Being a great live band is a balancing act, as Gene Simmons is acutely aware: the music has to be good, but you also need more.
Black Sabbath, too, found this out the hard way, and while no one is questioning their musical ability, as, thanks to their unique approach to rock, their style of music was so ahead of its time that it’s often credited as being the beginning of what we now call heavy metal, they came up short when they went on tour with Kiss because they didn’t have the same level of theatrics that they did.
Geezer Butler previously commented on this that while the band got along with Kiss, they felt they were too hard an act to follow because crowds back then weren’t quite used to the level of drama that Kiss brought in tow.
“It was a completely new direction for people,” said Butler, “People had to start thinking about stage production after Kiss. It was tough to follow them. We went on just as an ordinary band, no effects or anything, and everybody else still had their mouths wide open from seeing Kiss.”
Gene Simmons is well aware of just how much good stage presence can bring to the band. Granted, Kiss attests that the reason they initially painted their faces was because they wanted to look like a unit. They were tired of bands looking disjointed and always intended to make clear that they were working together and keen on making great music. However, even if this was the original plan, they evidently realised how much they could sell their live shows based on these different characters, as every gig was laced with excitement and fireworks.
While Simmons appreciates good stage presence and something being good to look at as well as to listen to, he also didn’t think that having loads of fireworks was always the way to go. He would use Ritchie Blackmore as a good example of this: while he wasn’t necessarily the most eccentric-looking man, Simmons always attested that it could draw people in quite easily.
“To those of us who know, Ritchie Blackmore means the world, he’s got the goods,” said Simmons, “Ritchie Blackmore on stage sort of had the right thing that attracted our eyes because when people go to your concerts they listen with their eyes first, (not so much) the ears. That’s why visuals are so important, lights and all the rest of that. But Ritchie dressed in black and had the Strat, did all the physicality.”
Of course, the most important aspect will always be the music, but as Simmons mentions, Blackmore had that as well, noting that the latter had such a way with riffs that his song is probably the most played of all time.
“Today here and almost anywhere when that 13, 14 year-old kid picks up a guitar he’s gonna be playing Ritchie’s riff [Imitates ‘Smoke on the Water’ guitar riff],” he said, “I’m not the one saying that, marketing experts are saying that’s the most played riff of them all.”
