TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA violinist Anna Phoebe has posted her latest weekly column for Classic Rock Magazine. An excerpt is available below:

"Totally mad and not so natural… KISS. The responses from the band in the ‘KISS For Questions’ feature in CR made me smile. The first time I saw Kiss live was in Berlin a couple of summers ago. Trans- Siberian Orchestra and KISS share a lot of the same crew (actually for a few tours I have also shared Gene Simmons’ scissor lift), and I got invited to watch the show from the sound desk. I took my sister and a friend, and the three of us showed up wearing white shirts and denim hotpants; we were easy to spot in the crowd.

We shared a little cordoned off area with Sarah Brightman (who sat down the entire time looking pretty miserable/bored) and a bunch of guys from Anti-Flag. One guy caught my eye – mainly because I noticed he was being served Jack Daniel’s by a burly-looking guy dressed in a black Boss suit. I walked up to him and yelled in his ear: “You must be in a famous band if you have your own security guy serving you from your private stash of whiskey.” (I was half-joking… I assumed he was a local.)

Anyway, we exchanged pleasantries against the backdrop of lasers, platform boots and KISS classics, and I helped myself to the fast-diminishing remains of JD. He seemed impressed to know that I was a member of Trans-Siberian Orchestra and I was duly impressed that he’d heard of it… I asked him what kind of band he was in. His answer: 'Oh, it’s small band called RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.' WTF?! Ha ha!

I had been helping myself to Tom Morello’s whiskey, which I’d pretty much polished off. In fact, I don’t really remember much of my first ever Kiss show; the next day I woke up with a thumping headache, whiskey stains on my shorts and confetti all over my bedroom.

Apparently I’d been down at the front on the side of the stage with sister and friend dancing wildly (including busting out my backbend move) and stuffing the falling confetti into my bag and clothes. By all accounts it was provocative enough for Gene Simmons to keep stomping over to the side where we were dancing, motioning for us to come over to him. Thankfully, we had declined.

The second time I saw KISS was later that same summer at the Download Festival. I spent most of the time having flashbacks of the previous gig, but this time was conscious enough to savour the whole experience – including the firework-shooting guitar solo, the famous Simmons bass solo in full flight (with blood dripping off his disgustingly fascinating tongue) and of course the whole synchronised platform-stomping guitar-neck swinging dance moves. Awesome stuff."

Go to this location for the complete article.

Anna's live schedule is now as follows:

May

2 - Almeida Theatre - London, England *
9 - Almeida Theatre - London, England *
11 - Underworld - London, UK (full band)
16 - Almeida Theatre - London, England *
19 - The Bedford - London, UK **
31 - The Purple Turtle - London, UK **

June

1 - The Bedford - London, UK (fulll band - free entry)

September

6 - Weyfest Festival - Farnham, UK (full band)

* Tim Arnold (Sonnet 155)

** Jurojin show