KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer recently shared new details about the band’s upcoming virtual avatar show, explaining what fans can expect from the project in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock.
Thayer confirmed that he has been closely involved in the production and teased that the show will include major surprises for the audience.
“It is mind-boggling,” Thayer said. “I mean, I’ve been very much involved working on this. We’ve got some great surprises in store and it’s going to blow people away when this thing comes out. It’s basically a virtual Kiss show.”
He compared the concept to a well-known virtual concert experience in London and noted that the same production team is behind both projects.
“The closest thing you could compare it to is the ABBA Voyage experience, which has been a hit show in East London now for about four years,” Thayer explained. “The same people produced it, and when you see this show in London, you think you’re seeing ABBA performing live in their heyday.”
Thayer also stressed that advances in technology will allow the KISS show to surpass earlier virtual performances.
“I’ve seen a lot of things and I was blown away just like everybody else was, when we saw it,” Thayer continued. “I’ve seen it a few times and that would be the closest [example] conceptually to get an idea what we’re doing. But technology has evolved so much in the last four or five years that us doing our show, it’s going to take it to a whole ‘nother level, more of a mind-boggling live experience.”
The road to this project began more than two years ago, when KISS first introduced their digital counterparts to the world.
The band revealed digital versions of the Demon, Starchild, Catman and Spaceman at the final concert of their End of the Road tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 2, 2023. The avatars were created by Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by George Lucas, in partnership with Pophouse Entertainment, the Swedish company linked to ABBA’s Voyage project.
That partnership borrowed heavily from a model that had already proven successful in London. ABBA Voyage opened in May 2022 at the purpose-built, 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where a ten-piece live backing band performs alongside digital ABBA performers created through motion capture and other technology by Industrial Light & Magic. The production has since been widely credited with establishing the template that KISS now intends to build upon.
