KISS

What does $50,000 buy? The ultimate Gene Simmons fan experience

Or, if you don’t have that kind of cash, the KISS rocker will hand deliver his box set for just $2,000. Nick Krewen Music Thu., Sept. 21, 2017 Gene Simmons is at it again. The co-founder and bassist of legendary rock band KISS, who has gained almost equivalent public stature as an audacious and shrewd marketing tycoon, has set aside most of 2018 to deliver his latest project: The Vault…

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KISS and Def Leppard a blazing double bill: review

Both bands repeatedly thrilled the sold-out Amphitheatre crowd of 16,000.  Nick Krewen Music, Published on Wed Aug 13 2014 KISS and Def Leppard 3.5 stars At the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Aug. 12. Does Gene Simmons’ fire-breathing swordplay, bloodied mouth shtick and ever-undulating serpentine tongue ever get old? Not if you’re a member of the KISS Army. The larger-than-life, cartoon-costumed, makeup-sporting hard rockers have entrenched the routines so heavily into their…


Toronto’s transit of venues (or, weep not for the bop)

Veteran rock writer Nick Krewen takes a tour through defunct Toronto concert venue history – from the ’60s in Yorkville, to the subsequent decades when the action was mostly around Yonge St., to the rise and apparent decline of Queen St. W.  Nick Krewen and Garnet Fraser Published on Sun Jan 03 2010 On Queen St. W., the concert scene is changing, and it’s leaving some fretful. Hard-rock hangout the Big…


Rock ‘N Wrestling

A VERSION OF THIS APPEARED IN THE KW RECORD NOVEMBER 23, 1999     By Nick Krewen   Jim Johnston may not be a household name, but he’s ready to rumble. Last week, he bodyslammed Mariah Carey‘s Rainbow to the mat and placed Foo Fighters‘ There’s Nothing Left To Lose in a Tongan Death Grip. He drop-kicked Counting Crows‘ This Desert Life out of the ring and bulldogged Choclair‘s Ice Cold…


KISS 1998

  NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator March 27, 1998       Not in this lifetime. If you’re a soldier of the KISS Army, loyally conscripted in the face-painted glam rock heydays when a fire-breathing, blood-spitting Gene Simmons and hip-swaying frontman Paul Stanley were thrilling crowds and filling auditoriums with axeman Ace Frehley and drummer Peter (The Cat) Criss on board, you probably never thought the day would come where all four…