Ace Frehley Headlines His First Arena Show Since leaving Kiss, at The Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on May 26, 2024

May 29, 2024
International Concert Reviews, International Galleries
by Jody Wilk Photographer/Writer

Ace Frehley headlined the arena at the beautiful Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut and had rock icons Slaughter and Aldo Nova opening the show. According to a video clip posted by Ace’s guitarist, Jeremy Asbrock, this was the first time that Ace had headlined an arena as a solo artist since leaving Kiss in 2002. With Kiss just having played their final 2 shows of their final world tour in New York City last December, it was cool to see Ace Frehley for my first time. The arena filled in nicely, though not sold-out. Doors opened an hour before showtime and there were long lines for merch up until the show started.

First up was Aldo Nova, who just recently started touring again after a long break. I was lucky enough to catch them earlier this month at M3 Rock Festival, so I knew I was in for a great show. Jack Frost, also of Seven Witches slays it on guitar, while holding a fantastic stage presence swinging his hair around and looking like a rock star. Dario Seixas plays bass and also is a showman on stage yanking on the strings and holding it high above his head. He has played with Stephen Pearcy, Firehouse, and Jack Russell’s Great White. And Ange E. Curcio on drums who has played with Saints N Sinners, Corey Hart and many more. Michael T. Ross was on the keyboards and played with Lita Ford. Aldo sounded great and true to the originals. They started the night with “Monkey on Your Back”, a song off of his 1983 album Subject. Outside of this, their setlist was the same as the last show they played which was at M3 in Maryland. They played five songs off of their self-titled album, and one off of Blood on the Bricks, ending the night with “Fantasy”. Towards the end of “Fantasy” Dario was helicoptering his bass like crazy, broke his strap and it looked like he damaged the neck of the instrument. You can catch Aldo Nova playing a host of festivals this summer, including The Mountain Music Festival in Tennessee, Time to Rock Festival in Sweden, Rocktember Music Festival in Minnesota, and more.

Aldo Nova is:

Aldo Nova – Guitar, vocals

Jack Frost – Guitar, vocals

Dario Seixas – Bass, vocals

Ange E. Curcio – Drums

Michael T. Ross – Keyboards

Setlist:

1. Monkey On Your Back

2. Heart To Heart

3. Under The Gun

4. Foolin’ Yourself

5. Ball and Chain

6. Blood on the Bricks

7. Fantasy

Slaughter is always an awesome show. With their most popular song, “Fly to The Angels” bringing Mark Slaughter to the front of the hair metal scene in the early 90’s, he attracts a ton of female fans that wish they got to meet him back in the day. “Mad About You” was the opening song of choice and the fans were all on their feet. Mark sounded great and was backed by a band of amazingly talented musicians. All showmen who know how to get the crowd going. Dana Strum utilizes the whole stage and plays like he just drank a 6-pack of energy drinks. Jeff Blando is a master of his craft and plays his parts without missing a note. Jordan Cannata might be the most over-the-top showman of the group, using exaggerated motions in almost every move. He tosses the sticks around and makes faces at the crowd. At one point, he bounced sticks off the stage and into the crowd for lucky fans to catch.

During “Eye to Eye” Mark went down into the crowd to sing to the fans. He came to the row right in front on mine and hopped up on an empty chair and let my daughter sing a few words. She had a smile a mile wide. When the song was over, Jordan got to show off his amazing skills with a drum solo, which gave Mark time to make his way back to the stage. During “Days Gone By”, Mark let the fans sing the chorus and it sounded great. They saved “Fly to the Angels” until the 10th song. Towards the end of the song, Mark said, “let’s light this place up” and everyone held up their cell phone lights and waved them side to side. The crowd was on their feet the entire show, however, when “Up All Night” was played, everyone was pumping their fists and singing along as well. They ended the night with a partial cover of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. At the beginning of the song, Jordan took one of his cymbals off of the stand and pounded it into the other cymbals like someone trying to beat a rabid raccoon. Slaughter always brings a high-energy performance to the stage. They are also playing festivals and solo shows through the summer, with the last one currently listed as The Mountain Music Festival.

Slaughter is:

Mark Slaughter – Lead Vocals, guitar

Dana Strum – Bass, backing vocals

Jeff Blando – Guitar, backing vocals

Jordan Cannata – Drums

Setlist:

1. Mad About You

2. Burnin’ Bridges

3. Spend My Life

4. Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin cover)

5. Eye to Eye

6. Drum Solo

7. Eye to Eye (reprise)

8. Days Gone By

9. Real Love

10. Fly to the Angels

11. Up All Night

12. Won’t Be Fooled Again (The Who cover) (partial)

Ace Frehley, “The Spaceman”, an iconic former member of Kiss is many fans’ favorite person that played in Kiss. Frehley is probably most noted for writing “Cold Gin”, “Shock Me”, “Rock Soldiers” from his solo Frehley’s Comet album. He played many of the most popular Kiss songs, including “Parasite”, “Detroit Rock City”, “Shout It Out Loud”, and “Rock and Roll All Nite”. Ace took the stage wearing a jacket bedazzled with sequins shaped like lightning bolts that reflected all the lights and had his Gibson Les Paul held around his neck with a lightning bolt leather strap. He opened the show with “Shock Me”, and “Shout It Out Loud”. But then it was time for a live debut. He released his 10,000 Volts album earlier this year which debuted at #72 on The Billboard 200 chart. This was the first time he played “Cherry Medicine” live. Next up was the only song they played from Frehley’s Comet, “Rock Soldiers”, which is my favorite song from Ace’s music outside of Kiss. Ace read from his cue card, to welcome everyone to Uncasville, and butchered the pronunciation, then made fun of himself for it. He let us know that he drinks Pelegrino now, and that’s why he doesn’t have a beer belly anymore. Bassist Ryan Cook and guitarist Jeremy Asbrock are both amazing performers and do a fine job keeping the stage show interesting. Both were sporting cool guitar straps from Fairfield Guitar Co.

Ace had an outfit change and came out with a tacky watermelon print jacket and made some sort of reference to people eating watermelon at their cookouts that weekend. Ace had to ask his band members to confirm some facts several times as he was talking about when different songs were released. Scot Coogan is another fantastic drummer, and I was happy to see him on the kit. Scot wasn’t with them the last time I saw them. Everyone in the band sang backup vocals for Ace and they do a good job carrying him. Ace also let each of the members sing lead vocals on a song, including Scot on the drums. At one point his drum tech wasn’t paying attention and I saw Scot looking up at his mic, frustrated, waiting for it to be lowered into place so he could sing. Ace had several guitar changes throughout the set, but probably the most iconic is his guitar which emanates smoke during his solo. A few times in between songs Ace got his Target bag and was throwing out posters and merch into the crowd. He also let us know he is working with Gene Simmons on a few songs on his next album. They ended the show with “Rock and Roll All Nite” and the fans were singing along and pumping their fists bringing them right back into the 80’s

Ace Frehley, Slaughter, and Aldo Nova brought a large crowd of rock soldiers to Mohegan Sun Arena for a night that would remind everyone what a typical night out during their youth was like. Aldo sounded great and his band performed flawlessly. Slaughter was probably my favorite show of the night due to their great stage presence and crowd interaction. And finally, it was great to see Ace and his band of talented musicians playing all of my favorite Kiss songs and even “Rock Soldiers”. You can catch Ace supporting his recent release 10,000 Volts throughout most of this year at one-off shows and festivals.

Ace Frehley is:

Ace Frehley – Lead guitar, vocals

Scot Coogan – Drums, vocals

Jeremy Asbrock – Guitar, vocals

Ryan Cook – Bass, vocals