Kiss played their final show as humans at Madison Square Garden on December 2. Right at the end of the show, Kiss announced they'd continue on as digital avatars – much the same as London's Abba Voyage show – indefinitely into the future.
The avatars were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and were financed and produced by Abba Voyage creators Pophouse Entertainment. Despite not having played a single show yet, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons already noted to one fan during a meet-and-greet that the avatars are only going to get better.
"They're gonna get better, that animated stuff," said Simmons. He then added: "There's so much being planned, even beyond my comprehension. But they're spending, oh, about 200 million [dollars] to take it to the next level."
So I guess we'll see what happens with the Kiss avatars into the future… even though we still haven't seen a show from them yet, so "improvement" means nothing at the moment to anyone but the band.
One thing is for certain, though – ex-Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley isn't a fan of the avatars. In a recent interview with Rock Antenne, Frehley stated in no uncertain terms that he doesn't feel the whole "digital avatar" thing embodies rock.
"I'm happy it's over, because I'm not gonna be compared to them anymore… But I don't get this avatar thing that they're gonna do," said Frehley. "I mean, I saw some of it on a video on YouTube last night. It kind of looked like it was geared towards children. And it's not rock and roll. I get up on stage without backing tracks, plug my amp into it, plug my guitar into a Marshall and go. That's it. It's always been that way and always will be."
