Man, between demolition work, hailing to the heathen hammer, shouting it out loud, some good food, and detoxing from Celsius energy drinks, I ALMOST forgot to tell you fine people about my adventures! So hey, come one, come all. Get comfy. Let’s take a journey into sound! A spaceman will guide our first romp!
It was no regular Thursday the twenty-eighth in Manhattan inside the moonlit hall of Sony, a one-night takeover of riffs and solos, an evening of insane musical unpredictabilities presented by Ace Frehley. I walked down to 42nd Street for a pre-gig meal at Five Guys with plenty of time to spare until the doors opened at 6:00 as those who showed up early had a few drinks inside the venue’s bar and cafe area and swap Kiss-related stories about meeting various band members and playing the 1979 Kiss pinball machine. A roomful of regular attendees and V.I.P.s walked downstairs and into the stage area. DJ Alex Kayne kept the static in the venue vibrant until Ace Frehley’s arrival. He spun some greats like Iron Maiden’s The Prisoner and Send Me to the Wolves by the Gems.
The four loose cannons of Ace Frehley, lead guitar! Jeremy Asbrock, Ryan Spencer Cook, and Scot Coogan strutted the stage at nine with a unified air of swagger that rock soldiers of all ages, creeds, races, and religions felt before the quartet launched into Shock Me for a jolting start of the show. It was great to be surrounded by a crowd, no matter their background, for an hour of thirty-five minutes of raw rock and roll. Ace was back, and he told you so! Some even cosplayed as Ace. Respect to the one girl all gussied up as Dressed to Kill-era Ace, complete with the jacket, shoes, tie, and vest. Even the hairstyle was uncanny. Me, her, and many others knew the words to every song, as Ace and Company bolted down banger after banger with all of the riffs with rizz of Kiss cuts like Cold Gin and Parasite. Ace offered some loose commentary about some songs, which gave the subject matter a little more vitality on the raw solo tracks like Rock Soldiers and Rip it Out
As great as it was seeing paint Ace Frehley galactic soundscapes with his Les Paul front and center for his hometown audience, he also laid back as Ryan ground out Detroit Rock City and Scot belted out Love Gun and Deuce with little moments of God of Thunder and The Who’s Baba O’Riley to give those Kiss classics a little extra oomph. Jeremy sounded great doing it up on Strange Ways. I believe that the one song that encapsulates an Ace Frehley audience and concert is New York Groove, originally by Hello. If you’re from Saint Louis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, or elsewhere, know there is something otherworldly about Ace performing New York Groove in his home stomping grounds of New York. Of course, no Ace Frehley concert would be complete without him reinventing his shredding Shock Me extended guitar solo from Kiss – Alive II. Ace was smokin’! Literally!
Although it was cool seeing Ace celebrate his musical history with Kiss, it would have been cooler to see him honor his latter-day solo albums, to hear something from Space Invader or his earlier solo work for those who have supported Ace since 1987. There’s always next time. You can say whatever you want about Ace’s holographic, freestyle way of performance, but he has dazzled generations of like-minded rock fans, and that’s a good thing. Ace sent the die-hards and newcomers home satisfied with Rock and Roll All Night. New York wanted the best, and we got it. The one true, cool blue spaceman, ACE FREHLEY!
As for myself, with a bewildering amount of cosmic fog lingering around in my lungs and a ringing in my ears, I soared back to Williamsburg and got ready for two unique nights of pagan battle ballads and scorching riffs from the era of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal at the Gramercy Theatre.
See Ace Frehley tour dates here.
