Ace Frehley @ HQ, Adelaide(04/02/10)

Fri 5th Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

As a huge Kiss fan since I was a kid, this was one gig that I was really excited but also somewhat nervous about. On the one hand, I would be getting the chance to see the original guitarist from Kiss in an intimate venue, and knowing the set up of HQ, I knew it would be easy to get a great view of the stage as the multi-levelled complex is arranged perfectly to find a great vantage point.

On the other hand, this is one of my idols since childhood. Back when Kiss were the biggest band in the world in the late seventies, Ace Frehley, the spaceman with the flying, smoking guitar was like a god to me.

Now having seen a couple of recent photos of Ace (bearded, receding hairline, looking just a touch rounder these days) I wasn’t so sure I wanted to see my hero up so close, to have my childhood superhero reduced to a mere mortal.

On the night itself, I was pleased to see HQ so full. It seems that any gig that has a connection to Kiss is always an exciting event. Kiss fans are some of the most loyal and excitable that you will find anywhere.

In the lead up to Ace hitting the stage, the vibe would have been similar to a room full of pre-schoolers waiting to see Santa Claus arriving for Christmas. You could say the Ace spirit was in the room. When the lights dimmed and the legendary guitar hero strolled out onto the stage, signature sunburst Les Paul guitar in hand, my concerns were quickly forgotten. From the minute the guitar intro to the Kiss classic Rocket Ride rang out from the stage and the familiar laid back Ace Frehley vocals were heard, all I could see and hear was the rock god that I had always known. With the backing of his much younger backing band, Ace blazed through an incredible set made up of a mixture of his signature Kiss classics as well as songs covering his solo career from his 1978 self titled effort through to his latest release Anomaly.

I doubt that a single person who came to see Ace tonight left disappointed. There were so many highlights that I’m sure if you interviewed everyone leaving the show, asking what their favourite moment was, you would get a range of different answers. To me, the highlights were the Kiss songs that you wouldn’t expect to hear such as Love her all I Can from the Dressed to Kill album, the classic Ace hits from Kiss’ biggest albums such as 2000 Man and Talk to me and also the songs from Ace’s first solo album, New York Groove and Speedin’ Back To My Baby. These may not necessarily have been the greatest songs from the set but these were the ones that really took me back to the days when Kiss really were the biggest and best superheroes you could ever hope to find.

It’s actually really satisfying to see a packed crowd go nuts for these songs when thirty years ago, Kiss weren’t often taken seriously, they were seen as a gimmick band who didn’t have the songs to back it up…yet in 2010, these songs sound just as fresh today, and the excitement is still there at the live show, even without the painted on persona of the spaceman. Just goes to show that the magic of Ace Frehley is more than make up deep.