Ace Frehley at Sony Hall

As a youth, Paul "Ace" Frehley was part of the Ducky Boys street gang  in his native Bronx, New York. The Frehleys were a musical family, however, and when a 13-year-old Ace received an electric guitar as a Christmas present in 1964, he immersed himself in learning to play it. Frehley played in local bands while working short-term jobs—mail carrier, furniture deliverer, messenger, and liquor store delivery boy. In 1972, while working as a taxi driver, he responded to a classified ad and auditioned for and was accepted into Wicked Lester, the band that would soon become KISS. He remained Kiss' lead guitarist until his departure in 1982, launched his own career under his own name and with Frehley's Comet, then rejoined Kiss from 1996 until its first farewell tour in 2002. Frehley's seventh and most recent solo album, Origins, Vol. 1, a collection of cover tunes, was released in 2016, but his next album, Spaceman, is due in 2018. Frehley presently is based in San Diego, California.

Ace Frehley already released a single, "Bronx Boy," from the forthcoming album. Oddly, Frehley mentioned the single and the accompanying album, but did not perform any new songs at Sony Hall tonight. Instead, Frehley relied on a set list featuring five songs from solo albums plus eight KISS songs, all from the 1970s and 1980s. Frehley did not wear his signature Kiss face paint, but did bring his KISS-era special effects guitars, a custom Les Paul that emits a series of lights and a Gibson Les Paul guitar that smokes. Frehley's limitations were in his vocals, and so he let his solid accompanists (guitarist Richie Scarlett, bassist Chris Wyse and drummer Scot Coogan) each sing a song. In the end, Frehley gave the audience what it wanted -- lots of Kiss songs, lots and lots of lead guitar and lots and lots and lots of guitar picks tossed into the audience.

Visit Ace Frehley at www.acefrehley.com.

Setlist:

1. Parasite (KISS song)
2. Rip It Out
3. Snowblind
4. Love Gun (KISS song, sung by Scot Coogan)
5. Rocket Ride (KISS song)
6. Rock Soldiers (Frehley's Comet song)
7. Bass Solo
8. Strange Ways (KISS song, sung by Chris Wyse)
9. New York Groove (Hello cover)
10. 2 Young 2 Die (sung by Richie Scarlett)
11. Shock Me (KISS song)
12. Ace Frehley Guitar Solo
13. Cold Gin (KISS song)

Encore:

1. Detroit Rock City (KISS song)
2. Deuce (KISS song)