Ace Frehley Review-March 11, 2008-Fargo Theatre

While the Space Man has been here twice (at least as far as I can remember) with KISS, this marked his first solo appearance in the area. For that matter, it may have been the first time any member of KISS has been here solo. I’m sure if I’m wrong, someone out there will correct me.

Anyone that read my interview with Ace, in the March 6th issue of HPR, knows I’m a big KISS fan and was very biased in my writing. This show review will most likely follow along those same lines. But who really cares. The only people that will likely read it are those that went to the show or wanted to, but couldn’t make it. Which leads me to why I’m writing this in the first place: I got a lot of questions from people who didn’t make the show, plus people I’ve never met in my life have emailed me about it.

Opening the show was Canadian four-piece, The Trews. Falling somewhere in line with modern rock bands like Velvet Revolver and Audioslave, The Trews are a traditional four-piece, but have a touring organ player who fills out the sound quite nicely. Also, modern rock guitar players don’t get much love anymore, but their lead guitar player just killed it all night. The only negative thing one can really say about their performance was the terrible sound problems that plagued them. The mix was way off the whole time they played and it turned off a lot of people.

After a short intermission, it was finally time for what everyone came for. Decked out in leather pants, leather jacket, black t-shirt and sunglasses, Ace opened the show with the fitting “Rip It Out.” A man of little words, Ace ripped though the whole set with very little banter between songs. He did make reference to not seeing much snow before ripping into “Snowblind” and talked about NY Groove before changing it to Fargo Groove, but that was about it. Anyone that’s been to a KISS concert knows Paul Stanley is responsible for the shittiest on-stage banter ever, so it was nice not to have to sit through that all night.

A mixture of classic KISS material, Frehley’s Comet songs, and songs from his ’78 solo record, the set list was everything one could ask for. And it wasn’t just the material, Ace sounded better than I’ve ever heard him. After battling the bottle for so many years, he was very hit and miss as a member of KISS, as well as a solo artist. Clean and sober for the past 16 months, though, he looked and sounded great. Ripping solos and singing like no other, it was a great show overall and from the crowd response I know I wasn’t the only one that felt that way.

Set List

Rip It Out
Hard Times
Parasite
Snowblind /I Want You
Rock Soldiers
Shot Full of Rock
Into The Void
Breakout
Stranger In A Strange Land
Strange Ways
Medley-Torpedo Girl/Speedin’ Back to My Baby/Five Card Stud/Trouble Walkin’
New York Groove
Shock Me
Rocket Ride
Deuce
Love Her All I Can
Love Gun
Cold Gin/Black Diamond Outro