If you don’t know what country you’re in, perhaps you’re doing too much rocking and rolling all night.
KISS is making international headlines after displaying an Australian flag at a recent concert... in Austria. The funny mixup happened when the rock band performed June 26 at the Wiener Stadthalle arena in Vienna, Austria, where fans took photos of a screen displayed on stage that said “KISS loves you Vienna.”
Unfortunately, the KISS logo featured the Australian flag — as in the “land down under,” not the European country where Vienna is the capital.
At left, a video still shows the KISS logo with an Australian flag design at a June 26, 2022, concert in Vienna, Austria. At right is the actual Austrian flag.
Images of the gaffe went viral online around the world, inspiring a series of jokes and references to other pop culture gaffes, like when Jim Carrey speaks with an Australian accent to impress an Austrian woman in “Dumb and Dumber.”
“Austria? Well, then. G’day, mate. Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie,” Carrey said as Lloyd Christmas in the 1994 movie.
“Let’s not,” she replies in an Austrian accent.
According to Variety, the band has not commented on the blunder, but this isn’t the first geography-related mistake KISS has made. The band misspelled “Cincinnati” on tour merchandise at an Aug. 29 concert last year at the Riverbend Music Center in Ohio, adding an extra “T” to make it “Cincinnatti.”
KISS us currently on its lengthy “End of the Road” farewell tour, expected to conclude later this year in North America. In 2019, Gene Simmons took the stage at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse with Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, playing hits like “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “Shout it Out Loud,” and “I Was Made for Loving You.”
The band, known for its elaborate costumes, makeup and theatrical performances, has sold more than 100 million records since its debut in 1974.
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