Pictures: http://marksconcertpictures.shutterfly.com/

Pictures by weloverthedark

Story by Mark Caro, Tribune reporter – Picture by Frazer Harrison

Ten years after kicking off its official Farewell Tour, Kiss arrives Friday at Tinley Park’s First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre with no signs of mothballing the makeup and armored body suits. True, drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer have replaced original members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively, but singer/bassist Gene Simmons and singer/guitarist Paul Stanley are still around, along with the classic Kiss bombast.

The serpent-tongued Simmons, now 61 with five seasons of a reality TV show under his studded belt (A&E’s “Gene Simmons Family Jewels”), still calls his band “the best, the hottest band in the world,” though plenty of tickets remain for Friday’s show. In fact, Simmons said a ticketed adult can bring up to four kids 14 and under to the show for free.

Here’s more of what he had to say before his band hit the stage Tuesday in Atlanta

 Pictures by Nelson Hicks

One look around the parking lot at Aaron’s Amphitheater at Lakewood Tuesday night and there was no mistaking who was in town. KISS returned to Atlanta.

“It’s a lot like going to a circus,” said fan Shane Hill. “There’s a lot of fireworks. There’s a lot of fire breathing. They look a lot like superheroes

up on stage, eight inch platform heels, breathing fire, flying through the air. It’s a lot of fun.”

Hill has seen KISS a dozen times, but Tuesday marked a first for his family. It was the first time his 5-year-old son accompanied his dad and mom, Maria

Hill, to the show.

“We have four boys, but (Nicholas) wanted to go,” Maria Hill said. “He wanted to get painted up like his dad.”

Five-year-old Nicholas might have been the youngest first-time KISS concert goer at the show Tuesday night. On the opposite end, 82-year-old Bess Lyle

might have been the oldest. She attend her first KISS concert Tuesday night with her daughter and 9-year-old grandson Tyler Brooks. One of her

granddaughters works for the band.

Lyle said she looked up the band on the Internet and watched them on Jay Leno so she knew what to expect. She even had a star painted on her face.

KISS took the stage around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. A packed house greeted their entrance.

http://www.wsbtv.com/entertainment/24834280/detail.html

Pictures by nightwingken

As one of the largest bands in the world for over 30 years, Kiss are certainly no strangers to the kind of fame that Lady Gaga currently enjoys. With that and their outlandish fashion sense in common, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the rockers and the diva hit it off immediately.

Gaga posted two pictures on her Twitter account, one showing her with guitarist Paul Stanley and another of her and the entire band. The pictures were taken backstage after the band’s Friday gig at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., which Gaga attended with her boyfriend, Luc Carl.

On Saturday, Gaga performed in Tacoma, Wash., and spoke of how inspired she was to meet Stanley and company. “You meet so many people [in Hollywood] who are so ungrateful for what they have,” she said, according to PopEater. “But Kiss, these guys have been making music for decades and they were … beyond nice and beyond down to earth, full makeup and everything. They hung out with me and my friends for 30 minutes just shooting the s— backstage like they don’t have anything better to do … That’s gonna be me in 30 years.”

Naturally, fans everywhere started speculating about a collaboration between Kiss and Gaga, but it seems that’s just wishful thinking. In the meantime, Gaga devotees will have to settle for videos of her rocking out at the Friday show and speaking about it on Saturday. Check them both out below (thanks to ONTD).

Previous post about KISS and Lady GaGa here

Click  cover to check out a cool new song – “Call Paul Stanley” from the band Bad City. The guys are all big fans of KISS and wrote the song about a young rock star who somehow stumbles upon Paul Stanley’s phone number and calls him up in the middle of the night.

Bad City’s album was just released, and the band is going on tour next week with Slash before joining up with The Smashing Pumpkins. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/badcitymusic.