ACE FREHLEY / SLAUGHTER – LIVE AT THE MOHEGAN SUN ARENA
By Kat Gullage
ACE FREHLEY PERFORMS AT MOHEGAN SUN ARENA WITH SLAUGHTER
The last time I saw Ace live was during KISS’s “Psycho Circus” tour and I ended up pregnant (not by him). Since this show only featured one member of KISS, I reduced my chances of repeating that scenario by seventy-five percent.
Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil was originally scheduled to be the opener, but he canceled due to “a scheduling conflict” and was replaced by the band Slaughter. Neither option excited me very much. I’ve seen Vince live many times over the years and the last couple of appearances were lackluster. I had never seen Slaughter live, as I was never really big into them.
I wasn’t actually sure who the opener was until I got there, the marketing for the show didn’t make it obvious. It was Slaughter. An eighties glam band that landed hits in the early nineties. Slaughter continued to perform live for over three decades and have released five studio albums. Their ten song setlist only doled out hits from their first two LPs plus two covers. The lower section of the arena was pretty full, but only a smattering of fans appeared sporadically in the upper level. The floor was all seats, no general admission.
As the house lights cut, the stage boomed with sirens and lights and an annoying glitchy carnival noise. Vocalist and band namesake, Mark Slaughter, appeared and shouted “I can’t hear you!” before cranking out one of six tunes off of 1990’s Stick It To Ya with “Mad About You”. This brought the entire floor section onto their feet. Smoke cannons closed the song and Mark bonded with the fans. “Oh yeah! Everybody ready to party tonight?” He summoned a “Party” back and forth sing-a-long with them. He had everyone join in again during “Burning Bridges” – “Sing it with me!”.
Mark grabbed a guitar and surprised me with a decent solo that included a slice of Van Halen, before belting out “Spend My Life”. My friends and I jammed out to their cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”. Mark attempted another sing-a-long but this one was a crowd failure. The band began to perform “Eye To Eye”, but broke in the middle of the song to perform solos by guitarist Jeff “Blando” Bland, bassist Dana Strum and very entertaining drummer Jordan Cannata. He was wildin’ on those drums, at one point he stood on the kit and drummed with his freaking feet! The fans ate it up. Mark returned, with a rusty start, to finish up the tune.
He then conversed with the audience, “Thank you Mohegan Sun for bringing us out here! Thanks for coming out, we appreciate all the years together!”. “Sing along with us on this one if you know it.” It was a slice of The Wild Life with “Days Gone By”. He performed most of the song solo, got the Slaughter faithful to join in, before the band assisted with the outro. Mark swapped out guitars and did yet another back and forth with the fans, “Whoa, whoa, whoa” “Yeah, yeah” which segued into “Real Love”, a tune with a Dokken-esque vibe. Mark added an extra scream and extended the ending.
The front man requested “Get your phones, let’s light this place up! Shut down the stage lights!” The arena responded proficiently, as the band played their biggest hit, “Fly To The Angels” followed by their second biggest hit “Up All Night”. The closer was another cover, The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. The band offered more thanks and threw out a ton of picks before they exited. Their live sound and performance exceeded my expectations. They are a tight knit group of accomplished musicians. Are you one of Slaughter’s allegiant fans? They have fifteen upcoming dates that run through July. You should catch one of em.
Paul Daniel “Ace” Frehley was the original lead guitarist and a founding member of KISS, known as The Spaceman or Space Ace. Frehley was a member of KISS from its inception in 1973 through 1982, and again from 1996 to 2002. He played or is credited on eleven KISS albums, released two LPs with his band Frehley’s Comet and produced eight solo albums with a ninth, Origins Vol 3, due to be released in 2025. Ace is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having been inducted as a member of KISS.
The legend took the stage without much fanfare, a guy, who may have been a roadie, came out and introduced “The one, the only, Ace Frehley!” Ace arrived and embarked on a fourteen song setlist, ten of which were KISS songs cultivated from six KISS albums. “Shock Me” from Love Gun was the show opener. Diehard KISS army fans packed in the front floor section. Ace addressed his followers, “Well, look at your faces. Look at you. You’re a rock and roll crowd if I ever saw one. Prepare to have your asses kicked.” This was the intro for “Deuce” from the self-titled KISS LP. “How many have the new album?” There was a smattering of applause.
