The time has come. KISS‘ End of the Road Tour is coming to an end. On Saturday (December 2) KISS will play its final concert at Madison Square Garden in the band’s hometown of New York City.
The final KISS concert will be broadcast live from MSG on December 2 via Pay Per View. To watch it live, go to PPV.com or stream the concert through the PPV app for $39.99.
Dubbed the KISS NYC Takeover, before the band’s final two New York shows, which kicked off on Friday (December 1), a series of events took place throughout the city to commemorate the band’s 50-year history. On Wednesday (November 29), the Rangers went against the Detroit Red Wings, and the hockey game featured special KISS-themed activities along with limited-edition KISS-Rangers merchandise.
Videos by American Songwriter
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On Thursday (November 30), a multimedia music-to-light show presented by the Empire State Building began at dusk and ran through 2 a.m. ET. The light show was set to the band’s 1975 hit “Rock and Roll All Nite.” Earlier that day, New York City Mayor Eric Adams also declared November 30 KISS Day.
A series of KISS-branded digital ads will also be visible throughout Penn Station, and on December 1 and 2, the Inked NYC tattoo parlor located at 150 West 22nd St. offered free KISS temporary tattoos.
Additionally, collectible KISS-designed Metro Cards were also available for purchase at Penn Station and Herald Square Station train stations.
The band’s final tour also had a few ups and downs when KISS was forced to cancel several dates on the End of the Road Tour in Kanata and Toronto, Canada and Knoxville, Tennessee after Paul Stanley caught the flu.
“I’ve done shows with cracked ribs, I’ve done shows with a 103[-degree] fever, and lived with it,”Stanley said in a video posted on Facebook when the band finally returned to the stage on Saturday (November 25) in Indianapolis, Indiana. “I was wondering if it was my time [with the illness], but anyway, I’m here and it’s awesome.”
For Stanley and Simmons, KISS has filled nearly three-quarters of their lives, but the end of the band as a performing act was inevitable.
“There are two things that are inevitable: death and taxes,” Stanley told American Songwriter in 2023. “And it’s inevitable the demise of us playing as a live band. Do I want to see that day? No. But it’s necessary. Before we have no choice, I’d like to end it.”
Stanley added, “I take my kids to school, and I do all kinds of things, but the band has been most of my life. The connection to the audience and that adrenaline rush and the emotional rush of doing a show, I don’t want that to end, but a lot of things have to end. I’d like to think that in the best situation, you can control it, and that’s simply what we’re doing. If we were in T-shirts and jeans, we could do this into our 80s and 90s but not in eight-inch platform heels and 40 pounds of gear.”
Still, KISS’ final show in New York will be an emotional one for Stanley. “When I think about the end of it, it doesn’t make me happy,” he says. “I’ll be ecstatic looking at what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve done, but it’s the end of an era. It’s also the end of a huge part of my life.”
Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust
