On Saturday night, I did something that would have been unthinkable during the 1970s. I took my 13-year-old daughter backstage after the KISS concert... and I left her there for three hours.

Before you react and think I'm a horrible parent, relax. Gene Simmons had already left the building.

This weekend marked milestones in my sons' young lives -- and in the life of any KISS fan. The boys attended their first KISS concerts. Now, the uninitiated might question whether taking children to a loud, pyrotechnic-filled spectacle is a good idea at all. But when you're a die-hard, devoted fan of the hottest band in the land, and also a parent, it's only natural to reach a point where you'll want to introduce your children to KISS.

At ages two and four, my boys are well aware of their mother's passion for KISS. They've never known a world in which KISS did not exist. And, for our children, KISS is everywhere -- KISS songs rock our car when I'm driving to them to play group each week. KISS magnets hold their artwork up on our refrigerator. KISS's makeup faces are floating on rubber ducks when they take their baths. KISS is emblazoned on their clothes, posted on their bedroom walls, and carried in their hearts.

Ever since the beginning of the tour, as Mom and Dad have jaunted off to various cities throughout the Alive 35 tour, our boys have asked when they could attend their first KISS concert. With two back-to-back Midwest KISS shows over the past weekend, it seemed the perfect time to fully initiate them into KISS World.

KISS roared into Chicago on Friday and continued rocking Minneapolis the next night. And with two Midwest shows back-to-back, you can bet I wasn't about to miss either of them!

Chicagoland is home to me, so anytime the boys in makeup return to our area, you can find me there. I was very excited to learn earlier in the week that KISS was dangerously close to selling out the United Center, the largest venue they've ever played in Chicago.

After leaving the house around 3:30pm, we arrived at the United Center just before 6pm. Yes, you read that right... traffic was just that bad. So bad, in fact, that the band missed their own soundcheck trying to get from their hotel in the Loop to the United Center.

Is there anything more exhilarating than the in-and-out KISS show?

Die-hard KISS fans have long been familiar with the in-and-out... it's when we decide, impulsively, to go to a KISS concert (typically nowhere near where we live,) make arrangements to arrive just before the concert begins, enjoy the concert -- and then return home right afterward.

When I was younger, single, and untied to Mom duties, I loved the sheer bliss of jaunting off to another state, seeing my favorite band, and being back home in time to go to work the next day. Yes, it's a little crazy, but being a lifelong KISS fan already warrants a certain level of craziness.

Halloween is tomorrow, and what goes better together than Halloween and KISS? Earlier this week, our 3 children picked out their Halloween pumpkins and decided what kinds of faces to carve this year.

And, no surprise... they were KISS faces.

(And no, this wasn't the first time we've done this, either...)

Kids tend to embrace KISS because KISS represents a kind of continual Halloween state anyway, with their trademark facepaint and superhero, larger-than-life personas. After cleaning the "yucky stuff" out of the pumpkins, I asked our 2-year-old whose face he'd like me to carve on his.

"Paww Stanwey."

At some point, if you're a die-hard KISS fan, you've worn the facepaint of at least one of your heroes. And, with Halloween approaching, it's only natural that we should discuss the finer points of dressing for success... in greasepaint.

For me, it was always Paul. That star... those blood-red lips... I couldn't dream of dressing as anyone else.

As I write this, KISS currently has the #1 rock album in the country. "Sonic Boom" is the highest-debuting KISS album in the band's career... and judging from the current charts it seems that we die-hards aren't the only ones with KISS fever. The album is also at the tops of the charts around the world! It's a very good time to be a fan of the hottest band in the land.

As it's been so many years since the last KISS studio album was released, our circle of friends in our "KISS family" were all a little crazy when Sonic Boom came out. As fans, we of course want to buy our albums the very first week to bump those sales numbers up. And, the album is priced so low - $12 for a 3-disc set!

(Before I even begin this entry, I would like to clarify that this was the first, and only time in my life that I've ever thrown underwear at a band. Second... they were not even my underwear... read on.)

I saw a lot of shows on KISS's Farewell Tour (fearing that it actually was going to be the last tour, I was like a junkie getting her last big music fix.) When the tour swung back into Chicagoland yet again on September 30th of that year, my friend and I once again had seats in the front row, smack in the center of the stage.

We were very excited about the show, of course, and in the days approaching the concert, my friend asked me a somewhat off-the-wall question -- had I ever thrown underwear on stage at a concert?

Having spent most of my life as a devoted KISS fan, I've long dealt with people who don't quite understand the KISS Army's passion for this band. And that's okay, of course --  not everyone wants, enjoys, or loves the same things in life.

But after spending many years in my youth with my family "tolerating" (if not understanding) my KISS problem, there came a time when I reached a point where I wanted to try to get my family to understand, at least somewhat, what I see and feel as a KISS fan. One of my longtime friends had taken his (elderly!) parents to a show during the Reunion tour so that they could experience the band live, which got me thinking about doing the same...

So, in the spring of 2000, right around Mother's Day, KISS was in the midst of their Farewell Tour (which, thankfully, wasn't really a farewell tour, as they're still touring today.) I never miss a KISS show when they're playing here at home in Chicago, and the band played back-to-back nights at the Rosemont Horizon on May 11th and 12th.

The first night, a friend and I went to see the mighty KISS. The second night? I took my mom to her first big rock show.