KISS Australia farewell show: Band to play Accor Stadium, Sydney, October 7
They’ve had two farewell tours in Australia already, but KISS are coming back for what we are assured will be their last big bang.
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They’ve had as many farewell tours as John Farnham.
So it should come as no surprise that a year after their End of the Road tour came to our shores, glam rockers KISS will pop back Down Under for what will absolutely, positively be their last Australian show... ever.
Taking a leaf from Coldplay, Foo Fighters and Billy Joel’s playbook, the band will return to the country for one night only in October, ahead of their final curtain call in New York at the end of the year.
Nineties indie darlings Weezer will be the support act.
And the gig will surprisingly be at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, snubbing Melbourne which has traditionally been the bastion of KISS fandom.
According to promoter Andrew McManus the reasons were both economical and practical, as he plotted an event “different from any other show they’ve done”.
He said while a regular KISS concert was already a spectacle, the final stadium show would have twice the lighting and pyrotechnics and a video wall double the size of anything seen at their arena concerts.
McManus has worked with the band for both farewell tours and everything in between for the interceding two decades.
He said the idea for the last show was hatched aboard the band’s private jet while they were in Australia for last year’s End of the Road tour.
“It’s going to be so sad, that last show when we do the Gold Coast,” he said to frontman Paul Stanley and manager Doc McGhee.
As for the prospect of a proper finale, Stanley said: “All the promoters (in other countries) are asking the same thing.”
McManus asked: “If I can get the KISS Army right behind this – a petition with 40,000 to 50,000 signatures – would you consider it?”
The petition was now around 60,000, and they were aiming to sell 50,000 tickets for the rare stadium event.
“I can assure and guarantee there’ll be no other performances in the country – or the southern hemisphere,” McManus said.
Melbourne has traditionally been KISS’s fan stronghold, hosting their 2003 symphony concert with the MSO and accounting for the most dates (three) of last year’s tour.
Stanley added in a statement: “You have made your voices loud enough that it was impossible for us not to hear you!
“We are overwhelmed by your petitions and calls for one last KISS so we are now announcing that the End of the Road will detour one last time to Sydney for a final bombastic farewell.
“As unexpected as this is for us, we will make it unforgettable for all who share the night with us.”
KISS’s global victory lap has been delayed by the pandemic. Originally slated for mid-2021, their grand finale at New York’s Madison Square Garden will now take place on December 2.
KISS: The Final Curtain, Accor Stadium Sydney, October 7. Tickets via Ticketek
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Originally published as KISS Australia farewell show: Band to play Accor Stadium, Sydney, October 7
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