The Rocky Horror Picture Show: KISS Night

Some friends of mine & I sometimes attended midnight showings of the cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We always had a great time and loved the people who put it on at the ABC Center theater in Fremont. Watching the cast known as The Velvet Darkness used to be a great way to spend a random Saturday night.

One of the fun parts about this cast was that they had theme nights once a month. Pirate theme, pajama theme, Movie theme, all sorts of wacky stuff. Well one month they decided that the theme was going to be, KISS. That's right the band KISS. Everyone was encouraged to dress like their favorite member of KISS, and told to show up early that week.

A group of the guys that were part of the cast were die hard members of the KISS army, and were going to put a mini concert (lip-synching of course) before that nights showing of Rocky. This was great news for us, being we were KISS fans, and troubling news for our guy friends who hated Rocky, but were major KISS fans (see my memory The Guys & KISS).

You see, they really hated Rocky and swore they would never go with us to a showing of it. Yet they really loved KISS, and I believe would be in violation of some KISS Army by-laws if they missed any sort of tribute to KISS that they were able to attend. So they decided to put on their KISS make-up and go with us to see the show.

We weren't really sure what to expect. Much to our surprise, it turned out to be awesome! The cast members who were putting on the show were dressed as the original line up (Gene, Paul, Ace, and Peter) and did a whole tribute featuring all vintage KISS material. Though it was all lip synching, the crowd still went crazy, including our friends. It was a great night, and for me (KISS reunion was still years away) I thought it was the closest I would ever come to seeing the original KISS live.

The guys even managed to make it through the entire crazy showing of Rocky after the KISS "concert". It had such an impact on the guys, that one of them just reminded me of it after reading the other KISS memory I have here on JamsBio. It's funny the stuff that sticks with you. Like sweet transvestites singing Strutter...