KISS Rocks Lower Manhattan In Mini-Concert At Tribeca Film Festival

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees KISS performed an elaborate set in New York’s Battery Park on Friday night, lighting up lower Manhattan with a fireworks show at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The mini-concert featured five of their classics – “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud,” Rock and Roll All Nite,” “Heaven’s on Fire” and “War Machine” – and celebrated premiere of their upcoming A&E two-part documentary Biography: KISSstory.

As for why the set was only 20 minutes, Paul Stanley admitted, “We don’t have a permit to make a long show. So this is a little short. It’s like a sampling before you get your big meal in August.”

Stanley announced later this month KISS will resume the rest of the postponed U.S. “final tour” that has been delayed due to COVID. Stanely revealed this was the band’s first post-COVID concert. “We couldn’t pass up this opportunity… so being from New York, we had to open up New York, so this is our way of saying welcome back to everybody,” Stanely said.

The documentary offers fans an intimate look into the lives of original members Stanely and Gene Simmons. The rock ‘n’ roll band has now spanned for over 50 years and has seen members come and go.

The documentary begins with a look inside Simmons and Stanley’s childhood triumphs and the formation of the band in 1973 that led to the road to their rock stardom.

Simmons, 71, touched upon his arrival to America from Israel with his mother at the age of eight and his musical influences in the film.

“I came here as Chaim Witz,” Simmons said. “I couldn’t speak a word of English. I was aware I didn’t fit in. I still feel like an outsider. But I still devoured everything American. I started listening to the radio all the time, I heard Chuck Berry and Jackie Wilson and Fats Domino. I couldn’t speak English, I just loved the music.”

Stanley, 69, who is a native of Upper Manhattan, talked about his microtia, which is a birth defect that causes hearing issues in results to an underdeveloped ear.

“So, I had no right ear,” Stanley admitted. “It was just a crumpled mass of cartilage and I couldn’t hear on my right side. And for a little kid to be stared at or pointed to, or taunted, is devastating,” Stanley added. “Gene and I, what we share is a sense of being outsiders for different reasons. But we also found escape in music.”

Biography: KISSstory is set to premiere on the A&E network June 27 and 28 from 9 to 11 p.m