The look of DTK is the key... 

The look of DTK is the key...

OK, so I'm probably a little biased but I think my band is the best KISS tribute band in the nation (at least).

Today's blog may not win me a lot of friends in the KISS trib community, but it needs to be said. Ultimately, we KISS fans are all part of a larger family - but at the same time, we trib bands are also competing to some degree to be better than each other. If we didn't have that attitude, honestly it would be harder to pull of the characters KISS created! After all, they made no apologies for being out to conquer the world. So look at this article as more of a positive for us, than a slam on anyone else. We respect these other bands, we just think we are better.

Oh sure, some other KISS bands have nice clean high production quality mp3 samples on their sites that the put together after some expensive studio time.

They may have more expensive costumes, sets and gear.

They may have been around longer, and be more well known (for now).....

But way too often, they have at least one or two guys who don't look right. Wrong build, too short, too tall etc. Frankly, it's tough to find that many guys who are on the same page musically and theatrically AND happen to look enough like the guy they are supposed to be that they can combine musicianship, stage craft and basic accidents of genetics to pull it off effectively.

Now, in a KISS band - granted, it is easier to do because you wear makeup and a costume. Those factors can hide the fact that you really don't look facially like the guy you are supposed to be. But they can't hide being way too short, fat, tall, etc. We are lucky we all can pull the "look" off really well - but luck's just part of it. For example, when we planned this show, I felt it was important that I personally LOOK more like the Gene from the mid-70's instead of the more rotund Gene of the reunion era. So I hit the gym and got back in shape, losing over 20 pounds so that the unforgiving spandex would be my FRIEND.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't always a lack of physical committment that makes a guy in a trib band look wrong. Like I said, sometimes it's just a matter or height. Nothin you cn do about that. That's where luck comes in, and I gotta say that when the four of us are costumed up and out working a crowd, the reactions are priceless. We look like KISS - not four random guys in costumes. And the "look" is more about completing the illusion even than the sound - not that we don't sound great. We do.

Rock on....