A track from 10,000 Volts, “Cherry Medicine” was on deck. “Hey guys, don’t girls look better in black leather?” I observed a handful of scantily clad starlets in the shadows on stage. “I see a few rock soldiers out there, stand up and be counted!” This was Ace’s prelude to “Rock Soldiers” from Frehley’s Comet. He paused after the lyric “Ace is back and he told you so” and held out until he got a worthy crowd response. “I hear we got some rock soldiers out there, and thank you to the real soldiers who put their life on the line.”
He did a quick impromptu blues riff. “This is rock and roll! Forget about your troubles, forget about your nine to five!” The fans went wild for “Love Gun”. Ace kept on talkin, “Coupla pretty girls in the audience. Baby wants a…” “Rocket Ride” from KISS Alive II. I noted the crowd slowly thinning out, but the KISS Army conglomerate stood strong. Ace addressed some recent tragedies, “That plane went down in Philly after that DC one, let’s have ten seconds of silence for the families.” Everyone, except that one loud drunk guy that’s at every show, participated.
The set rolled on with “Parasite” from Hotter Than Hell. Ace shed his coat and and changed axes, which he did multiple times. “Alright, got guitars, amps, and some things in private we can’t discuss. Anybody hit any jackpots?” No one responded. Ace proved his namesake by declaring “I won five thousand the last time I was here.” Fan favorite “Detroit Rock City” off of Destroyer was up next. The drummer, Scot Coogan, sang and played and was a real stand out.
Ace was escorted backstage and reemerged wearing a shirt with a skeleton motif. “Cheers to my back up band!” Scot on drums, Ryan Cook on Bass and Jeremy Asbrock on guitar. “Let’s continue the show while I make an idiot outta myself.” Ace belted out an impressive blues jam. “In 1978 we recorded solo KISS records. Guess who’s album did the best?” The track he chose off that LP was “Rip It Out”. It was followed by another KISS track, “She”. There was bad feedback for one second, after yet another axe change. “Imma get a wheelchair, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Ace puts out an impressive snippet of the Van Halen version of “You Really Got Me”. He declared “Man, I really miss Eddie Van Halen, what a guitar player and wonderful person.” “Here’s an oldie but a goodie.” Ace and Jeremy duel with their axes before feeding the army “New York Groove”. Then we got a real blues jam, where Ace really flexed his talent. “Well blow me down. We’re just fooling around, it’s all about spontaneity. When I was a kid, going to rehearsal, I played this for Paul and Gene. They said, It’s gonna be a hit. They were right.” It was the KISS staple “Cold Gin”.
The devoted KISS army soldiers are standing fast, but I noted that the crowd had become sparse. “Closing time again”. Ace, who sported a Mars Attacks t-shirt at this point, blazed a solo and utilized one of his special effects guitars, the one that emits smoke from it as he wails on it. A sight to behold. “You guys gonna gamble tonight? Craps, slots, blackjack? I love blackjack.” Ace riffed the notes to “Smoke On The Water” then stated “That’s enough of that.” “Here’s an oldie but a goody.” The show wrapped with the powerhouse KISS hits, “Shout It Out Loud” and “Rock And Roll All Nite”.
A lot of people had left. It seemed to me the KISS fans were fine waiting it out through Slaughter, but the Slaughter fans did not stick around too long for Ace. A friend that I brought along told me halfway through Ace’s gig that she couldn’t understand what they were singing. She literally left Ace and went to see the band Asia perform in the Wolf Den. Look, Ace is not known for being a singer. He shares the vocals with his other band members. Ace is a guitar playing legend. Guitar World magazine ranked him as the fourteenth greatest metal axe wielder of all time.
That’s what seeing Ace is all about. If you’re interested in seeing the notorious axeman, he has a handful of dates through May 2025. If you’re a member of the KISS army, I know, I know, you already have your tickets.
To learn more about Ace Frehley, check out their Website
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