KISS Reveal Digital Avatars Replacing Them After Purported Final Show
KISS played what will purportedly be their final “final show ever” on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. At the show, they introduced the digital avatars that will be replacing them. As the current lineup — Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer — left the stage for the last time, they were replaced by hologram versions of themselves.
The avatars were created by George Lucas’ special effects company Industrial Light & Magic and Pophouse Entertainment Group, the same pair of companies behind the ABBA holograms that went on tour.
Swedish music exec Per Sundin, who leads Pophouse, told Fast Company, that the possibilities for digital KISS are endless. “We’re going to figure it out after the tour,” he said. “Is it a KISS concert in the future? Is it a rock opera? Is it a musical? A story, an adventure? These four individuals already have superpowers. We want to be as open as possible.”
“What we’ve accomplished has been amazing, but it’s not enough,” Stanley said in a video interview introducing the holograms. “The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are. It’s exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalized.”
Simmons added: “We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before. The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he’s ever done before … The future is so exciting. If you think you’re going to get rid of us, I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.”