It hasn’t even been two years since Kiss reached the literal end of the road, when their five-year, 250-date “End of the Road” farewell tour wrapped with two concerts at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden. Although those gigs were billed as the band’s final shows ever, the word “ever” tends to have a different meaning in rock'n'roll context than it does in real life, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when the band announced their return to the stage earlier this year.
What was surprising, however, was the setting. Over the years, Kiss has hosted 11 branded “kruises” that have departed from the likes of Los Angeles, Miami and New Orleans, but for their 12th such event – Kiss Kruise: Landlocked In Vegas, held at Sin City’s Virgin Hotels complex – there was nary a port to be found, and the only water in sight was in the nearby resort pool.
On an overcast Friday afternoon, following an introduction by Kiss Army founders Bill Starkey and Jay Evans, the 2004-2023 lineup of the band – founding members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, along with their longtime wingmen Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer – stepped onto the open-air stage on the resort’s grassy quad simply known as The Lawn.
Admirably, before playing a single note, Stanley took the mic to address the elephant in the room – the recent passing of the band’s original guitarist Ace Frehley, who died last month after sustaining accidental blunt force injuries to his head following a fall at his New Jersey home.
“We’d like to take a moment to think about somebody who’s at the foundation of this band,” Stanley told the crowd. “We certainly had differences, but that’s what family is about. Why don’t we take a moment and think about him looking down on us – from [the Planet] Jendell, probably – and let’s have a moment for Ace.”
From there, the band got down to business for the first of its two Kruise performances, an hour-long acoustic set that brought back memories of the legendary 1995 MTV Unplugged broadcast that led to their reunion with Frehley and original drummer Peter Criss the following year.
As they did then, Kiss opened its Vegas set with the Hotter Than Hell track Comin’ Home, which was played at a slightly slower pace than it was three decades ago and felt a bit looser than it should have. It didn’t take long for the band to scrape off two years’ worth of ring rust, though, as the subsequent performance of See You Tonight – a deep cut from Simmons’ 1978 solo album – nailed the same breezy Laurel Canyon vibe that made it an unexpected highlight of Unplugged.
From there, the band began to let down its guard a bit. “Who here owns [Music From] The Elder? Stanley asks the crowd, referring to the band’s infamous 1981 concept album. “See if you can get anyone else to buy it!” At the end of the subsequent performance of that album’s Simmons-sung ballad A World Without Heroes, the bassist takes off his sunglasses and pretends to cry, as he does at the end of the song’s music video.
While Criss isn’t acknowledged by name, his shadow hovers over three songs they perform today – first on the Stanley-sung Hard Luck Woman, and later on Beth, which again sees the band reach back into their Unplugged playbook (with Singer taking on vocal duties). Singer also takes the mic for the bawdy Nothin’ To Lose, the Unplugged version of which saw him sing and perform alongside the original Catman – but today, Criss’s vocal vamps in the chorus are handled by Simmons.
As the show continues, the vibe becomes looser, with Simmons and Stanley telling jokes – they acknowledge their advancing age in the introduction of one classic song by rechristening it Christine Sixty, and later say that in addition to Goin’ Blind, they’re now also goin’ deaf – and teasing each other frequently, most notably during the introduction of Plaster Caster (which features an extended discussion of “fluffers”). It’s clear how much they’ve missed being on stage. “You’re the blood that makes us go,” Stanley tells the crowd at one point.
1989’s Hide Your Heart is probably the deepest cut aired, but its introduction earns one of the day’s loudest reactions, which leads Stanley – always a ham, if not the whole pig – to introduce it a second time for good measure. Later, before the final song, he warns the crowd that “this might suck” – but the subsequent performance of Dressed To Kill classic Love Her All I Can does anything but, as its swampy, dirt-under-the-fingernails groove fits the acoustic format to a T, although the solo gives Thayer some fits, to the point where he gives it a second go after the song concludes.
At two points during their performance, Stanley hints that the Vegas Kruise won’t be Kiss's last, and asks the crowd if the band should do it again next year on a real boat. “Is it OK if we look like this?” he asks, referring to their unmasked civilian appearance.
Kiss might not have been gone long enough for many fans to miss them, but if 2025 has taught us anything, it’s that our musical heroes aren’t as immortal as we’d like to believe – and it’s clear that for the hundreds of diehards who made the pilgrimage to go Kruising in the desert, a world without heroes is no place for them.
