Wed. March 17

KISS is the greatest marketing machine the rock world has ever known. I glimpsed this back in the mid-'70s when I first saw KISS live, bought the "Love Gun" album, with its cardboard gun and its groan of a metaphor. At the time, I was a young semi-rebellious teen in the pre-punk era and KISS served up horror movie spectacle and god of thunder rock - plus an anthem about getting buzzed on gin, which I could relate to. I first met the guys in the band in 1976, doing a feature on them for a long-defunct music magazine called Sweet Potato. It was my first run-in and I mean that in a good way. I didn't ask patronizing questions and they didn't give pat answers. KISS - especially bassist Gene Simmons - was pretty upfront about the desire to make money. Hey, he was living in a material world and he was a material boy. Simmons was a big captialist and a big hedonist. Oh, there were lots of things we didn't know, things that later came out in his bio, like he was born in Haifa, Israel and named Chaim Witz a lot about his attitude toward women, which couldn't help make you wince. And the anti-drink and drug attitude he and co-frontman singer-guitairst Paul Stanley have always had. I'm not so sure if it was a demand for mental clarity or the knowledge that being messed up might lead you to make business mistakes and let the opportunity to license a KISS doll pass you by - or worse, agree to have it made and not get enough of a cut.

I interviewed Simmons when I was with the Globe, and he'd released "Kiss and Make Up," his autobio in 2001. The interview was typically edgy, contentious, opinionated - and funny and, while a chunk of it made the cut, some editors found Simmons' responses so repulsive/degrading they cut 'em. This was around he same time when he went on NPR's Terry Gross show and she asked him about his 6000 conquests. Simmons said, "If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs," to which Gross replied, "That's a really obnoxious thing to say."

More from the interview ...
Gross: “I’d like to think that the personality that you’ve presented on our show today is a persona that you’ve affected as a member of KISS, something that you do on stage and before a microphone but you’re not nearly as obnoxious in the privacy of your own home or when you’re having dinner with friends.”

Simmons: “Fair enough. And I’d like to think that the boring lady that’s talking to me now is a lot sexier and more interesting than the one who’s doing NPR –all studious and reserved…I bet you’re a lot of fun at a party.”

Look, if you Google Kiss' "Gene Simmons" and "asshole" and you'll get nearly 43,000 hits. Of course, it doesn't hurt that that's what Simmons named a 2004 solo album. It was kind of like gay folks laying claim to the word "queer" - get out ahead of that train. This is a long way of introducing the Legacy event at the tiny Model Cafe Wednesday March 17. Nope, the guys in KISS - Simmons, Paul Stanley and the guys they hired to replicate Ace and Peter - won't be near the building but their music will be. That's the other oddity. The best KISS stuff came at the beginning. True for a lot of bands, but more so with these guys. They've run on that image, pyro, makeup - and that catalog for more than three decades. They happen to have penned the classic "Rock 'n' Roll All Nite" and that's carried 'em to the land of mansions and glory. People who like KISS span the generations, pre-teens to late 50s I'd say. I've seen at 'em KISS shows. My last live experience was, I think, in the late-'90s. I can't think much has changed even if new music has been chucked out. KISS has fans who just love 'em straight up, and many more, I guess this is where I check in, who can't not note the perverse irony of being a KISS fan. Remember that Clash line about "turning rebellion into money?" That was KISS now, then and always. But here's how they put it on thei 1976 concert program: " Total sensuality. Thundering rock, intense vibration, and soaring freedom. Penetrating energy and exploding emotion stimulate every nerve to unequaled heights."
Ok, then. So at the Model Cafe DJ Sterling Golden - creator of this monthly Legacy series - devotes the entire night of Wednesday March 17 to the men wearing the makeup and suffering pockmarked skin for their vanity. (Remember when KISS when un-masked? A true horror show and no one cared.)

There's this on-going controversy about KISS' rejection by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. More than 100 million records sold worldwide and still no respect from the rock crits. Of course, this also calls into nature the Hall's intent: Patti Smith and the Velvet Undeground, great artists and influences to many are in; KISS and a lot of other '70s arena rockers are out. Where does commerce slide in and take over? It's not like sports hall of fames where stats speak loudest.

Golden calls this St. Patrick's Day gig "AN EVENING OF KISSTORY, celebrating the music of "The Hottest Band In the World", KISS!" The promise: The dance floor will be shaking Golden's KISS playlist, spanning their illustrious career from the pre-KISS days of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley to tracks from the monster 2009 KISS joint 'Sonic Boom.'" That later "joint" - really, is this the right word? - was universally panned but came in so many different packages the dedicated KISS collector - and they're out there, hoping to cash in someday when younger rich collectors want to relieve them of their oodles of pararphenalia - had to spend hundreds just to keep up.

So, at the Model, you can win KISS prize giveaways, with the grand prize: a signed and numbered art print from acclaimed artist Ken Kelly, of his original cover art for "Destroyer." To see it, click  http://www.facebook.com/l/736df;img683.imageshack.us/img683/624/1sterlingkloni1c.jpg). This will not be awarded in the same manner as the other prizes. So, how do you enter to win it, then? Answer the trivia question below, and send your answer to: .

Q: On the inner sleeve of the "Destroyer" LP, what was the listed admission price to join the KISS Army?

Be sure to include your name or handle with your answer. We will randomly pick out the winner's name and you must be there to win.
Starts at 9. Free. (This event was postponed from the original date, March 10.)

7 N. Beacon St., Allston, 617-254-9365 www.LENALAMORAY.COM