Rock Without a Volume Knob

Gene Simmons of KISS appears with his instrument among lightning bolts, stars, and musical notes, capturing the atmosphere of a live show. For KISS, excess was never a minor detail. Makeup, costumes, and stagecraft helped turn music into spectacle, with Gene Simmons central to that image. Sound and memory support each other: an image can bring a song back to mind almost instantly. Even without sound, the scene seems full of rhythm. Music also lives in gestures, memory, and the ways we recognize its performers.