Kiss have closed out the final performance of their The End of the Road farewell tour in New York but as dedicated fans surely know, they were never really going to call it quits.
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During their encore at Madison Square Garden, the band's current line-up - founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer - left the stage to reveal digital avatars of themselves.
After the transformation, the virtual Kiss launched into a performance of God Gave Rock and Roll to You.
The avatars were created by George Lucas' special-effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse Entertainment Group, co-founded by ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus.
The two companies recently teamed up for the ABBA Voyage show in London, in which fans could attend a full concert by the Swedish band - as performed by their digital avatars.
Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Entertainment, said this new technology would allow Kiss to continue their legacy for "eternity".
He said the band was not on stage during the virtual performance because "that's the key thing" of the future-seeking technology.
"Kiss could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents," he said.
"That's what you could do with this."
Kiss performed in motion capture suits to create their digital avatars, who are depicted as a kind of superhero version of the band.
Experimentation with this kind of technology has become increasingly common in certain sections of the music industry.
In October, K-pop star Mark Tuan partnered with Soul Machines to create an autonomously automated "digital twin" called "Digital Mark".
In doing so, Tuan became the first celebrity to attach their likeness to OpenAI's GPT integration - artificial intelligence technology that allows fans to engage in one-on-one conversations with Tuan's avatar.
The members of K-pop girl group Aespa frequently perform alongside digital avatars - the quartet is meant to be viewed as an octet with digital twins.
Another girl group, Eternity, is made up entirely of virtual characters.
"What we've accomplished has been amazing but it's not enough," Kiss frontman Paul Stanley said in a roundtable interview.
"The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are.
"It's exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalised."
"We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we've never dreamed of before," Kiss bassist Gene Simmons said.
"The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he's ever done before."
Australian Associated Press
