KISS a Mature Alternate

There are not many rock legends around with all members still living. Saturday night, some lucky people at the KROQ Weenie Roast saw a rock legend. Since its inception, KISS has influenced a generation of musicians, stretched the boundaries of the stage, and sold millions and millions of albums doing it. Mike Boehm’s biased and uninformative review of that show is very ironic (“Harmonic Convergence,” June 17). If the Chili Peppers felt “elbowed aside on their own alterna-turf,” they are suffering from a case of inflated self-importance. For a band that used to play with socks for jock straps, the fire-breathing and explosions that are part of the KISS act seem pretty original, and mature to me.

Part of maturity is being able to appreciate music from all facets. That’s what alternative started out to be.

MARC GOLDSTEIN

Riverside