War Machine

Members of veteran local hard rock band Illegal, War Machine realized some time ago that Detroiters love the band that penned the "Detroit Rock City" anthem, and so their Kiss tribute was born as singer Jeff Alex told us.

“We started about nine years ago,” Alex says. “Our regular band, Illegal, was doing a Halloween show. We borrowed some Kiss costumes from another, now defunct, local Kiss tribute band. (We) learned a couple of songs and played that night. Everyone thought it was super-cool and before I knew it, people were asking us to do a tribute to Kiss. So we did.”

With authentic costumes and admirable attention to detail, a War Machine show is as close as punters can get to the real deal, but with that “up close and personal” touch. Plus, Gene Simmons is so busy making reality TV shows; it’s refreshing to see a “Kiss” show that the musicians involved seem to be enjoying.

Their faithful reproduction of the classic Kiss spectacle has seen them play with genuine rock ‘n’ roll royalty. “We played as the opening act for the rock ‘n’ roll auction at the Emerald Theater, and we played a song on stage with Dennis DeYoung from Styx,” Alex says.

“He was the emcee for the evening and he played ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll All Nite’ with us. Another time, we were the opening act for Vince Neil from Motley Crue. We’ve played on stage with several members of Kiss. For a while, we were doing a lot of the Kiss expos and conventions. We played on stage with Eric Singer and Bruce Kulik, and Mark St. John -- who passed away recently.”

For more information about War Machine: www.kisstribute1.com