| Ace's not high Clean and sober KISSman soars straight ahead
(Ace Frehley, March 12, Garrick Centre)
A
| While his clone fumbles through 35th anniversary sets overseas with KISS, the real space Ace Frehley - pushing 60 and decked out in black leather pants, a Jesus tee, and wraparound shades - ripped out an almost two-hour set of hard rock at the Garrick to a near-capacity crowd.
The gig was incredibly loud, an unexpected killer due to the great songs in the set, and most likely the best show ever at the venue. If Ace had only appeared it would have been incredible enough for most in the crowd but, on this night, Ace had the zeal to appear totally sober with spot-on guitar playing; effortlessly tossing off blazing solos and fronting a great young band, which included rhythm guitarist Derrek Hawkins, bassist Anthony Esposito, and drummer Scot Coogan.
Frehley hasn't released an album since 1990's wonky Trouble Walking and this Rocket Ride 2008 show catches him at the end of a lengthy, teaser tour in advance of his upcoming, as-yet-untitled new recording. Not that it matters - if Ace released something close to his Garrick set as a live album he'd more than make up for lost time.
Here's the set - every track was unbelievable: Rip it Out, Hard Times, Parasite, Snowblind, then a portion of I Want You blitzing into Rock Soldiers, Breakout, Shot Full of Rock, Into the Void, Strange Ways, a medley of Torpedo Girl, Speedin' Back to My Baby and Five Card Stud, then Trouble Walking, New York Groove, Shock Me, Rocket Ride, and a frenzied four-song encore of Deuce, the unexpected Love Her All I Can, Love Gun and Cold Gin, which Ace introduced something like this:
"Here's a song I wrote ridin' the subway when I was 23 years old."
— Don Bailey |
Uptown
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