MUSIC

End of the Road

Kiss’ farewell tour will “lick it up” at Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Dayton

Kiss’ members are nally saying goodbye to their shiny platform boots for good.

PHOTO: BRIAN LOWE

As Kiss delves further into a farewell tour that was interrupted by the pandemic, lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley knows what he’ll miss most about the band he co-founded with bassist/singer Gene Simmons in 1973 in New York City.

“ ere’s nothing really that can compete or come close to the combustive emotional nature of what we do on stage and the connection to the fans,” he says in a phone interview. “ at’s something that’s irreplaceable. at’s something that there’s nothing to compare it to.”

But fans won’t have to worry that they’ll see a mopey or overly sentimental Stanley on stage as he grapples with the reality that this is the nal Kiss tour. In fact, Stanley — in typical fashion for a band that has never been short on bravado — says this last outing, billed

as the “End of the Road” tour, is a festive occasion.

“ is is really a time of joy and for us to be up there and celebrate what we’ve done together,” Stanley says, adding that fans are a key part of the experience. “It’s much better than nishing a tour, let’s say, and then a year later deciding you don’t want to go out and two years later you decide you don’t want to go out. In that sense, you’ve called it quits, but this is so much better for us and better for the fans to go out there with the highest of spirits and the greatest of shows.” e show, indeed, is bigger and bolder than any Kiss has taken on the road, Stanley says. at’s no small endeavor for a group that revolutionized the rock concert in the ‘70s by not only donning their famous makeup — Stanley as the starchild, Simmons as the demon, original guitarist Ace Frehley as the space ace and original drummer Peter Criss as the catman — but with stateof-the-art lights, enough pyrotechnics to light up a Fourth of July and even a few ashy stunts, such as Simmons breathing re, all while decked out in elaborate costumes and high-heeled platform boots.

“ e show this time really is the ultimate Kiss show,” Stanley says of the farewell tour stage production. “With that in mind, we wanted to put together something that really raised the bar, not just for us, but as happened over the years, raises the bar for every act out there. at’s a good thing because the fans win because of it.”

“ is show is more bombastic. ere’s more pyro. e lights are stunning. e automation involved, the computer synchronization is unlike anything we’ve ever done, and yet it doesn’t lose, we don’t wind up with something that’s technical and sterile over something that’s passionate and gritty,” he continues. “So it’s a marvel, I’ve got to tell you. It left us speechless when we rst saw the nished stage. And for us to be silent is a miracle in itself.” e show, which will head to Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Dayton on May 12, also will o er more for fans on a musical level, with a longer set than Kiss has played on recent tours and full of crowd-pleasing selections.

“I believe we’re doing 22 songs, I think, somewhere around that,” Stanley says. “I think the average on the last

tours has been about 16. It’s a diverse and really great overview of all the eras of the band.” e wide-ranging setlist means fans will get a nal chance to see Kiss perform core songs from each of the band’s three primary eras — the original edition with Frehley and Criss, the 1980s/ early-‘90s lineup with Bruce Kulick on guitar and Eric Carr (and later Eric Singer) on drums, and the current edition with Tommy ayer on guitar and Singer on drums. Each lineup had Each lineup had considerable considerable success, with Kiss selling more than success, with 100 million albums over the years. e

Kiss selling original lineup was inducted into the more than 100 Rock and Roll Hall million albums of Fame in 2014. Stanley says he over the years. is open to former band members (such as Frehley, Criss and Kulick) participating during the farewell tour. “To not have various former members be a part of it at some point, in some way, if it didn’t happen, it wouldn’t be of my choosing,” he says. So why did Stanley and Simmons decide it was time to do a farewell tour and retire as a touring band? Simply put, they didn’t want to risk reaching an age or point with their health where they couldn’t deliver the kind of performance fans expect. “We are not any other touring band. If we were wearing t-shirts and jeans and athletic shoes, we could do this into our 90s. ere’s no reason to stop,” Stanley explains. “But take any one of those bands and put 40 pounds of gear on them, and they wouldn’t make it through a tour. So it just has reached a point where we just felt, ‘Let’s go out there and be at our best,’ knowing we can be at our best, and not look to the future. Let’s stop when we believe we can deliver the best Kiss ever.” Kiss will perform at 7:30 p.m. May 12 at Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Dayton. Doors open at 6 p.m. More info: nuttercenter.com.

SOUND ADVICE

Leon Bridges

Friday, May 6 • Andrew J Brady Music Center

Leon Bridges is the answer to every surly soul in the world who has ever lamented that “they just don’t make music like they used to anymore.”

Bridges’ warm version of R&B and Soul feels straight out of the 1960s while still being fi rmly planted in the modern world. There’s not a song on his most recent album, Gold Diggers Sound, that won’t make you feel. Last year’s “Why Don’t You Touch Me: Part 2” is both lyrically and musically emotional. It’s impossible to get through even the fi rst verse and chorus without sinking back into your seat and riding a wave of insecurity and sadness. You don’t have to have been in a faltering relationship to understand the sentiment, but it certainly helps.

