\n<\/p>\n
Kiss has been on a really, really long tour. The biggest glam rock band of all time has been playing its End of the Road tour for the last four years, and just wrapped the final show of its final farewell tour in New York City at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Kiss has done several farewell tours, but this time might be for good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
At the end of the show, after Kiss finished playing its last song (\u201cRock and Roll All Nite\u201d), they disappeared in a hail of fire and smoke. After the smoke faded away, the lights went down, and on the screen behind the stage, a camera zoomed across a spooky lake on some fantastic planet toward the silhouettes of four figures: the new digital avatars of Kiss, in what I suppose must be their final form. Then Paul Stanley shouts:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cKiss army, your love \u2014 your power \u2014 has made us immortal. The new Kiss era starts now. Oh yeah!\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\nHere\u2019s one video of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nAnother one shows a much cooler aspect of this portion of the show: translucent screens with shots of the band projected onto them, lending the show a decidedly futuristic Blade Runner<\/em> feel. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe avatars \u201cperformed\u201d a song, then the video ended and left the audience with a picture of the four avatars under the stylized KISS logo, superimposed with the phrase \u201cA NEW ERA BEGINS.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe \u201cnew era,\u201d of course, is one of making money from the avatars. The company behind the show, Pophouse Entertainment, has already been doing so with young, digital versions of ABBA in its ABBA Voyage show for over a year. Kiss, a band that has doggedly merchandised its image for half a century, seems like a good fit for such a partnership.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nPophouse said<\/a> in a press release today that it will put on \u201cimmersive, avatar-powered\u201d concerts using Kiss\u2019 Industrial Light & Magic-created avatars. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nWatching big acts like Kiss use digital recreations of themselves isn\u2019t surprising \u2014 after all, these are people who have made a great deal of money off of an image they\u2019ve created, so why not keep that money faucet open? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nDo people really want to go see a \u201clive\u201d show with no live performers? Yeah, I think they absolutely do. Bloomberg <\/em>reported<\/a> that those ABBA avatar shows have been pulling in $2 million every week. <\/em>And Variety <\/em>wrote<\/a> last week that the Eras Tour concert video had passed $250 million in worldwide box office sales. Kiss and its avatars could do just fine \u2014 for more about the band\u2019s future, try out this 22-minute conversation<\/a> about their transition to avatars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n