Ace Frehley at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines, Iowa on November 16, 2024.
Photos and Review by The Pit Magazine Contributor, Bob DeHart Photography
Ace Frehley and his band made a one off stop in Des Moines, Iowa at the Val Air Ballroom. The venue was a lot bigger than I was expecting and actually a great place to watch a show. Ace is currently the only original member of KISS out touring right now, so it was a great opportunity to catch the rock and roll hall of famer in action. Ace has been out this year supporting his latest release “10,000 Volts”. If you are a diehard KISS fan, then this was a great show to be at. Ace and his band pulled out some KISS classics such as Love Gun, Detroit Rock City, She, and Shout it Out Loud. Ace Frehley mixed in some of the classics from his first solo album that included Rip It Out and New York Groove. The only tune off the latest release was the single Cherry Medicine. There were lots of great moments throughout the night reliving the KISS classics and hearing Ace rip through those solos.
Ace Frehley has an amazing band that do a lot of the heavy lifting throughout the set. They each take a turn on lead vocals and are all amazing musicians. Ryan Spencer Cook and Jeremy Asbrock also played in Gene
Simmons original solo band, both played guitar and shared vocals with Gene. With Ace, Ryan has switched over to bass and let Ace and Jeremy share the guitar load. Ryan and Jeremy also front the band Rock City Machine Co, which released a self-titled debut album last year. I highly recommend you give it a listen. It’s a great album! On drums is the one and only Scott Coogan. Scott has a resume a mile long playing with many greats including Stephen Pearcy of Ratt and George Lynch of Dokken/Lynch Mob fame. As great as Ace Frehley is, these guys are worth coming to see alone. Ace has served himself well with having these guys be his band.
As with any KISS type show, they ended with the anthem Rock and Roll All Nite. A great way to end to night with the crowd singing along the chorus back at the band. Ace announced he is currently working on his next release, which will be Origins Vol. 3. It’s the next installment of cover songs he plans to release. My guess it will be out sometime in 2025. My hope is that he will let his band play on a song again, last origins album he had them do the Kiss song She, and it sounds amazing. It will be fun to see what songs he covers next. Keep your eyes and ears open for that next release!
Photos by The Pit Magazine photographer, Bob DeHart Photography in York, Nebraska. ©2024.
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