Peter Criss

(from 10/6/2009)
I've never listened to Kiss in my life, despite the fact that I assume my teenaged brothers liked the band when I was little. I assume this because my mom ran a Kiss facepainting booth in 1978 at a Halloween carnival. My mom did cool stuff like that. She was good at being a mom to little kids. She struggles a bit with being a mom to adults.

Anyway, even though I never listened to Kiss, I liked Peter Criss. Why? Cause he was the kitty cat (did I mention I was a little kid?) This is also why I was a fan of the Miami Dolphins as a child. Cute mascot.

ANYWAY...

I saw that Kiss is playing Letterman this week (a very high profile week to be playing on the Letterman show) and figured I better pay Mr. Criss a visit as an adult. Worth noting that Criss is no longer the drummer for Kiss, so he won't be playing on Letterman.

Dude studied under Gene Krupa! Christ! And he was another singing, song-writing drummer. With drug problems.

Here he is playing piano and singing "Beth" (embedding disabled)

Here's a drum solo from 1976:


Singing and playing a cover 1979:


Another tune from 1979:


Singing and playing Hooligan from 1977:


Stay with me because...literally...this is my introduction to their music...today. So...okay...is it just me or were these guys not that hard of rock? I guess I always assumed they were hard ass pre-metal because of the makeup and Gene Simmons whole shtick. But this stuff is ridiculous. It's like 1950s rock and roll. I had no idea. They are like The Ramones meet Sha Na Na. They seem really silly. What the hell was up with the makeup?