Ace: The Talented Member of KISS

December 4, 2015 10:16 AM

Ace's High (Part 1, Part 2) is a short documentary about a four-member Ace Frehley tribute band whose members all performed in full 1970s Ace Frehley makeup and costumes.

The band:

• Andrew Krieger (Ace '74)
• Chris Fachini (Ace '75)
• Chad Gilchrist (Ace '76)
• Nick Sokolowski (Ace '77)

Although the film plays like a straight-faced goof in the tradition of This is Spinal Tap, Aces High does seem to have been a real band, active in Detroit in the late 1990s. Here they are in 1997 performing at the Gold Dollar in Detroit:

• Strange Ways
• New York Groove

A 1999 capsule review from the Detroit Metro Times says:

Even if you’ve seen a lot of Kiss tribute bands in your time, you’ve never seen anything like Aces High. This quartet of made-up members of the Detroit underground music scene stands as an explosive tribute to Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, and even the drummer dresses as Ace. Their material is all Ace, all the time.

The band also gets a nod in this 2009 piece, Fake Kissing: A Tribute to the Long History of Kiss Tribute Bands.

(via Dangerous Minds.)

posted by usonian (15 comments total)

This is totally ace!
posted by srboisvert at 10:23 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'd like to form a Paul Stanley tribute band where we just spend two hours asking the audience if they're ready to fucking rock tonight.
posted by bondcliff at 10:26 AM on December 4, 2015 [19 favorites]

(Obligatory link to 45 minutes of Paul Stanley audience stage banter.)
posted by usonian at 10:28 AM on December 4, 2015 [10 favorites]

I'm disappointed this isn't an Iron Maiden tribute band.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:31 AM on December 4, 2015

That thing you sorta liked a long time ago? Here it is, TIMES FOUR!
posted by tommasz at 11:02 AM on December 4, 2015

I've always loved Dana Gould's impersonation of Paul Stanley, which is pretty much just a spot-on impression of Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion. (I apologize for linking to a clip from the loathsome Adam Carolla show, but I couldn't find an alternative clip of Gould doing the voice.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:28 AM on December 4, 2015

45 minutes of Paul Stanley audience stage banter

This is my favorite thing. I like to pretend it's just an unedited recording of a single concert.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:45 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've already commented on the blue about my history as a KISS fan, so I just want to leave everyone with this classic: Paul Stanley gets mad at a guy with a laser
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:48 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Typical Ace.
posted by josher71 at 11:51 AM on December 4, 2015

If you're a fan of Ace (and of course you are) check out this FB group, "Ace Calling", by WFMU's Kurt Gottschalk.
posted by monospace at 12:41 PM on December 4, 2015

Ha! The one year I went to SXSW, I saw Tribute, and Ace's High was shown beforehand. What I remember most is their roadie gets Vinnie Vincent's ankh makeup, and they treat him so badly, they constantly have to find a new roadie.
posted by cardioid at 1:17 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

The part where the guy says his dad cut out pictures of guitars from the Sears catalog and glued them to wood backing so he could play with them with his dolls was too much for me. Maybe modern day dads are that cool, but this would have been when I was a kid. Dads weren't that cool then. Right? I never knew one. Please don't tell me otherwise.
posted by Quonab at 2:11 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ahem… The Iron Maidens
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:55 PM on December 4, 2015

Finding a way to balance my amusement at Frehley being called talented and the realization that he was, like it or not, my introduction to blues guitar when I was a teenager.
posted by telstar at 1:08 AM on December 5, 2015

Yeah, Ace isn't the most blazingly technically proficient guitarist out there but he was my first personal guitar god and I'll always have a soft spot. And an irrational desire for a cherryburst Les Paul.
posted by usonian at 4:11 AM on December 5, 2015