A Big KISS For Halifax

02/03/09 3:41pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Just because Gene Simmons has resurrected his record label and is scouting for Canadian talent doesn't mean his band can't play a Canadian show as well.

KISS are set to headline the Halifax Rocks 2009 show that hits the Nova Scotian capital city's Commons park on July 18. Four other performers will be announced at a later date.

Tickets go on sale on Friday at 9 a.m. at the Ticket Atlantic Box Office, select Atlantic Superstores, through the Ticket Atlantic website or by phone. Early bird general admission tickets will run you $99, while a limited number of VIP tickets will go for $289. If you subscribe to the Halifax Rocks newsletter, you'll receive an email on Wednesday about an exclusive Thursday pre-sale.

When Simmons was in Toronto scouting Canadian talent late last year, he told the Toronto Sun newspaper that KISS would play some summer shows and specifically mentioned Halifax as being on the band's itinerary.

The news comes just as KISS guitarist Paul Stanley told Classic Rock magazine that the band may record a new album and have European and North American tour plans in the works.

"I have been ambivalent to the idea [of a new KISS album], in the past but I'm much more open to it now," Stanley said. "I just thought I'd be content for KISS to remain a heritage act, just playing our greatest hits — 'Detroit Rock City' and all that.

"But the new KISS lineup with [guitarist] Tommy Thayer and [drummer] Eric Singer is proving to be so good, so strong in spirit, it would be interesting to see how we perform in the studio.

"I must stress that no recording time has been booked at this point. But if we were to go into the studio, the intention would be to record a KISS album in the style of our 1970s recordings. A classic KISS album, unmistakably."

KISS haven't released a new studio album since 1998's Psycho Circus.