And then, of course, there’s the amazing stuff he’s released with Psych-Soul band Khruangbin, albums Texas Sun and Texas Moon. Bridges brings the emotion that often feels missing from Khruangbin’s music (Don’t @ me). Meanwhile, they offer a summery surf sound that we might never have known Bridges needed until they got together. Texas Sun was released in early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started, while Texas Moon came out earlier this year. Like two bookends, they each serve a purpose in their placement. But while Texas Sun is the perfect album for fl oating around in your above ground pool until you’re burnt to a crisp, Texas Moon is what you spin when your lover is spreading the chilled aloe onto your back. It’s cooler, cleaner and a little sexier.

Bridges is bringing all those throwback sounds and warm vibes to Cincinnati and, quite honestly, there doesn’t seem like a better way to kick off summer.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $59.50. More info: bradymusiccenter.com. (Deirdre Kaye)

Garth Brooks

Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14 • Paul Brown Stadium

After grumbling from several pandemic-related teases, Cincinnati already was stoked about Garth Brooks nally, truly, for real this time coming to town. But now the city will get even more of him — and in the house the Bengals built, to boot.

Just a few weeks ago, the world’s favorite Country star announced that he would add a second show at Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium. Brooks has been breaking sales and attendance records at venues nationwide since his limited-city stadium tour began this spring, so scheduling another night in a venue that seats more than 65,000 comes as no surprise. e Cincinnati performances will be Brooks’ rst at the Cincinnati Bengals’ stadium and his only stop in Ohio or Kentucky, as of press time. e concert in the Jungle will be “in the round,” which means the stage will be set up in the middle of the eld rather than at the eld’s endzone.

Brooks originally was to perform at Paul Brown Stadium last September but canceled due to fast-rising COVID-19 rates at the time.

“In July (when 2021 shows were announced), I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the ght and I must do my part,” Brooks wrote in a website announcement last August. at show, itself, was a reschedule from 2020, when the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic halted most activities.

Despite scheduling headaches, Brooks has been busy in recent years: the entertainer has received the Kennedy Center Honors, performed during the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, celebrated the Grand Ole Opry’s 5,000th Saturday night broadcast, guest-hosted e Ellen DeGeneres Show a few times and announced plans to open a bar and entertainment venue in Nashville. e show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets may be available on various resale websites. More info: garthbrooks.com. (Allison Babka)

The Who

Sunday, May 15 • TQL Stadium

Find your squeeze box and hop onto the magic bus, because e Who nally is returning to Cincinnati. It will be the legendary Rock band’s rst local performance since Dec. 3, 1979, when tragedy struck at Riverfront Coliseum. On that day, 11 people were trampled to death when an impatient crowd pushed its way through the doors at the Coliseum before the band’s performance. e group says it plans to donate to the P.E.M. Memorial, named after Finneytown High School students Stephan Preston, Jackie Eckerle and Karen Morrison, who died during the 1979 incident. e memorial’s committee annually raises scholarship funds for graduating Finneytown seniors who plan to study music or the arts in college.

Cincinnati’s performance will be part of a do-over after e Who’s tour had been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the band originally had scheduled a Cincinnati concert for April 23, 2020.

“Pete (Townshend) and I said we’d be back, but we didn’t think we’d have to wait for two years for the privilege. is is making the chance to perform feel even more special this time around,” vocalist Roger Daltrey said in a press release earlier this year. “So many livelihoods have been impacted due to COVID, so we are thrilled to get everyone back together — the band, the crew and the fans. We’re gearing up for a great show that hits back in the only way e Who know how — by giving it everything we got.” e show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets may be available on various resale websites. More info: thewho.com. (AB)

Garth Brooks

PHOTO: STEVE JURVETSON, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Who

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY LIVE NATION

Faye Webster

PHOTO: POONEH GHANA

Faye Webster with Haim

ursday, May 19 • Andrew J Brady Music Center

There’s a particular lilt to Faye Webster’s voice. The Atlanta-bred singer/ songwriter conveys a lot without straining to do so, a laid-back approach that infuses her fi rst-person tales with a unique intimacy, as if she’s whispering directly into your ear.

Now 24, Webster has been writing songs since age 14, the result of a musical childhood — her grandfather was a Bluegrass guitarist, her mother was a guitarist and fi ddle player and her older brother was in Rock bands. Webster self-released a precocious debut dubbed Run and Tell at age 16 and followed it up with the selftitled effort Faye Webster in 2017. But it wasn’t until 2019’s Atlanta Millionaires Club that she came into her own — 10 songs in 32 minutes, each tune laced with a wry sense of humor, her modestly affecting voice and deceptively simple, Jazz-inspired Folk Pop arrangements.

Last year’s I Know I’m Funny HaHa is even better. Her introspective songs reveal multitudes through simple language and languid music anchored by acoustic and electric guitars and spare drumming, with the occasional fl ourish of strings, horns and keyboards.

Webster’s new EP, Car Therapy Sessions, which dropped April 29, dives headlong into new sonic territory, each of its fi ve songs backed by a 24-piece orchestra.

“The recording experience was beautiful, I was truly fi ghting tears,” Webster said in a press release. “I think I had actually even cried listening to the demos. I was put in a position where I could see the conductor as well as the producer, which I needed because I honestly couldn’t pick up on my cues sometimes even though I wrote the songs. I was so distracted in how beautiful the orchestra sounded I would forget to sing sometimes.”

Webster’s rising profi le gets another boost as the opening act on tour with Haim, the Los Angeles-based group of sisters (Este, Danielle and Alana Haim) whose own musical trajectory continues to evolve.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $45. More info: bradymusiccenter.com. (Jason Gargano)

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