Toronto will play host to the final KISS concert on Canadian soil, the band announced Wednesday.
KISS is embarking on “the absolute final shows of their final tour” later this year – and will be making stops in nine cities across Canada.
The End of the Road Tour will play Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Nov. 8, Rogers Place in Edmonton on Nov. 10, Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome on Nov. 12, SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon on Nov. 13 and Winnipeg’s Canada Life Centre on Nov. 15.
KISS will also perform shows at Montreal’s Bell Centre on Nov. 18, Quebec City’s Videotron Centre on Nov. 19, Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Nov. 21 and Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Nov. 22.
The band will wrap things up with a pair of shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“KISS was born in New York City. On 23rd Street. Half a century ago,” reads a statement from KISS. “It will be a privilege and honour to finish touring at Madison Square Garden, 10 blocks and 50 years from where we first started.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. local time on March 10.
The End of the Road Tour began in Vancouver on Jan. 31, 2019 and has already come to Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City.
MORE: Gene Simmons Boasts (Again) About His Stage Stamina
In October 2021, Paul Stanley predicted the tour would be over by early 2023. “The fact is that, physically, it's incredibly demanding to do what we do,” the rocker told Ultimate Classic Rock. “We're running around for two-plus hours, not only with guitars, but I've got 30-plus pounds of gear on. There's a point where you go, ‘You know what? This is more challenge than I want.’ And I only want to do it as long as I can do it smiling.”
Although the band has had other “farewell” tours, Stanley said this one really will be the last. “There's really no thought about changing our minds,” he insisted. “It has nothing to do with personalities in the band or tensions or a difference of opinion or musicality. It's purely practical. You can play beat the clock, but ultimately the clock wins.”
In a 2021 interview with the Toronto Sun, Gene Simmons said: “We have too much self respect to stay out there a day longer if we can’t live up to our self-mandated manifesto: You wanted the best, you got the best. It’s not, ‘Hey, I remember when they were good.’ We’re not fat, bloated Elvis that should have quit earlier.”
Simmons said last year that he believes KISS will live on in a different form. “There could and should be a KISS show, kind of a live on stage with effects and everything else, but also semi-autobiographical thing about four knuckleheads off the streets of New York that ends with the last third as a full-blown celebration of… a full-on performance," he explained. "Not with us. Although, not a problem stepping in every once in a while.
“KISS will continue in other ways. I have no problems with four deserving 20-year-olds sticking the makeup back on and hiding their identity.”