KISS Guilty of Using Excessive Farce

KISS them goodbye.

Rock’s most cartoonish band ever is calling it quits--as a touring entity anyway--and not a minute too soon, given a couple of Spinal Tap-worthy moments in the quartet’s farewell stop Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond.

First, lead singer Paul Stanley got off the ground but almost didn’t get back in what should have been the climax of a series of increasingly astounding stunts during the 2 1/4-hour performance. Instead of soaring over the crowd and then being lowered to revel among the KISS Army as he had promised, Stanley was hoisted up and out a few feet, then haltingly deposited by an uncooperative crane back on stage, where he humbly declared “What a bummer!”

And after the house-shaking final encore rendition of their zeitgeist hit “Rock and Roll All Nite,” a sign behind the stage flashed “KISS Thanks You Los Angeles!” to those exiting the Anaheim arena.

Of course, life as a special-effects-dependent rock ‘n’ roll outfit is always risky. Luckily, the confetti cannons fired as scheduled during that final number, filling the hall with a paper torrent and whipping up a festive finale to a show that began with the band descending to earth on a metal platform suspended in the rigging.

Still, the glitches lightly dampened what could have been an energetic and bedazzling sayonara to the group that raised rock-as-pyrotechnic spectacle to its 6-inch platform-heeled pinnacle in the ‘70s.

Could have, that is, had the show run 30 to 40 minutes shorter--guitarist Ace Frehley’s extended solo segment and most of Stanley’s time alone on stage sapped a lot of the momentum established early on. The band’s talent for crafting strong melodic and instrumental hooks also would have been better underscored had they substituted a few of the more musically bountiful numbers from their extensive repertoire for the grinding, chest thumpers that cast a monotonous tint over the second half.

Though KISS has been rendered nostalgically cute by the far more shocking likes of Marilyn Manson, Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons and drummer Peter Criss appeared to relish their every minute reinhabiting the colorful sci-fi rock-star personas they created almost three decades ago and resuscitated in 1996. Only Frehley betrayed any hint of awareness of the ultimate silliness of four men at or nearing 50 dressing up for trick-or-treating on a nightly basis.

KISS was always about indulging in fantasy--”indulging” being the operative word. Excess itself was taken to excess, with undeniably entertaining results, and this tour was as over-the-top as ever. The stage brimmed with row upon row of speaker cabinets and lights, enough it seemed to equip the amp-less garage bands of several Third World countries.

But KISS was always about eye-popping visuals and gut-churning power chords. Rarely, if ever, did this group bother with music’s ability to communicate any emotion other than “Let’s parrrrrrrrty!”

That hedonistic message grabbed the attention of not just a generation of party-minded head-bangers who gobbled up something like 75 million KISS albums over the years, but influenced future musical movers and shakers (and self-proclaimed KISS fans) from Kurt Cobain to Garth Brooks.

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Here’s hoping somebody fixes the crane and makes the send-off tote board read “Devore” when the tour returns to the Southland one last time in June at the Blockbuster Pavilion.

Maybe that same person can scare up a sock to stuff in the mouth--or is it Motormouth?--of Motor City Madman Ted Nugent, who preceded KISS with a 55-minute set that afforded anyone so inclined a chance to get in touch with their inner Neanderthal. At least the 51-year-old singer and hotshot guitarist’s sentences maligning non-English speakers in the U.S. and a host of public figures contained subjects, verbs and objects, making them structurally far superior to songs, with the exception of his catchy career-making hit “Cat Scratch Fever,” utterly lacking in rhythmic pulse, chordal progression, harmonic development or melodic direction.

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New Skid Row front man John Solinger came off as a likable graduate cum loud of the Diamond Dave School of Hard Rock Singers as he led the reconstituted ‘90s metal band through a mercifully brief opening set. The group’s music, however, suffered from a painfully bass-heavy sound mix that rendered anything else being played or sung indecipherable.

* KISS, Ted Nugent and Skid Row play June 3 at Blockbuster Pavilion, 2575 Glen Helen Parkway, Devore. 6 p.m. $26.50-$83.50. (909) 886-8742.

Randy Lewis can be reached at (714) 966-5821 or by e-mail at randy.lewis@latimes.com.