Is Mr. Speed the next chapter in KISS

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Mr. Speed

House of Blues

Cleveland, OH

by Drew Latshaw

Speaking from my point of vieby w, I grew up through the late 70’s and into the early 90’s on the tail end of being in the Gen-X era. Growing up, I remember seeing KISS posters, and merch everywhere. Growing up with the people I did, in the time I did, KISS was the forbidden fruit! I remember the first time I heard KISS, and I never understood why they had the rep they did! As time went on, and I got older I would see KISS 11x times in my teen and adult years before they retired for the final time.

When KISS announced their retirement I applied to photograph their farewell tour and was not approved. It was shortly after that happening that I saw someone post KISS concert pics with the caption saying something to the effect that those shots were taken the night before. Of course I was in disbelief! I messaged the photographer and demanded to know where and how they shot KISS a month or more after the farewell tour ended!

That is when I learned of Mr. Speed! The world’s leading KISS tribute band! I reached out to them and been talking to the vocalist who plays the role of Paul Stanley, his name is Rich. There are currently two members named Rich, and for someone who is terrible with names, it was a fun day! The two members names Rich are the vocalist, and then the drummer who did his paint like the Fox, paying homage to Eric Carr after painting like Peter Criss for a number of years. I remember Eric Car as the Fox, but I sadly default to my memory of Peter Criss and his infamous Cat makeup.

I was there at the House of Blues when the guys arrived and did load in. I was there to see them construct the stage, and they used this night to debut their new stage fascia. Later on in the show, they were describing the significance of the new stage which was, to me quite incredible! Their new stage setup was designed and created by the son of the tech who designed that same stage for KISS in 1974! As a KISS fan, and especially for the guys in Mr. Speed, that is a pretty awesome flex to have!

As mentioned prior, I was there for load in and set up. Even having been there for many other shows, it has never really sunk in as to how much work goes into these shows prior to show time! As a concert goer, when the doors swing open, you rush in to find the best spot you can, and all the blocks are in place, the show is as close to ready as it is going to get… it is not at all clear to the audience the amount of passion, labor, and frustration that happened for hours prior the doors opening.

I digress, back on to the topic… I got to the House of Blues at about 12n, and doors were at 7:00p. It took the guys every minute of that seven hours to get unloaded, set up, painted up, into their costumes, and be ready for the show. I was there, I saw it all unfold and come together, and still it was unfathomable to see how much work, effort, and money goes into what these guys and their wives do! I asked Mark, they guy who plays the role of Ace Frehley, “The Sparkly One, the Spaceman” if he made his boots and costume. He let out a gentle, and exhausted laugh and said: “NO! This outfit, and the boots took a village! There is a woman in Mexico that made the boots, and another in Canada that made the poncho.” I was curious, but did not want to be rude to ask what the entire outfit cost, but I refrained. Looking at how well these were made, it was not cheap!

As we got closer to show time, it was time for sound check! At first, it was awesome to hear KISS tunes in a live venue again. At first as Rich was warming up, I knew the words and I was bopping head in tune with his vocals. Then they found the proper levels, and Rich really tore it up with the Paul Stanley voice… I stood there in front of the sound board, closed my eyes, and felt like I was transported back to the 90’s and hitting one of the Psycho Circus tour!

This is when the guys started to get ready for the show. I went back to the green rooms and was taking pics of the guys getting their paint on, and the amount of time and the stages of the paint was just awesome to see! It was an absolute privilege to see them pull their stage gear and costumes out of the cases, and taking pics of these guys as they started to paint up and through the end when they were headed to the stage!

They had an opening band that was a Mötely Crüe cover band called CRÜED! I went out to photograph a sound or two of their set. The vocalist Matt Maurer, he sounded like Vince Neil, I mean… if you did not see Matt face to face, and you just heard his vocals… you would not be able to tell the difference!

I will say again, I grew up with Mtv when it was just starting off. I saw Mötely Crüe on Mtv more times than I can count. I was never a huge fan of Mötely Crüe but seeing the energy that these brought to the stage, and the electricity that the crowd was throwing back at them was contagious at the least! While I was in the pit, I was in the way of their photographer and video people, I did not stay long and snapped a few shots and then got back to the green room to keep snapping frames of the guys in Mr. Speed. If you are a fan of the hair bands and the 80’s metal scene, you are going to want to watch for CRÜED to hit your area!

When I got back to the green rooms and the guys were getting closer and closer to being stage ready, these 4x men were not the guys I was joking with, and talking to all day… no, they were gone! I was now looking KISS from the 70’s! These guys transformed into the KISS I saw on posters and magazine covers! As the guys were getting ready to take the stage, I had Shane stop in the hallway from the greenroom, and I asked him to stop, and I got a shot that reminded me of so many iconic pics of Gene Simmons!

They guys took the stage, and I was in the photo pit for their entrance and the crowd at the House of Blues went nuts! They started screaming arms were flailing all over! The people were energetic, and they were rock and roll all night!

Rich and the guys started the show with Creatures of the Night, and again I cannot stress enough how much like KISS these guys sounded! I thought I was at a KISS show, the overall sound and visuals made it so easy to be engulfed and lose yourself in the music and show!

After Creatures of the Night, they went into Deuce, Heaven’s on Fire, and Radioactive. I was obviously aware of the massive crowd there, but I was not really taking inventory of those in attendance. At this point I wanted to get a couple crowd shots, and it hit me that I was seeing people of every notch on the spectrum of age in attendance! There was a kid, no more than 5yrs old in a KISS t-shirt, there was a concert goer there that was 81yrs old. I was in awe to see this range and not only the range but the love of the music… it was phenomenal!

Fast forwarding several songs of the show, it was time for God of Thunder, and in true tribute to Gene Simmons, that was when Shane spit the blood during his bass solo! The house lights went green and his full Gene gear getting covered in the blood, the red fluid and the green lights provided a fantastic contrast!

The show continued and as we were getting close to the end of the night, during the song “Rock and Roll All Night, and Party Everyday” there was balloons dropped on to the crowd. The balloons were printed with the Mr. Speed logo, and 30Year Anniversary! About quarter of the way into the song, the confetti was blown out of the sides of the stage, which was a wonderful photo opportunity!

It was a great show, hands down I have to say that this was a show that I will be hitting again as soon as it is announced! This was truly a work of passion, there is no other way to say this. The amount of work that went into this show! These guys do what they do for the love of the show!

The fact that these guys spend king’s ransoms on their gear and stage presence, it is the closest that any of us will ever get to the original! KISS were pioneers, no one will ever replace the original, I cannot argue that! What I can say is that while the original is off the menu, the tribute that Mr. Speed puts on is an fantastic substitute! Make sure you give these guys a follow on their socials, watch for them to play in your area! This is one of those shows that you need to see in person to truly appreciate! Take my word for it, if you get to see these guys, you will not regret it!