VIDEO: KISS Cover Band Rocks Casper Neighborhood, Despite Being Dead
It could've
It could've killed me
It could've killed me
If were not for the rain
- KISS, 'Murder by Death'
The lights went down and the drums started beating. Then, the guitar riff came in. A spotlight shown on the members of the band: Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss. They're the epitome of rock and roll. They're the greatest band in the world. They. Are. Kiss.
And they're playing nightly shows in a Casper Neighborhood, just off 15th street. There's only one problem...
They're not actually, like, alive.
It's like they always say, "The couple that builds elaborate Halloween decorated houses together, stays together." Or something like that.
But it's a notion that Casper resident Corey Davison has applied to his own marriage, and it's proven to be true, year after year.
For the past several years, Davison and his wife have constructed incredible Halloween displays, covering a wide-array of subjects.
"We started with one skeleton and then it just kind of grew from there," Davison told K2 Radio News. "Each year we have to outdo the previous year. We always want to keep everything different each year, with a different theme. We've had cornhole, we've had WWE wrestling, football, climbing on the house, roasting marshmallows around a campfire, stuff like that."
Davison said that his wife is the bigger Halloween fan, but they both enjoy the process of coming up with the theme, and then putting it together.
"We kind of come up with schemes together," Davison stated. "While I'm building this one, I've already got next year's figured out."
Davison chose not to divulge next year's theme, but that's okay! This year has as much of our attention as we can give. And it's the result of weeks of planning, and days of building.
"You start in stages," Davison said. "I built the stage first. Then it's like, 'How can I implement it here?' I have that vision and then I can put it together. But it takes me anywhere from five to seven days to get it all positioned. And then it's like, a little tweak here, a little tweak there."
The detail and intricacy of each band member is incredible. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear you were looking at The Demon and The Star-Child themselves (especially lately). Each band member as their own instrument, their own face paint and, really, their own attitude.
And it's not just the band, either. There's even a crowd whose faces, and everything else, have most certainly been melted.
This is a labor of love every year for Davison and his wife, and it's something the rest of the neighborhood reaps the benefit of.
"It's been a really good response," he said. "It doesn't matter what time of day - someone's stopping to take a picture. Halloween is one of the favorite times of the year. So it's for the enjoyment of everybody and, as you can kind of tell around town, it's evolved more and more."
Davison didn't say whether he thought he was one of the original Halloween decorators or not, but he has certainly led by example and more and more houses in Casper are putting more more and more elaborate decorations.
But it's not just about buying the latest decorations from Spirit Halloween. In order to have a really good house, with really good decorations - decorations fit for the greatest band in the world - you have to have a lot of creativity as well.
Davison and his wife have that, and the response to their house every year is the proof of that.
Photos from the house can be seen below, as can a video of the performance. Due to copyright issues, the song has been edited out but if you want the full treatment, you can stop by the Davison house any time between now and the 'Grand Finale' on Halloween. Their house is located on 15th Street on the corner of Bonnie Brae and Oakcrest.