 Fractured
Mirror was born from my meeting with drummer Preston
Nash in 1992. My friend Mike Moscato invited me to an
'Open Mic' jam that he was going to, and he was meeting
up with this new drummer. Well they played a few songs
and one of them was Strutter. I was hearing Preston
play the song exactly like the record and I was quite
impressed. After they played, we all went back to my
place as Preston wanted to see some of my Ace collection.
We were checking out my things and talking, when we
joked with the idea of some sort of Kiss tribute band.
Well, Preston suggested that since there were already
a few around, maybe we could do something different.
Since I was a friend of Ace's, and I was already jamming
with some friends in New York with a black Les Paul
Custom, why don't we try an ACE FREHLEY TRIBUTE? I could
pull off a similar look, hell, I had some of his 'Comet'
stage clothes, and we would concentrate on playing Ace
written Kiss material. The band was born when Preston
suggested his friend Mike Breeden play guitar and my
friend Mike play bass. We originally called ourselves
'Trouble Walkin' at the first Open Mic we played at,
but the next time decided on 'Fractured Mirror' as we
thought is was more appropriate.
We started playing in a few local clubs, and then my
good friend Richie Ranno asked us to open for 'Strutter'
at the
1993 Kiss Convention. Shortly after that, Mike Breeden
left and Mike Moscato moved to guitar, and Rex Eisen
joined on bass. The following year, Mike left and T.R.
Gwynne joined on guitar, and the lineup stayed the same
until we played our last gig in 1998, back where we
started at the Kiss Expo. I had given Ace some videotapes
of these shows, and he would call me up while he was
watching them and giving me compliments on the band.
"If I squint my eyes it looks like me" he
said. One time my answering machine got one of his comments
after he watched a tape of the band. It was one of the
best compliments anyone that does a tribute could ever
receive......right from the person you are imitating.
We are even in an awesome film called 'