The band Kiss ended their farewell tour The End of the Road at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
But as devoted fans surely know, they were never going to stop. Not really.
During their encore, the band’s current lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as well as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — left the stage to reveal their digital avatars. After the transformation, the virtual group launched into a performance of God Gave Rock and Roll to You.
Cutting-edge technology was used to herald a new chapter for the rock band: After 50 years of Kiss, the group is now pursuing a kind of digital immortality.
The avatars were created by George Lucas’ special effects company, Industrial Light
Per Sundin, president and CEO of Pophouse Entertainment, says this new technology allows Kiss to continue its legacy for “eternity.” He says the band wasn’t on stage during the virtual performance because “that’s the key piece” of future technology. “Kiss could play a show in three cities on the same night on three different continents. That’s what you could do with that,” he added.
To create their digital avatars, which are described as a sort of superheroic version of the group, Kiss used motion capture suits.
Experimentation with this type of technology has become increasingly common in certain sectors of the music industry. In October, K-pop star Mark Tuan teamed up with Soul Machines to create an autonomously automated “digital twin” called “Digital Mark.” In doing so, Mr. Tuan became the first celebrity to associate his image with OpenAI’s GPT integration, an artificial intelligence technology that allows fans to engage in one-on-one conversations with the avatar of Mr Tuan.
Aespa, a group of K-pop singers, frequently performs alongside their digital avatars — the quartet is meant to be considered an octet with digital twins. Another female singing group, Eternity, is made up entirely of virtual characters — no humans needed.
“What we have accomplished is incredible, but it is not enough. The band deserves to live because it’s bigger than us, Kiss singer Paul Stanley said during a roundtable interview. It’s exciting for us to take the next step and see Kiss immortalized. »
“We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” added Kiss bassist Gene Simmons. Technology will allow Paul to jump higher than he ever has before. »
And for those who weren’t able to make it to the Madison Square Garden show, stay tuned, because a Kiss Avatar concert could very well be on the way.