If you were wondering what big project Thierry Coup would take on next after leaving Universal Creative, we now have that answer.
Coup was the creative director behind some of the Universal theme parks' biggest hits of the past couple decades, including The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Transformers. Now, he will be working with the legendary rock band KISS. Coup will be the creative director for the band's transformation into digital performances.
Fans got a sneak peek at what the band has planned for its future at the end of its final in-person live performance last night in New York. At the end of the show, KISS transformed from a band onstage into digital avatars. KISS announced that it has partnered with Pophouse Entertainment Group - the Swedish entertainment company behind the ABBA Voyage show in London - as well as Industrial Light & Magic and Coup's new JOCOUP Creative studio for "continuation of the KISS journey into a new era," as the band said in its press release.
"The band’s transformation into avatars will ensure their immortalization, while pushing the boundaries of rock and roll performances, as KISS have done throughout their career to date. This avatar performance will feature KISS as fantasy-based superheroes, and will provide a glimpse of just one of the many and varied ways in which KISS will live on as digital performers through their avatars in the future."
Coup will be the Creative Director for the band's upcoming avatar show, though the band has not announced yet where or when that will be. However, the band did post a video interview with Coup and other creators working on the project.
During the conversation, founding band member Paul Stanley said, "What we've accomplished has been amazing, but it's not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are."
"I mean, we've spent 50 years building it to this point."
Gene Simmons added, "We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we've never dreamed of before. The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he's ever done before."
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Boomers want to keep watching their favorite bands long past the time when those bands are willing or physically able to perform. So tech has found a way to meet that market demand with something that feels more realistic than concert films on the art-house circuit. Just sub the bands as each one's audience fades away, to bring in the next audience.
I haven't seen the Abba show, but it appeared that it was pretty popular when we were in London earlier this year.
I think if framed properly with the right artist, this "Avatar Concert" concept can absolutely work. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of KISS, but they've proven themselves to be masters of marketing, and often avant garde when it comes trends in the music industry. I have very little interest in this, but I don't think they would be doing this unless they thought there was a way to make money off of it.
The real question is where this show would be staged. Would it be a residency-type show in Vegas or other city (LA or NYC would make the most sense), or would this show travel around like a typical concert tour?
Was there really any doubt that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were going to squeeze their band name for every last penny for as long as possible? If anything the only surprising thing about this is they didn't announce another "final tour" again.
I will admit as an old school metal fan that grew up playing Kiss songs on guitar, I lost a lot of respect for them because they repeatedly ripped on bands who kept touring when they were over the hill, but when their chops started to diminish, instead of retiring they decided to play to tracks and lip-sync.
(...and also that time they b*tched the guy out for wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt to interview them)
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I really can't see this sort of thing sticking around. Although I could see myself seeing the Abba show out of curiosity, I don't think its a concept that really scales beyond curio.