The Kiss Loft

The Story

This loft was rented by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley between the summer of 1972 and the fall of 1973. It was here that the band rehearsed before performing for any paid audience. In December 1972, Ace Frehley saw an ad for a band looking for a guitarist with stage presence. He went to the loft for the audition, wearing one orange and one red sneaker, and drank two pint cans of beer on the way to relax. The band had auditioned dozens of guitarists before him. It was also in this loft, on the building's stairway, that the band's first promotional photo was taken, still without the classic makeup, later enlarged into a nearly one-meter poster displayed in a club window. An amateur recording made by Gene Simmons during a rehearsal in 1973, with only six songs, is one of the earliest existing sound recordings of Kiss. Some fans manage to enter the building and replicate the famous photo on the stairway. The location is private.

Explore more