Paul Stephens has been a diehard KISS fan since he was 12.
For the last two years, the 45-year-old has even served as lead singer of a Halifax-based KISS tribute band Dressed 2 Kill.
So it might come as a surprise to learn Stephens has never actually seen his favourite hard-rockers live in concert.
Well, that will “finally” change Saturday as Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer bring KISS to town for what will unquestionably be an electrifying show on the Halifax Common.
“I just can’t wait for the first note to ring, and the first vocal out of Paul Stanley’s voice is just going to drive me crazy,” the father of two said from his Lower Sackville home Thursday. “I’ll probably lose my voice too, screaming like a little girl.”
He probably won’t be the only one.
Promoters are expecting KISS to draw around the same number of fans Sir Paul McCartney did when the ex-Beatle performed before more than 50,000 people Saturday.
Greg Cox, spokesman with Power Promotional Events, said the KISS crowd should be “comparable” to that of McCartney, adding he wouldn’t be surprised if it surpassed it.
“When we started selling tickets for KISS, (in February) the concert landscape, there was no one out there,” Cox said. “We didn’t know we’d get Paul McCartney, and Moncton didn’t know they’d get Bon Jovi and AC/DC. So take that into account, plus the fact KISS has a monster following and it’s right in the middle of downtown Halifax. I expect a big crowd.”
And that crowd should be a livelier one than McCartney’s, energized by a KISS show that will include lights, pyrotechnics and a lot of noise.
“This will be a much more rambunctious crowd, for sure,” Stephens said.
