Kiss delivers a rock and roll spectacle one last time at the Hollywood Bowl

Two songs into the night the legendary hard rock band Kiss got booed by the sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Friday. Not, mind you, because the show wasn’t already the ridiculously over-the-top spectacle that Kiss has perfected in its 50 years on the road.

The curtain dropped for “Detroit Rock City” to reveal Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer on hanging platforms 30 feet above the stage, fireworks flashing around them, and drummer Eric Singer at the back of the stage as flame cannons blasted around him.

Then “Shout It Loud,” with lasers bouncing inside the bandshell, bright blurs of fireworks shooting off its top, our face-painted, costumed heroes — Stanley the Starchild, Simmons the Demon, Thayer the Spaceman and Singer the Cat – like characters inside a colorful and very, very loud video game.

No complaints at all — and then Stanley started to speak.

“Man, so here we are,” he said as fans whooped and hollered. “And this is the last time we’ll be playing Los Angeles.”

Uh-oh. That definitely was not what anyone wanted to hear, but there — amid well-intentioned boos and shouts of no! — it was: The End of the Road Tour really is the end of touring for Kiss, Stanley and Simmons, the two founding members in the band, insist.

Do you believe them? I mean, this is the third time I’ve seen Kiss on this farewell tour in the last five years. But Stanley is 71, and Simmons is 74, so maybe this night, Kiss’s Hollywood Bowl debut, is it for Los Angeles, Southern California and the entire state.

Before the show began, fans at the Hollywood Bowl, many of whom arrived with faces painted like the Kiss characters, said they hope this ends up like most rock and roll retirements do — a head fake, a misdirection, and prelude to a one-off or reunion show in the future.

David and Judy Flores of Chandler, Arizona arrived at the Bowl costumed as the Demon and Starchild after catching Kiss at Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms on Wednesday. Friday was the seventh time they’d seen the band on its farewell tour. For David Flores, it was about the 40th time he’d seen the band.

“I’ve been listening to them since I was 7 years old,” said David Flores, resplendent in his Gene Simmons cosplay. He’s heard that Stanley and Simmons both plan to tour with their own bands, and Singer will play in Stanley’s.

“One way or another they’re going to be around,” he said.

“And we’re going to be there,” Judy Flores added.

Back on stage, Stanley tried to cheer up fans like the Flores’, who said they’d be devastated if this is it.

“I know it’s sad but it’s also a joyous time,” he said. “A time to celebrate everything we’ve done together. Kiss Army, we love you!”

That brought the cheers thundering back through the amphitheater, and show rolled on, 22 songs over two hours and 10 minutes, most of them the hits you wanted to hear, with a few odds and ends from the latter-day albums scattered in.

Highlights early in the set included “Deuce” and “War Machine.” Stanley and Simmons taught us our very difficult vocal parts on “I Love It Loud” – “Hey-ey-ey-ey yeah!” – and “Say Yeah” – “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”

If you weren’t there, but had seen one of the earlier Southern California shows on The End of the Road Tour, you’d already seen all the set pieces. Thayer’s guitar solo had him fighting off the UFO-like hexagonal overhead video screens, firing red sparks from the neck of his guitar to knock them out of commission.

Simmons grabbed a flaming torch and breathed a blast of fire during “I Love It Loud,” and later, during the bass solo that led into the ominously fun “God of Thunder,” grinned malevolently as he opened his mouth to let blood run down his flickering tongue and over the kabuki-white face-paint on his chin.

All of this is good and goofy fun, the kind of comic book stylings long a part of Kiss’s showmanship.

And if this was your first show, well, mind blown, right?

“We get to see them live – not a lot of people can do that now,” said Luis Tamayo of Bell Gardens, who came with his friend Larry Jimenez of Downey, both of them for their first Kiss show.

Morgan Cavanaugh of Toluca Lake brought the whole family – wife Juli Cavanaugh and sons Quinn, 13, and Sawyer, 10, with all four made-up like one of the four Kiss characters. He’d been a fan since second grade, though this was the first show for all.

“We all loved the theatrics and the music was good,” he said.

It almost feels unnecessary, or even mean, to quibble over a show like this. But OK, the middle lagged a little with too many solos and a couple of songs – “Psycho Circus,” I’m looking at you – from the later albums that remain less known.

But the show ended strongly, as it has throughout this tour, with Stanley flying on a zipline from the stage over the audience to a remote stage in the terrace boxes. “Love Gun,” with terrific backing vocals by boys back in the bandshell, and “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” the Kiss-does-disco song were both standouts.

As was “Black Diamond,” which saw Stanley fly back to the stage to close out the main set.

The encore opened with Singer seated at a bedazzled grand piano to sing and play “Beth,” the ballad that is the band’s only No. 1 hit, followed by “Do You Love Me.”

There’s really only one way for a Kiss show to end and with “Rock and Roll All Nite”— confetti cannons at the start, the crowd roaring the chorus as Simmons sang lead — the show ended with the thrilling spectacle Kiss really kind of created in the rock world.

Confetti blasted again midway through it, and after Stanley gave his guitar a goodbye kiss, he smashed it on the stage, triggering blasts of metallic purple streamers over the audience. The stage went dark, five minutes of fireworks erupted from the top of the bandshell, and Kiss was gone, probably, maybe for good.

Kiss

When: Friday, Nov. 3

Where: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles