Hangin’ with Kings
The first thing I noticed when I met and shook hands with Kings of the Nighttime World lead guitarist Brian Schenk was how perfectly accurate his Ace Frehley makeup was.
The second thing I noticed was how short Brian is. He’s probably a little over 5 feet tall.
Brian was in the process of getting into his Ace boots when I came backstage before the band’s April 17 show at Norwalk Main Street Theatre. They are the same boots Brian wore and had made when he was with a different KISS tribute band (Alive, I believe he said).
“It’s my one chance to be tall,” Brian said as he adjusted Velcro strips, zippers and safety pins.
“They’re supposed to be 5 inches (tall), but they’re 8 inches,” said the guitarist, who had a Chicago pediatrist make the boots.
“He charged me $300, but he said, ‘If I have to make you another pair, I’ll charge $600,” he said.
• I admired Jay LaSalle’s 1976-era Paul Stanley costume. “My wife and my mom sewed it for me,” the 46-year-old man said.
• As Reflector production manager Chris Kempf (dressed as the spitting image of Eric Carr from 1982) and I entered the small dressing room, bassist Scott Leonard’s wife was putting the final touches on her husband’s Gene Simmons’ Demon makeup. She told photographer Jeff Van Natta she’s the only one who does the makeup for the others in the band; the rest of Kings does it themselves. When I met Brian, he was sitting in front of a portable makeup suitcase which had a close-up color picture of Ace from a 1976 concert. The band said it takes about two hours to apply the makeup.
• Jay asked me how many kids I have (two girls, 11 months and 6 years — the loves of my life). After Jay showed me school shots of his two boys, he showed me his wife — while putting his thumb exactly over his face where he was in the photo. I laughed and pointed that out.
“Adds to the mystique, right?,” said Jay, who already had his Paul Stanley warpaint on .
Then he showed me his driver’s license photo.
• About six or seven songs into the first set, Jay invited Chris and me on-stage. (I shared lead vocal duties with Scott while Chris played drums on “I Love It Loud.”) Jay asked the crowd if it was OK to let some local people sing.
He also gave me a huge shout-out about writing two preview stories about the show, calling me Kings’ “media mogul.”
“That’s why you came here tonight, right?,” Jay asked the crowd.
• During an instrumental break in the song, Jay got done on one knee and tossed me one his guitar picks — something he did many, many times to the crowd throughout the show. Often, he put it in his mouth and spit in the person’s direction (with limited success) just as Paul as done over the years. Onstage, I caught the pick (temporarily) on my right forearm with the my left hand — that’s how off-guard I was, but it fell to the floor.
I thought of retrieving it after the song was over, but thought better of it. (Jay gave me one after the show was over.)
• To start “I Love It Loud” (one of my favorite KISS tunes for years), Jay said, “Hit it, Chris!”
Chris later said it was one of the coolest parts of the entire night. Talk about living the fan’s dream …
• Some of the KISS rarities Kings did were: “Rock Bottom” (which Jay dedicated to the Reflector, as I had mentioned it’s one of my top-three favorite KISS tunes during our earlier interview), “Makin’ Love,” “All American Man” and “Hard Luck Woman” (with the band performing, not karaoke like “Beth”).
• For “Hard Luck Woman,” Jay had this as introduction: “This comes off of ROCK AND ROLL OVER. I believe that’s one of Cary’s favorite albums. …”
• For “Makin’ Love,” an Ohio-area guitarist who did one gig with Kings was supposed to play with them, but had to leave Norwalk beforehand in order to make it home and get to work very early the next morning.
“I didn’t know; someone should have told me,” Jay told the crowd. “Luckily, Brian knows all the songs.”
• And Brian truly knocked that solo out of the park — and that’s a doozie to play! I told Brian that after the show. He told me he kind of stumbled through it, but I think he was being overly humble.
Also I mentioned to Brian how as a diehard Ace fan, I appreciated the little things he did while performing: how he’d purse his lips and arch his back while playing just as Ace would do. “I love the guy … maybe too much,” he said.
• After the show, I found a man — with all gray hair, easily in his early 50s — wearing a black shirt with a Batman symbol on the right side. “Now this is a man after my own heart, wearing a Batman shirt to a KISS tribute show.)
• About that time, a woman standing near me (I believe it was the Batman fan’s wife) noticed Brian was walking into the lobby. “Here comes Mr. Sexy,” she said.
