KISS -- which currently only features Gene Simmons (one of the nicest, most liberal, talented and charitable rock stars ever) and Paul Stanley from the original foursome -- have announced that their next album, Sonic Boom, will be available through Walmart exclusively. This is a nice move, especially since Walmart helped put all the small mom & pop record stores in small towns -- you know, the ones who helped sell millions of KISS albums in the first place -- out of business. The album, featuring the band's first new original material in 11 years (not that hardly anyone's noticed), will be the centerpiece of a three-CD set that also includes a re-recorded "greatest hits" set (shades of Axl Rose...though at least he's never released the GN'R rerecordings -- at least not yet) and a live DVD from the band's recent tour of Argentina. After all, why charge your fans for only one CD when you can get them to buy music they already own all over again?
But that news isn't why we're posting this on a Detroit-centric site. No, the big news here is that in honor of the album's October 6th release, KISS announced today that they will return to Cobo Hall -- the home of the series of concerts that resulted in the first KISS Alive album -- for a special show on Friday, September 25th. That's great. The city council can't come to a decision on what to do with the classic arena...but ol' Bat Lizard did!
TIckets for the show, which features Buckcherry as an opening act, go on sale this Friday, August 21st, at 5 p.m. We can't help it, though, if we're a little more excited about Bruce Springsteen bringing the E Street Band to the Palace of Auburn Hills for a show on November 13th. Tickets for that show also go on sale this weekend -- Saturday, August 22nd at 10 a.m., to be exact -- via TIcketmaster.
Good ol' Bat Lizard: Whatever...