On Saturday night time, Kiss closed out the ultimate efficiency of their “The Finish of the Highway” farewell tour at New York Metropolis’s famed Madison Sq. Backyard.
However as devoted followers certainly know — they had been by no means going to name it quits. Probably not.
Throughout their encore, the band’s present lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons in addition to guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — left the stage to disclose digital avatars of themselves. After the transformation, the digital Kiss launched right into a efficiency of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.”
The cutting-edge expertise was used to tease a brand new chapter of the rock band: after 50 years of Kiss, the band is now interested by a sort of digital immortality.
The avatars had been created by George Lucas’ special-effects firm, Industrial Mild & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse Leisure Group, the latter of which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. The 2 firms lately teamed up for the “ABBA Voyage” present in London, during which followers may attend a full live performance by the Swedish band — as carried out by their digital avatars.
Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Leisure, says this new expertise permits Kiss to proceed their legacy for “eternity.” He says the band wasn’t on stage throughout digital efficiency as a result of “that’s the important thing factor,” of the future-seeking expertise. “Kiss may have a live performance in three cities in the identical night time throughout three completely different continents. That’s what you could possibly do with this.”
In an effort to create their digital avatars, who’re depicted as a sort of superhero model of the band, Kiss carried out in movement seize fits.
Experimentation with this type of expertise has turn out to be more and more frequent in sure sections of the music business. In October Okay-pop star Mark Tuan partnered with Soul Machines to create an autonomously automated “digital twin” referred to as “Digital Mark.” In doing so, Tuan grew to become the primary celeb to connect their likeness to OpenAI’s GPT integration, synthetic intelligence expertise that enables followers to interact in one-on-one conversations with Tuan’s avatar.
Aespa, the Okay-pop woman group, regularly carry out alongside their digital avatars — the quartet is supposed to be considered as an octet with digital twins. One other woman group, Eternity, is made up completely of digital characters — no people crucial.
“What we’ve completed has been wonderful, nevertheless it’s not sufficient. The band deserves to dwell on as a result of the band is greater than we’re,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley stated in a roundtable interview. “It’s thrilling for us to go the following step and see Kiss immortalized.”
“We could be eternally younger and eternally iconic by taking us to locations we’ve by no means dreamed of earlier than,” Kiss bassist Gene Simmons added. “The expertise goes to make Paul bounce greater than he’s ever carried out earlier than.”
And for individuals who couldn’t make the Madison Sq. Backyard present — keep tuned, as a result of a Kiss avatar live performance could very effectively be on the way in which.
