ACE FREHLEY @ Metropolis

By K-Man - 03/03/2008

O.K., here's the deal. I'm going to tell you a little story right off the bat to make the rest of this review make more sense. More than a few years ago, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss got together for a tour called "The Bad Boys of Kiss" and subsequently rolled on through Montreal....to the Metropolis. I bought a ticket without hesitation, as did two of my buddies that had been huge Kiss fans all of their lives too. Thick n’ thin, that's the way it goes.

Criss played a full set of the most mind-stabbingly bad tunes I've almost ever witnessed since his first solo album. The four hundred or so fans had pretty much dwindled down to about one-fifty by the time Ace hit the stage, with his apparently loosely thrown together band. The volume at which the show started at had, by the end of the first song, driven all but yours truly and his two buddies (Lud, and good ol’ Billy Danjubic respectively) running for the back of the club. We momentarily escaped the utter onslaught to our auditory systems (fully in red alert by this time and I have seen some L O U D-assed shows in my day, boy) to the men’s room and collectively used like four rolls of toilet paper between us to stuff our ears shut. Did I mention how butt-fugly their tour shirt was? Man, I'll never get that image outta my head but the goose bumps will fade in a sec...

We then sauntered back to the front of the stage. There’s only the three of us now -- nobody else around for a hundred square feet, and we're asked personally by Ace if he was loud enough, to which we responded, and I quote, "No Ace…turn it up!" At this point, he turned around to his already almost maxed out rig and turned the f**ker up. This is when, I would say, 90% of the club literally up and left. The band was that bad. Cocain is ugly after 30 years of abuse. There were like twelve people in the place including the bar staff by the time it was over. We rocked it hard and went home a little dead inside.

So, back to present times. Last night, March 3rd, 2008 at the Metropolis, more than ten years later, full circled, I get out of a cab and I'm wondering to myself: Is Ace going to burn out or fade away or what? The wonderful Miss Caroline had a juicy pass waiting for me at the guest booth (thanks Ant, you rock) and I walked in a little apprehensive of how this show might go down. I get a Heine and low and behold, there's Lud. Like old times -- all good. We get to our spot, and Ace hits the stage.

By the second note, I'm looking at Lud and there is an equal look of complete relief. Four notes later, it's a look of pure joy as this goddamned rock legend literally got his shit together, hand picked three other guys who f**king love his music and ripped the shit out of "Rip It Out." I always loved hearing two Les Pauls at once. It's something. They were bloody loud, but just under the annoying mark. From the same first solo album he then played "Snow Blind" and a cool little medley of "Torpedo Girl" (from Kiss’ Unmasked album) and from his classic solo album, the song "Speedin' Back To My Baby." I could have easily sat through a full version of the latter (the only disappointing thing that evening) -- I freakin' love that song.

I never liked his later solo albums; they were musically weak, but would you believe he revised a bunch of those tunes, and they were s o l i d -- "Rock Soldiers," "Trouble Walking" (a song that needs no explanation whatsoever), all spruced right the hell up. His solos were note for note and his tones…oh his tones were back like the old days."Shock Me" was sick. Shock you? Shock me! I've seen Kiss with Ace Frehley five times: three back in the day, and two during the Kiss comeback tour -- in what, like '96? He was on the money tonight. Did I mention how utterly speechless we were?

From the fourth side of Kiss Alive II, he wailed on "Rocket Ride," another ingenious little medley of some of his '90s tunes and "Love Gun." Very crafty and well arranged, this band was kickin' the shit out of the venue and everyone in it (about four hundred or so). He then pulled out one of his many customs and lit the stage and his guitar up(literally) for his N.Y.C. anthem, "Back in the New York Groove" and the place went a little nuts. The New York attitude was oozing out all over the place. Someone threw up a top hat during one of the songs and in true New Yorkese, he sayed "I know Slash purrsonally, I just can't fuckin' weh that thing."

Ace left the stage only to return with a full Kiss encore set. I felt like a kid in a freakin' candy store. The sweet, sweet sound of "Deuce" rang out like the anthem of an era. '74 New York sleeze 'n' roll. The drummer sang the Stanley parts and the bassist sang the Simmons parts to a tee -- it was eerie. Kiss was playin' Daisey's and The Coventry and other nasty Jersey/Queens/Amity clubs while downtown at Max's Kansas City, The Mercer Arts Center, the Dolls were lovin' over themselves struttin' around, waiting to crash the Kiss party after their show. Frehley along with, Thunders, Ivan Kral (Patti Smith group ), Lou Reed, and a few choice New York guitarists of that time really carved a sleezy, sultry, standoffish, (nihilistic) niche in one of their city's trademark sounds/styles.

When he kicked into "Love Her All I Can" from Kiss' second release Dressed To Kill, I freakin' couldn't believe I could remember all of the lyrics. I would have wept if I wasn't such a hard c**t. He ended it all with the awesome "Cold Gin," with a craftily placed outro to "Black Diamond." F**king classy all the way down the line. What can I say? I was absolutely as shocked as I was relieved.

That sick, filthy, raunchy, (sh)city honky-punk always fit neatly under my skin. I don't know what it is, but I just got a major fix of it and all I want to do is nod off with the songs swimming in my head...which brings the answer to my earlier question: will Ace burn out, fade away, or what? Well, it's or what, if “or what” means like a true legend, he will simply rock on.

Tune in to "Beyond That Graveyard! III" with K-Man every Friday from 9pm - 12am