‘4th and Loud’ brings you KISS, football and dancers 

‘4th and Loud’ brings you KISS, football and dancers

Last updated: September 26. 2014 3:55AM - 189 Views

KISS band members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, the co-owners of the LA KISS football team.

Let me start by saying that I’ve never really been much of a fan at all of the Arena Football League, reality TV or of the 1970s/80s rock band KISS.

The new AMC reality show “4th and Loud” is made up all all three but it has got me hooked.

For those of you who might be unaware of the reality TV show, “4th and Loud” gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the Arena Football League’s expansion team, the LA Kiss, which is co-owned by KISS band members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.

The docu-series, which debuted on Aug. 12, chronicles the struggles of a cobbled-together expansion indoor football team through a rough first season.

Stanley and Simmons and the team’s management offer up their vision of a business start up: a unique and eclectic mix of football and a KISS rock concert blended into one at Anaheim’s Honda Center.

The LA KISS play on an unusual silver football field.

With the loud rock music, the flashing lights and the pyrotechnics you would think you were at a KISS concert.

The LA KISS cheerleaders are not cheerleaders in the classic sense. They are dancers. Scantily-clad in black leather skirts, fishnet stockings and black boots, the women perform their dance routines and entertain the crowd at each home game. If it were 1979, the LA KISS Girls might have been KISS roadies.

“We have great dancers, and they’re not cheerleaders,” Stanley tells Entertainment TV. “Cheerleaders have almost become adolescent. We wanted to have girls who were women. And they’d better dance. I don’t want the girl next door, I want the girl you wish were next door.”

At one point in one of the early episodes, the LA KISS kicker seems to be distracted by one of the beautiful blonde cheerleaders, um, dancers. He misses four kicks in a game and the following week the team holds open tryouts at kicker.

He’s told not to fraternize anymore with the dance team member.

The kicker’s girlfriend also catches wind about the lovie-dovie-ness between the two and is not thrilled.

The LA KISS kicker, though, outperforms his rivals, stays away from the dancer (for the most part) and keeps his job.

Stanley and Simmons, however, make no qualms about it.

They are not big football fans and their knowledge of the game is very limited but they seem to care about the players and they, of course, want to win.

The band members go to visit an injured LA KISS player, who the week before had torn his ACL and would likely be out of action for more than a year.

“Make sure he gets everything that he needs,” Simmons says upon leaving.

But at the same time, the band members are also businessmen and are very blunt.

A team marketing director shows Simmons and Stanley KISS bobbleheads which would be given away at a game the next night.

The KISS members don’t care for the likenesses, or lack of.

“The design elements are horrible! Do you know what’s interesting? We never saw these until now,” Simmons said.

Stanley and Simmons have branded their KISS name on a product, a team, a form of entertainment and have stuck their neck out so losing is no option.

Continued losing could hurt ticket sales and the buzz created about the whole endevaour could fade away.

“(Losing) is very disheartening,” Stanley said. “For somebody who was not from a sports background, look, in life I don’t like to lose. There are parts of this that are completely out of my hands, so you have to be able to let go. Losing is disappointing. But winning is exhilarating. I would love for us to win, and that will take longer than we thought.”

Often times in the series, LA KISS head coach Bob McMillen, himself a former Arena Football Player and a member of the AFL Hall of Fame, butts heads with the team’s front office and many times fears for his job as the losing mounts.

After this week’s episode, we know the LA KISS are 3-9 with six more games to play.

Stanley and Simmons are thrilled after the LA KISS beat Portland at home.

But we know this wild excitement will only be short lived.

We know (SPOILER ALERT) how the rest of the season went.

The LA KISS finished a woeful 3-15, losing their last six games, and tied for the worst record in the league.

Despite the bad season, Stanley and Simmons seem to be on board for another season in 2015.

Always the savvy businessmen, the KISS band members have the ultimate gimmick — a smart one at that — a free KISS concert at season’s end for season ticket holders.

This year’s free concert is October 29, the team’s website says. Another is planned at the end of the 2015 season.

For football fans, it’s about the struggles of putting together a winning team.

For reality show fans, it’s fun and interesting to watch.

For KISS fans, it’s a chance to see Simmons and Stanley in a way you have never seen them.

This may be a shameless plug but here it goes …

Fourth and Loud can be seen at 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights on AMC.

* Speaking of the Arena Football League, I once got to witness a piece of history.

Back in 1990, when I was still living in Michigan, myself and a couple of my buddies packed into my Ford Bronco and went down to Detroit to see the 1990 Arena Bowl IV championship game pitting the homestanding Detroit Drive against the Dallas Texans.

The Drive won, 51-27, in front of 19,902 fans at Joe Louis Arena.

To this day, the atmosphere was the best I have ever experienced at a sporting event.

It’s only Arena Football, but still, to be able to see a pro championship game in any kind of sport was pretty cool.

Playing that night for Detroit was Gary Mullen, a former WVU wide receiver.

The quarterback for the Drive was Art Schlichter, a former NFL QB for the Colts and Bills who was banned from the NFL because of his compulsive gambling addiction. On September 15, 2011 Schlichter was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for his involvement in a million-dollar ticket scam.

* Eight years before the ‘90 Arena Bowl, I had chance to see another pro championship game — Super Bowl XVI — in 1982 at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, my birth town and only 20 miles away from my old home.

At only 10 years of age and a big football fan, I was thrilled to have the chance to go see the San Francisco 49ers play the Cincinnati Bengals in the biggest game of the year in the first Super Bowl to be played in a northern state.

I recall my dad coming home from work at General Motors on a cold January day and reporting that “a few” tickets for the Super Bowl were still available.

With more than 80,000 seats the Silverdome was a huge venue back in the day and hard to fill — even for the Super Bowl apparently.

Plus with early 1980s economy still hurting in the rust belt and blue collar places like Detroit, looking back on it, I’m not surprised the Super Bowl didn’t sell out in a few hours like they do now.

My dad had been told my some of his co-workers that a few Super Bowl tickets were still there for the taking.

“Let’s go!” I told dad excitedly. “Let’s get tickets and go to the Super Bowl!”

“How much are they?” I asked, having no clue.

“Thirty-five dollars,” dad said. “Thirty-five dollars each and that’s for the crows nest seats in the third deck. Way too expensive.”

Thirty-five dollars a seat for the Super Bowl WAS too expensive, I could even see that at 10.

At $800, $900, $1,000 or more a pop today, $35 a ticket to go see the Super Bowl seems pretty unreal.

Today, you couldn’t get a couple of hot dogs and a couple of soft drinks for that at the Super Bowl.

Back then, you could go get good tickets to Detroit Pistons games at the Silverdome for only $7. We’re talking only 10 or 15 rows back.

The upper deck tickets were only $3 each, and, unbelievablely, sometimes you could even get free Pistons’ tickets if you filled up your gas tank at Marathon stations.

I remember dad, mom and myself going to the Silverdome to see the Detroit Pistons play Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the LA Lakers in 1982.

Mom also bought us each a hot dog and a drink. That was maybe $6 more dollars.

I have to chuckle even at that, looking back on it.

So who says things have changed over time for the better?

— Paul Adkins is the Sports Editor of the Logan Banner

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