Ace Frehley, Rock and Roll hall of famer, former guitarist…well, you know this is going to be a great show! Ace Frehley is a name that has remained in the public eye for over forty years. I was giddy as a school girl to listen to this iconic figure in Rock and Roll History. The house was packed, both young and old. Ace has learned the trick to survival in this hard business: how to acquire new fans! A lot of rockers have the same fans decade after decade. It’s always and only the same fans. Not for Ace! His name was as familiar to the twenty-year-olds as it was to the sixty-year-olds. This was the place to be on a Tues day night in Louisville. The ballroom was packed to the gills folks. There were people wearing Ace shirts, people wearing KISS shirts, and the diehard fans wearing the tried and true KISS inspired make up. The opening band was phenomenal! A little metal and a blues. The drummer went through a whopping three-minute solo. They performed an excellent cover of the Beatles’ “Get By With a Little Help from My Friends” in the stylings of Joe Cocker. I was rather impressed and had planned on buying their one of their albums. But well, I got distracted…what distracted me? That would be a huge blast of rock and roll magic that only Mr. Frehley could concoct.
The crowd went nuts (and so did I to be honest) I was within feet of the original guitarist for KISS. He began the show with “Rip It Out,” proving that after all these years he could still put out a good tune. Ace and the band played old songs and new songs, KISS songs, and Ace Frehley originals, and they threw in a few covers as well, such as Hello’s “New York Groove, Willy Dixon’s “Bring It on Home,” and a personal favorite that would have made Phil Lynott proud, Thin Lizzy’s “Emerald.” Every member of the band was at the top of their game that night. I haven’t seen a more powerful bass solo since the Who Live at Royal Albert Hall concert. Chris Wyse is without a doubt one of the greatest living bass players. Richie Scarlet took over vocals on “2 Young 2 Die.” I got a good kick out of Scarlet’s confusion of what city he was in. He began and ended his turn with the mic with “All right Lexington” while hundreds of fans yelled “Louisville! Louisville!” You never want to mix up those two cities – nuh uh, no Sir! Not to these folks! Louisville pride runs hard and deep in these parts! Scarlet must have figured they would respect him less if he corrected himself because he kept saying calling us “Lexington.” It was a great song and listening to the natives of “The Ville” chant “ITS LOUISVILLE,” was comical to say the least, if you have the right sense of humor that is! Ace Frehley’s guitar skills have truly aged like a fine wine. Every solo rippled goose bumps across every fan. An extremely long set was brought to an end with “Cold Gin.” The band left the stage and the audience begged for an encore for what felt like five minutes. I started to leave when an employee at the door stopped me and said “it’s not over.” Ace let the audience work itself into a frenzy and just when we thought it was over and gave up, he came back out. He said “this is a song about a city-” He didn’t have to finish that sentence. We all knew what city, “Detroit Rock City” that is (not Lexington – THANK GOD). The KISS favorite sounded as good as it did on the original record. And it was so much more than that. Nothing can compare to hearing such a timeless classic live. You could tell that after all these years, Ace and the band still love playing this song. This night was about as Rock and Roll as it gets. It brings to mind the saying “No school like the old school.” Ace and his band provided the max capacity crowd with good old fashion Rock and Roll. We heard the songs our parents would play for us on the radio and what we will play for our children on our iPods. It is immortality that Ace Frehley has achieved for himself by being the best at what he does. He IS rock and roll incarnate.
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by Ted Darden, RockRevolt Journalist
No, we didn’t shoot Ace at THIS show, but we DID catch him at THIS show in Atlanta! Check out these pics by Josh Reinecke!
