KISS‘ digital incarnation won’t be ready for the stage for several years to come. The multi-platinum hard rockers, who recently played their ‘final’ live show, won’t be putting their computer generated avatars out on the road until 2027.
If you missed the news, as an encore for their farewell set at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY back on December 02nd, Kiss unveiled that they had teamed up with visual effects legends Industrial Light & Magic (‘Star Wars‘, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day‘, etc.) to create a digital version of themselves.
This technology was suggested to allow the band to effectively perform ‘live’ forever, even staging multiple concerts around the globe at the same time. Those attending that aforementioned show got their first taste of that version of the band, with a virtual performance of “God Gave Rock And Roll To You II“.
The technology features motion captured performances from the band’s final lineup and is still being fully finetuned, with some $200 million dollars being invested into the technology to pull off these ‘live’ performances.
The same tech was used to pull off the ongoing ‘ABBA Voyage‘ tour. As seen in the recent previews of digital version of KISS, this depiction of the band members opts for a more physically exaggerated version of the band, rather than fully lifelike appearances.
Per a video released by the band earlier today, December 22nd, the first show from that ‘new era’ of the band will take place in 2027, which probably gives the real-life version of the band themselves time to unretire and launch another farewell tour,
