KISSmas In July: Meister Rock City

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a short post for the 2015 KISSmas In July season regarding my KISS fanship and how it wavers at times, but simple things often bring me back. I just try to avoid anything said by the band, Gene, and Paul especially since it regularly serves only in lowering my opinion of my favorite band time and time again. I know too much. But it got me to remembering, something that KISSmas In July seems to do for me each and every year, helping to remind me that I am a KISS fan and I thought I’d share one more quick little “success” story of my bumpy road as said KISS fan (let’s face it, as I said before, if KISS made a recording of the bathroom noises generated after Gene ate Ex-lax mistakenly thinking it was chocolate I would still buy it….I am a KISS fan!). I’m talking about the time that I was an extra in a movie. Detroit Rock City.

I don’t remember tons and tons about the circumstances leading up to the event, or even the event itself for that matter, basically just snippets of the time spent on the set with my friend, so there may be the odd inaccuracy or literary licence here and there.

Somehow a friend (who also attended the reunion and Psycho Circus concerts with me) and I (unfortunately this friend has since passed away and I can no longer share KISS moments with him) learned about a movie being filmed at CNE grounds in Toronto. That movie was Detroit Rock City and they were looking for extras. The filming that we were to be part of was done at night and I’m more than sure that there were some “sick calls” going into our places of work as we headed downtown Toronto from our little town about an hour to the north of the city. It was cold out these nights, I remember that. We were like bums between takes huddling around fire barrels to keep warm. We did the very same take over and over and over and over and over again all night long. We would walk down the street towards what would be serving as Cobo Hall, playing the part of the fans and concert attendees arriving for the KISS concert that takes place at the end of the movie. The concert was actually filmed in Hamilton, Ontario and as a thank-you to all the extras we were invited to attend the show by calling to reserve a space. The filming of the concert scenes was to be taking place approximately a month after the extra scenes that we participated in and the very day after the Psycho Circus tour stopped in Toronto! Unfortunately, for whatever the reasons were, my friend and I were unable to make this part of the experience, probably we were in danger of getting busted at work! As fun and cool as it was to be a part of this event, trust me the luster was long gone by the time we got to take #78 or however many there were.

I do have a couple of cool souvenirs from the experience some of which can be seen in the photos: an “Official Rules” sheet for the Toronto Extras Contest (I didn’t win anything), A Declaration, Release and Registration form, and a “Thank-you/Invite to participate at the Hamilton filming for the movie’s concert scenes.

So, can you see me in the movie? Yes, I actually believe you can (provided you have frame by frame slow motion on your DVD player and an ample amount of patience). There are several scenes showing the crowd approaching Cobo Hall for that evening’s KISS concert in the movie. I at one time, painstakingly, went frame by frame through each and every one of them and I’m sure I saw myself from the back. I remember my jacket that night and my then flowing locks of hair (they’re long gone now, replaced by a barren desert void of hair follicles) and I’m convinced I saw myself as during every take I would jump up on a car as I passed by it (the same car every damn time). I was not the only one to do this, but I know I’m in there……somewhere.

I think I’ll go pop in the Detroit Rock City DVD tonight. I am, after all, a KISS fan.

Cheers,

The Meister 

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