CITY OF LOCKPORT
Kiss impersonators will use makeup, pyrotechnics to mark New Year’s Eve
LOCKPORT — Rock legends Kiss will be headlining the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration Wednesday night.
Well, not really. Actually, it’s the manager of the Wegmans meat department, a Cheektowaga dentist and two high school kids. But they will look and sound like the real thing.
So will the opening act, a Jimi Hendrix impersonator.
The secret? Painstaking makeup and a good CD collection.
For the past several years, people in the know have been gathering on Livingston Place in Lockport on Halloween night to see “The Kiss Experience,” a “band” fronted by John Howell, who lives on the street.
Now Howell and his compatriots— Dr. Eric Schroeder, Brian McCarthy and Cody Butler — are taking their act from Howell’s front yard to the parking lot of Lockport City Hall.
“We don’t want people to get the idea that we’re a tribute band. We lip-synch the music,” said Mc- Carthy, like Butler a senior at Lockport High School.
But they take about 45 minutes to apply the garish Kiss make-up that turned heads 30 years ago, and with their Spandex costumes, they look the part.
“This will be the first time we’ve performed any place but in front of John’s house,” McCarthy said.
Three of the pretend Kiss-ers can play guitar, but they won’t be plugged in, relying instead on the recordings playing over the sound system. McCarthy, a drummer, will be playing live, although his drums will be muted to avoid the risk of drowning out the recordings.
Howell said there will be two sets of about nine songs each. The show will start at about 10:30 p. m. and will be interrupted at midnight by the fifth annual ball drop from a crane supplied by Clark Rigging of Lockport.
“I’ll be on the stage,” said Mayor Michael W. Tucker, who would not confirm rumors that he will croon his locally renowned version of “Auld Lang Syne” as the new year begins.
Krishaon Ewing, another Lockport High School senior, will open the show as Jimi Hendrix. Posters around town also promise a Stevie Ray Vaughn impersonator, but Howell said that performer backed out.
Wednesday’s event is free of charge and free of alcohol, Common Council President John Lombardi III said.
Howell, 47, a butcher who manages the meat department at the Wegmans on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Amherst, started all this by dressing up in the makeup and costume of Gene Simmons, Kiss’ notorious snake-tongued front man, 12 years ago on Halloween.
Howell, a veteran Kiss fan, said he was inspired to do so by Kiss’ decision to start wearing makeup again in 1996 after performing bare-faced for several years. He dressed in his Kiss get-up while handing out treats. The word got around.
“By year 6 or 7, I had some music playing, and I was lip-synching to some tunes,” Howell said. “People would gather in front of the house. At first we had 30 or 40 people. Eventually, we got more than 200, and we had to block off the street.”
By that time, Howell had enlisted some helpers. Butler, who lives across the street, had been interested in the show and inquired about joining. When one of the “band members” moved away, the kids were in.
Schroeder, 46, is the biggest Kiss freak in the group. The dentist, who portrays guitarist Ace Frehley, has followed the band to shows as far away as Tokyo and has been putting on the makeup for years. He is thrilled about the New Year’s Eve gig.
“I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life, but this is something great. I’m really digging this,” he said. “I’ve got people from the office coming, teachers from the [University at Buffalo] dental school, students from the dental school. I’m the least stuffy teacher they encounter.”
Schroeder said he sprang for two rooms at the Lockport Comfort Inn for the group to get dressed in and also bought 250 guitar picks to give away at the show, along with some small-scale pyrotechnics.
“It’s going to be an absolute blast,” he said.
McCarthy said he didn’t know much about Kiss until he started listening to their records to learn the songs for the show. “I grew a liking for the music,” he said.
McCarthy said Lombardi had business cards printed up for the group, just in case there are opportunities for more gigs. He said the group is available for private parties.
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