D\u2019arcy Ladret as Gene Simmons. (Photo by John Carlow)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cJames and I met in high school when I moved to Sooke in 1989,\u201d says Ladret, who plays KISS bassist Gene Simmons on stage. \u201cI was 13 years old. He introduced me to KISS; he was fanatical. I was more into the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and still am. After about 20 years, he eventually convinced me that I should be Gene Simmons in his KISS tribute, so we formed about one and a half years ago and played our first show on Halloween 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fanatical: it\u2019s a word that can describe most KISS fans, and a word that would have to be used to describe someone who would go up on a stage and quite literally pretend to be somebody else for an entire concert.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s strange,\u201d says Ladret about being somebody else on stage, \u201cvery, very strange. I don\u2019t mind playing someone else\u2019s songs, but dressing up and acting like them is a lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strange but worth it for the fans that get to come out and see Dressed to Kill. Considering KISS has never played Victoria, this might be as close as some people get to the long-running rock legends. And for those who aren\u2019t KISS fans, Ladret says that we should at least appreciate what they\u2019ve done for music.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic has changed so much since KISS exploded in the \u201970s,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were so over the top for that time in rock history; I really believe they helped open the door for a lot of bands to let loose, do what they want, play what they want, and dress how they want. Who knows? Lady Gaga might not be around if it wasn\u2019t for KISS… hmm, maybe that would have been a good thing (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n
And as for the difference between honouring a band\u2019s legacy and honouring their current output, it\u2019s clear that Ladret has his preferences. When asked about KISS\u2019 just-released new disc, Monster,<\/em> he holds no punches (although he does mention that Keble loves the album).<\/p>\n\u201cLike the Rolling Stones, AC\/DC, and Aerosmith, KISS did some great things and have music that will stand the test of time. But there is a day when it should stop and I think KISS shouldn\u2019t make any more albums,\u201d he says, before offering up a succinct two-word review of Monster:<\/em> \u201cIt sucks.\u201d<\/p>\nDressed to Kill<\/strong>
\nOctober 31<\/strong>
\nSoprano\u2019s, $10<\/strong>
\nsopranoskaraoke.ca<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lots of stuff went down in Sooke in 1989. Can you even imagine? The mind bends and warps a bit when you even start to put place and time together like that. Here\u2019s how what happened in Sooke in 1989 matters today: James Keble and D\u2019Arcy Ladret met. Who are James Keble and D\u2019Arcy Ladret? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-issue","category-october-31-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4686"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4705,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions\/4705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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