Ace Frehley and his band had spent their Fall out on the road opening up for the Grandfather of Shock Rock himself Alice Cooper. The guys pulled into Raleigh, North Carolina on October 6 to play a show at the Red Hat Amphitheater. Ace’s set, comprised mainly of KISS classics, opened with “Rocket Ride” from KISS Alive 2. Not all of the KISS classics were ones that Ace sang himself while in the band back during the original makeup days in the 70s. Ace also performed “Detroit Rock City” and “Deuce.” He played his 1978 solo album hit “New York Groove” and changed it to “back in the Raleigh groove.” His KISS signature song “Shock kMe” was included complete with his trademark smoking guitar solo. Throw in a few covers of Led Zeppelin and Mountain classics and it made for a short, but great opening set.

His backing band is also Gene Simmons’ backing band whenever he performs solo gigs, so they are used to playing the KISS classics. Needless to say, they sounded great! Ace also sounded great and looked great too! He was his funny self and really interacted with the crowd as well as his band. Having a short, opening slot like this can be tough even for a veteran such as Ace. He needed to hit the crowd hard and get them and keep them engaged. The best way to do this was to play KISS classics and not a lot of material from his post KISS solo career. Yes, I would have loved to hear “Rock Soldiers” or “Trouble Walking,” but they would have been lost on a crowd that knows him mainly from his KISS days. Hopefully, we will get another Ace headlining tour in the near future where he can expand his setlist.