Photo Credit: Pophouse Entertainment
KISS announces through a teaser video that the first concert featuring their avatar forms since their debut earlier this month at Madison Square Garden won’t be until 2027 — ‘What the future holds is in the making.’
It took KISS 50 years to get to this point in their career, so what’s another three years? KISS first announced plans for the future of their concerts — featuring eight-foot tall avatars of the band to carry on after the members’ retirement from touring — at the end of their final concert at NYC’s Madison Square Garden earlier this month. Now the band has posted a 25-second clip teasing what the future holds for KISS, with a new show featuring their avatar counterparts coming in 2027.
“50 years is a long time, and what the future holds is in the making,” reads the video’s title, along with snippets of excited KISS fans and an animation showcasing the avatars and some of their superpowers.
To bring the avatars to life, KISS has teamed up with Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment, the powerhouse behind the ground-breaking “ABBA Voyage” avatar show in London, and the “Star Wars” special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. The KISS avatars will fly above audiences, breathe fire, and much more, feats previously achieved during the band’s live shows using practical effects.
Gene Simmons told fans during the week of their last shows at Madison Square Garden that the avatars will get better before the first show, which we now know will debut in 2027. “They’re spending, oh, about $200 million to take it to the next level.”
“We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” said Simmons during the press release for the avatars. “The technology is going to make Paul (Stanley) jump higher than he’s ever done before.”
Previously, KISS had teased that something big was in the works to continue on the band’s legacy after the members themselves retire from touring. Many fans expected this to mean that younger musicians might take up the mantle to continue another iteration of KISS.
But given the phenomenal success of the avatar-based ABBA Voyage show, it makes sense that more bands like KISS — known for putting on an elaborate live show — would want to up the ante using digital versions of themselves.
