KNAC.COM - Reviews - ACE FREHLEY In Houston, TX With Photos!

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ACE FREHLEY, KORE ROZZIK In Houston, TX With Photos!

By Larry Petro, News Monkey
Monday, July 17, 2023 @ 10:24 AM

At The House Of Blues July 14th

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All Photos By Larry Petro/Petrofyed Photography EXCEPT Ace Smoking Guitar By Thomas Coffman/Coffman Rockshots

The State of Texas has been absolutely baking so far this summer and we're not even into the hottest part of it yet. We normally would just now be getting temperatures around 100 but this year we started with them a full month and a half ago and other than a couple of days (at my house anyway), it has been 100+ every day since the beginning of June with heat indexes well over 110 during that stretch. UGH! Even so, the steady stream of concerts coming to town has been equally as hot, with the former Spaceman of KISS making a scheduled landing at the House of Blues in downtown on July 14th. Prior to the show's start I had the pleasure of sitting down with two members of Ace's band, guitarist-turned-bassist Ryan Spencer Cook and guitarist Jeremy Asbrock to talk about their new band ROCK CITY MACHINE COMPANY and the forthcoming release of their self-titled debut album, so be sure to look for that coming soon to KNAC.COM as well!

The support act along for this stretch of the tour was none other than NYC hard rockers KORE ROZZIK, the namesake of the band's lead vocalist. This group of rockers have had the opportunity to support some well known acts such as DISTURBED, ROB ZOMBIE and BUCKCHERRY among others and were certainly up to the task of warming up the crowd for Ace Frehley, getting the evening heated up with a 5-song set (which really felt like much more than that) with a brand new, as yet unreleased track, "Savior". The band was heavy yet melodic as they played set staples "Dirty Little Secret", "Mistress" and "Guilty As Charged" before ending their portion of the show with "Spellbound". If you like melodic hard rock with gothic undertones and visuals then this band is right up your alley! Being my first time catching this band live I was most impressed.

Setlist:

"Savior" (new, unreleased song)

"Dirty Little Secret"

"Mistress"

"Guilty As Charged"

"Spellbound"

Of note as we waited in the barricade for the show to begin, the music playing over the PA system was the new, forthcoming debut album from ROCK CITY MACHINE COMPANY, the band whose two members I interviewed just hours prior. Very cool touch! Ace and company took to the stage just before 9:30 and proceeded to rip it up by kicking off the set with "Rip It Out" from Ace's solo album of 1978. Back just a little further we went to the studio tracks on the KISS Alive II release for "Rocket Ride". The band, bassist Ryan Cook, guitarist Jeremy Asbrock and drummer Scot Coogan were totally energetic, all smiles and enjoying their time under the lights as Asbrock took the lead on vocals for another Ace solo album track, "Speedin' Back To My Baby". From there it was a solid trip through KISStory with songs like "Parasite", "Hard Times" and Detroit Rock City", the latter of which featured the recently-returned Coogan on vocals, and even a few surprises thrown into the set for good measure.

Following the great FREHLEY'S COMET classic "Rock Soldiers" we got a triple shot of KISS tunes in "Love Gun" and the aforementioned "Hard Times" and "Detroit Rock City" before the first surprise of the evening, a cover of the THIN LIZZY classic "Emerald", which the band performed flawlessly and was most impressive. Frehley immediately followed it up with a deep KISS cut that I had never heard before live, "Getaway", from the 1975 album Dressed To Kill.

Next up was the smash hit from Frehley's solo album, "New York Groove" that wouldn't be complete with Ace donning the guitar with the rows of lights that display consecutively up the body of the guitar. "Shock Me" came next and of course the one thing everyone in attendance had waited for, an Ace solo with his smoking guitar. Once the first wisps started to waft out of the guitar pickup the crowd went nuts! It's the one thing that makes an Ace show an Ace show. The band finished their night with another pair of KISS tracks, "Cold Gin" and "Duece", which Ace said was one of his favorite KISS songs.

With all of the drama surrounding KISS' finals shows and if Ace and Peter will/won't play, Ace continues to do Ace and still sounds and plays like the Ace of old, and it appears that his supporting cast of players has had an invigorating affect on him, something that definitely benefits us as concertgoers! Current Ace Frehley tour dates for the rest of the year are as follows: