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A black crayon girl

Local Angie Nolan readies for Kiss concert in Whistler with black face paint in one hand, and a handful of childhood memories in the other

Who: Kiss

When: Saturday, Sept. 15

Where: Blackcomb Mountain

Tickets: $65-$250

At four years old Angie Nolan wasn’t like the other kids fighting over who got to use the red or blue crayon.

The golden haired Gibsons girl only needed one.

With her black Crayola, she drew figures with eyes thickly rimmed and crazy hair standing out in all directions.

Her mother, concerned about the “demonic” scribblings, promptly took the sunshine of her life to a child psychologist.

The assessment?

A happy, well-balanced child who just happened to be a Kiss fan.

“I had older cousins who were huge Kiss fans,” Nolan explains. “I guess I picked it up from hanging around them.”

The literally starry-eyed girl in Kiss face paint has never looked back. From Kiss posters wallpapering her high school locker to donning Kiss’s kabuki-inspired garb for a friend’s birthday dinner last year, Nolan is truly a member of The Kiss Army. She’s even got her Kiss Army club member number to prove it — or at least she was looking for it to buy her Kiss concert tickets when she talked with Pique Newsmagazine.

“I didn’t believe it when I heard Kiss was coming to Whistler,” she says. “Everyone called to leave me messages when they heard they were coming.”

Kiss, one of the world’s biggest rock bands that has played more than 3,500 concerts in front of 78 million fans around the world, is making a rare outdoor appearance Saturday, Sept. 15 on Blackcomb Mountain.

These wild-child metal heads of the 1970s have wracked up God status with their fire breathing and blood spitting shows. The band has earned 55 gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards. To date, worldwide sales have exceeded 80 million albums.

Since the 2004 Rock the Nation Tour, Kiss concerts have been few and far between, but Whistler will get front row seats to Shout It Out Loud, and Rock and Roll All Night.

And Nolan will be there in all her face-painted glory.

“Are you going to dress up for the concert?” she’s asked.

“Of course I am,” says an indignant Nolan, laughing. “I can’t believe you just asked me that question.”

At nine years old, Nolan kept it simple. White face with a black star, but she has since graduated to Gene Simmons’s spiked-shaped black eye make up, and shoulder pads with spikes.

“I used to have the most stellar Gene Simmons outfit in town,” she isn’t afraid to say.

She last wore the get-up a year ago when she was invited to a 1970s birthday party. Most partiers dressed in disco heels and bell-bottoms, but not Nolan and her then new squeeze, Fish. It was Kiss 1970s all the way.

“The birthday boy was stoked,” Nolan recounts. “He had guitar and drums downstairs and we went at it.”

Along with music, one of the couple’s first kisses was also drummed up — fittingly with both dressed as Kiss.

“Oh, he’s coming,” Nolan said of Fish, who spends most of his summer in the bush fighting fires. “He needs to serenade me with I Was Made For Loving You.”

Not exactly the soft, sugary whisperings of what most people would consider romantic, but for a Kiss couple, nothing could be sweeter.

If Nolan had to pick a favourite Kiss album — she really didn’t like this question either — she would have to narrow it down to at least two: Dress to Kill , because of its big anthem hits, and Destroyer , because of Detroit Rock City and Beth — Nolan used to tease her sister Beth that the song was about her.

Kiss and Nolan were written in the stars ever since Nolan’s first birthday.

Kiss played, its first concert (with original members) on Jan. 30, 1973, the day Nolan blew out three birthday cake candles.

“They are the last of the true rock entertainers,” she said. “Some bands came in after them in the 1980s, but something happened in the ’70s that came out of disco. It’s like they had the theatrics of disco and put it to huge rock anthems. Everyone is so cool now, but (Kiss) these guys aren’t afraid to have fun and make asses of themselves and get the whole crowd going. There are no I Want to Rock and Roll All Night anthems anymore.”

The Kiss concert is one of three in The Big Mountain Concert Company’s Sizzling September Concert Series. Concerts with other, as-yet-unannounced acts are also slated for Sept. 22 and Sept. 29.

Beer gardens and outdoor barbecues open at 3 p.m., opening acts warm up crowds at 4:30 p.m. and Kiss takes to the stage at 8:15 p.m.

Kiss tickets went on sale Wednesday, Aug. 29. Tickets, ranging from $65 to $250 (plus GST and service charges) are available online at secureticket.org or by calling 1-888-223-6620.