued to text away. Simmons pointed out another time during the set and simply shook his head in disbelief. There was an obnoxious ‘sauced’ (as Simmons referred to the ‘lubricated’) individual who ran up to the front of the stage and kept drawing Gene’s attention to the T-shirt of an insignificant local band. These are concerts of the modern age folks. It’s sad.
I was wondering why he elected to include Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown.” No, Gene didn’t handle the vocals, that fell on Jason Walker who did an adequate job. Gene shared his Lemmy Kilmister funeral story and then the band launched into “Ace of Spades.” The vocals were handled by drummer Brian Tichy, now I was like “what the fuck.” I was thankful he didn’t pull out the ridiculous ‘punching bag’ thing that Tichy does, because if there isn’t something that makes drum solos passé…there are some of the usual suspects that I could have lived without and I get it everyone has their preferences. I personally could have done without “Detroit Rock City,” “Calling Dr. Love,” “100,000 Years,” that was yet another opportunity, but we were spared of that fucking punching bag. For me things ended on a somewhat flat note, in that as closers we got “I Was Made For Loving You,” with ladies from the Rock & Brews and Ilani, okay it was a celebratory event but it really killed a little bit of the momentum and if they did that you know they were going to close with “Rock And Roll All Nite.” And they did. All in all, the band sounds tight, Gene sounds fantastic, the set was a little predictable, more deep cuts please, but I’d see this again. Hold the punching bag Tichy but bring the money bag Gene!