For me the real build up to the release of Anomaly began when Frehley played the same venue two years ago. He was in top form then, with a tight band, that rocked through a twenty-three song set list (yes, I'm counting the parts of songs from the medley as individual songs) that had the crowd blown away. I had anticipated another amazing show this time out, and that's just what he delivered with another twenty-plus set list that included the standard crowd pleasers—Rip it Out
My only disappointment with the show was the decision to include just two songs from Anomaly
Still an awesome show which will surely surface in its entirety on YouTube for anyone that missed it. And if you'd like to get the feeling of jamming with Ace right in your own home, there's the recent DVD release of Ace Frehley: Behind the Player
Growing up in the Bronx, I'd always felt a certain affinity for Ace Frehley. With all due respect to my grandfather, whose 1937 Gibson archtop was the first guitar I’d ever strummed, it was Frehley who made me want to learn to play. My first up close in-person encounter with Frehley was in the summer of 1983. I was a high school student in Westchester County and a few months prior my friends and I had heard that Frehley had been arrested in a now infamous DWI charge involving a DeLorean, the Bronx River Parkway, and a couple of County Police cruisers. Being fans and aspiring musicians at the time, Gerry Cusack, Frank John Hughes and I rode the #20 bus up Central Avenue to the court house in White Plains on the day Ace was to appear before the judge.
When we arrived, we learned there had been a postponement. Ace's trial would be the following month. When the later date rolled around, Gerry, Frank and I were there, again, but we found out from one of the court officers that Ace would not be appearing in the courtroom. The judge agreed to accept a plea in chambers. Disappointed, we left the courthouse. But I spotted a limousine on the other side of the street and wondered if that could be for Ace. We decided to wait a while and find out.
Before long, an ABC News van appeared. A camera crew had gotten out of the van along with a reporter and suddenly the side door to the courthouse opened. Someone signaled the waiting limo and out the door strolled Ace, flanked by his attorney and a court officer. The camera went on, the reporters asked questions, and as Ace waited for the limo to pull up, I stepped up and asked if I could have his autograph. He said, "Sure." He took my copy of the sheet music to his song Shock Me
That had been my closest brush with Ace Frehley til that time, and although it would not be my last, it was also not my first. Years earlier, while KISS was on a world tour promoting their fifth studio album, Rock and Roll Over
In retrospect it was no big deal, really. But to a boy net yet ten years old, it was a very big deal. I got to see Ace's DMV registration — which said Paul Frehley — and something which puzzled me as much then as it does now… there was a Kojak
A few short months before that, I had seen my very first KISS concert. It also happened to be their first performance at Madison Square Garden. That concert left an impression on me, to be sure. In the years after that, straight through high school, I’d been to dozens of concerts, and no arena ever seemed as big, no music ever as loud, and no band ever as lively as KISS at the Garden on their Destroyer
In the mid-1980s, KISS leased a warehouse in the West 30s of Manhattan, where they stored costumes, some instruments, and other stage and concert gear. My friend Frank's dad was a vice president of the company that rented the storage space to KISS. Every so often, Frank and I would head into Manhattan from Westchester, to browse the music stores on 48th Street, to look at our dream guitars and drum kits. Occasionally we'd hook up with Frank's dad, who would take us to lunch, and then to the warehouse, where he’d give us a VIP tour through KISS's stuff. The tour was usually preceded by a warning “not to take anything”, which we heeded more often than not.
It's great to see an artist who has had ups and downs back doing what he does best and doing it so well. I hope Frehley keeps the momentum going and that we don't have to wait another twenty years for another great album.
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