KISS Drummer Makes Mistake, Backing Vocal Tracks Exposed at Recent Show
In concert this week, KISS flubbed part of their song "Detroit Rock City," seemingly exposing singer-guitarist Paul Stanley's pre-recorded backing vocal tracks that were apparently used during the performance.
The onstage incident occurred amid the storied rock band's "End of the Road World Tour" stop at Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, on Monday (June 6).
Some fans subsequently used fan-captured footage from the gig to identify the gaffe for others, as Blabbermouth showed on Tuesday (June 7). A rhythmic mistake by KISS drummer Eric Singer evidently evoked the musical pileup that, as video suggests, caused backing cues to misalign. Stanley then "missed" part of a vocal that was still heard.
See video down toward the bottom of this post. Multiple amateur angles of the performance are available on YouTube and elsewhere.
One user who posted a clip of the blunder remarked, "Something screws up with the track KISS are miming to on Detroit Rock City in Antwerp. … Result is the pyro fires too early and Paul is left with his pants down when his vocal plays without him pretending to sing it."
In 2015, KISS bassist-vocalist Gene Simmons criticized bands who use tracks live.
"I have a problem when you charge $100 to see a live show and the artist uses backing tracks," the rocker told Australia's News.com. "It's like the ingredients in food — if the first ingredient on the label is sugar, that's at least honest."
He continued, "It should be on every ticket — you're paying $100, 30 to 50 percent of the show is [on] backing tracks, and they'll sing sometimes, sometimes they'll lip synch. At least be honest. It's not about backing tracks; it's about dishonesty."
In 2019, former Skid Row lead singer Sebastian Bach defended KISS by claiming that they did not lip-synch live, despite the rumors that they did.