Ace Frehley at Nokia Theater in Times Square

The last time I saw Ace Frehley  live was when he played at the Hard Rock which fits around 400 people.  Last night Ace proved that he was only playing a venue that size as a courtesy to his fans, as he packed out Nokia Theater in Time Square (easily fitting around 2000+ people).  
Ace stepped onto the stage a bit late, but made up for it by looking and sounding great live.  He opened with Rocket Ride, an interesting choice- I was expecting a new song to open up the show.  Then he moved right into 'Parasite', which gave Scott Coogan on drums the chance to sing.  I was eyeing Scott during 'Rocket Ride' but it wasn't until he opened his mouth that I noticed who it was.  Not many drummers can sing and play at the same time.
Next up was 'Snow Blind', which Ace introduced as a "song about cocaine.  I used to do a little."  Ya gotta love a sober guy with a sense of humor.  The rest of the show continued to be more of a KISS retrospect, and the crowd was loving it.  I wouldnt have minded hearing a few more of Ace's solo material, but I was pleased with the Ace songs that we did get.  Some stand outs of the night included 'Rock Soldiers', 'Rip It Out' and 'New York Groove'.  As far as KISS songs, it was great to hear some of the earlier KISS tunes like 'Strange Ways'.
The night came to a close with 'Shock Me' leading into a guitar solo, and finally 'Shout it Out Loud'.   At this point, Ace only played 2 songs off his new album- 'Sister' (bad) and 'Pain In the Neck' (good), so I felt certain the Spaceman would  come back out with an encore to play his new single (that he should be promoting), 'Outerspace'.    But no- Ace did come back with three KISS classics, 'Deuce', 'Love Gun' and 'Cold Gin', but no signs of solo material.  Interesting choice of tunes.

Kreator with Exodus - Nokia Theater, NYC, 04/08/09

Got to the Nokia Theater in Times Square and was greeted by a long line of metalheads (sausagefest levels only reached around 7) waiting outside the venue.  Right over their heads hung huge Kreator and Exodus logos on the billboard.  As me and the roomie filtered inside we learned that 3 of the openers had already played.  Fuck.  Yes, we were late, but not thaaaat late. It seemed like each band must have only played around 15 minutes.  

Exodus opened up with 'Bonded by Blood' which I am pretty sure is what they open every show with...ever.  Interesting to see this new vocalist, Ken Dukes, hit the stage.  He's only been with the band the last few years and is very much the new kid in town.  Good energy, stumbled a bit in between songs for banter (although he repeatedly called us all MOTHERFUCKERS & asked us to MAKE A FUCKIN' CIRCLE PIT!!).  The response to his request was rather lackluster to say the least.  A pit existed, but from my view it was just a few big guys stomping  around and flapping their wings.  Some of the better songs from the set were 'A Lesson In Violence' and 'Toxic Waltz' which got the crowd pretty stirred up.  

After Exodus' throwback to the late 1980s, Kreator hit the stage with their latest single 'Hordes Of Chaos'.  We were only brought back into modern times temporarily... right before reverting back to cassette tape days again with tunes like 'Extreme Aggression', 'Riot' Of Violence' and 'Pleasure to Kill'.  Crazy lights going on throughout the show, but again the pit was the same few guys from Exodus and didn't pick up too much.  Still it was a good show, and Miland sang the crap out of the songs.  The sound at Nokia is always pretty good but sometimes his vocals were almost toooo piercing.  The concluded their set with a 4 song encore and closed out the night with the classic 'Tormentor'.