Post retirement, band reveal 'one show' of their digital bonds is four years away
During Kiss' final concert earlier this month, the (supposedly) defunct band announced plans to continue as digital avatars. On Friday, the Destroyer act reveals when their “new era” will begin: 2027.
“50 years is a long time and what the future holds is in the making,” Kiss said in their latest promotional video trumpeting their digital formats. “There's a show coming.”
Billed as the big surprise to close the band's “final” concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, Kiss premiered their avatars, created in collaboration with Industrial Light & Magic. “The future is so exciting,” said Gene Simmons a behind the scenes video about creating avatars. Paul Stanley added: “We can live forever.”
It wasn't clear at the time in what capacity the avatars would appear – whether in a “live” performance like those Whitney Houston hologram shows or ABBA Voyage concerts, or concerts hosted in some sort of metaverse – but the latest update of band seems to suggest there will be actual concerts for their digital counterparts. (Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment, which produced ABBA's shows, has the same role in future Kiss concerts.)
According Blabbermouth, Pophouse CEO Per Sundin said the company is still in the process of figuring out how best to use the avatars, which are giant, full-on versions of the Kiss members. “Is a Kiss concert in the future? Is it a rock opera? Is it a musical? A story, an adventure? These four people already have superpowers. We want to be as open as possible,” Sundin said.
