On the heels of their farewell tour, Kiss announced the band will perform in the future as "immortalized" avatars.
The band, which celebrated their 50th anniversary this year, played the final show of their "End of the Road" farewell tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 2. After their encore performance, Kiss played a promotional video announcing the band's future as "immortal" avatars for the NYC crowd.
Kiss shared several videos, along with a 30-minute interview on their website.
According to the venture, Kiss will live on as avatars through artificial generation (AI) created by Industrial Light & Magic and Pophouse, which is financed and produced by Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment. The company employed advanced performance-capture technology to recreate band members' faces and body to create life-like avatars for future performances.
"The new Kiss era starts now," co-founder and frontman Paul Stanley says in the promotional video as fellow co-founder and bassist Gene Simmons, accompanied by lead guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, are seen wearing motion capture suits.
“We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” Simmons said in a press release discussing the band's future. “The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he’s ever done before.”
"What we’ve accomplished has been amazing, but it’s not enough," Stanley added. "The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are."
"KISS could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents. That's what you could do with this," said Pophouse Entertainment CEO Per Sundin.
Simmons and Stanley, both in their 70s, have previously insisted Kiss would continue with new members adopting the band's iconic characters for future performances.
Radio host Eddie Trunk, a longtime fan of the band, expressed dissatisfaction with the band's future as an avatar visual experience.
"I have very little interest in Kiss or any other band putting on 'avatar' concerts," he wrote in an X post following the band's announcement. "In no way does it replace a concert experience."
Trunk said he would have preferred a "sanctioned tribute band" with new members assuming the band's characters.
Kiss' "End of the Road" tour launched in 2019 and was originally scheduled to finish in 2021 but was postponed and extended following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The band originally embarked on their first farewell tour from 2000 to 2001 with original lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. Following the end of their “Farewell Tour,” the band took a brief hiatus before returning to the road with Thayer and Singer.
