Kiss have released video of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons throwing the ceremonial first pitch at Angel Stadium.
Kiss have put out an official recap of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons‘s return to Anaheim, where the pair threw the ceremonial first pitch before the Los Angeles Angels hosted the Kansas City Royals on 15 August. The stadium is the same one the band played half a century ago, and the appearance opened the campaign for a live album of that concert.
Kiss played Anaheim Stadium on 20 August 1976, on “The Spirit Of ’76” tour, better known as the “Destroyer” tour. More than 42,000 people turned out, the largest crowd the band had drawn to that point, on a field then home to the California Angels.
At the August game, Kiss songs were played between innings and the night finished with the Angels‘ postgame fireworks display.
Kiss Destroys Anaheim ’76 came out on 21 August, the first time the concert has been officially released. It has circulated among collectors as a bootleg for decades.
Eddie Kramer, who recorded the show at the time, has mixed it afresh from the original multi-track tapes. The concert runs a little over an hour and is available on double colour vinyl, double black vinyl and CD, with two editions sold through the band’s own store: a double picture disc packaged with a 40-page book, and a Japanese SHM-CD in a slipcase with a 60-page book. Both books carry liner notes by Ken Sharp, co-author of the band’s authorised biography “Kiss: Behind The Mask“, alongside previously unpublished photographs and memorabilia.
Neither man is new to the ritual. Simmons threw out the first pitch before a Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets game at Dodger Stadium in July 2011, and again at Wrigley Field in May 2018 ahead of the Crosstown Classic between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox.
Kiss played their last two concerts in December 2023 at Madison Square Garden, closing on 2 December with a pay-per-view broadcast. “The End Of The Road” run had started in January 2019 after being announced the previous September, was interrupted by the pandemic in 2020, and was originally meant to finish in New York in July 2021.
The original lineup entered the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2014, and the band received Kennedy Center Honors in December 2025. Founding guitarist Ace Frehley died last October following a fall at his home in New Jersey. He was 74.
In early 2024 Kiss sold their catalogue, likeness and brand name to the Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment. A biopic, an avatar production and a Kiss experience are all in development, with Stanley and Simmons working alongside the company on each.
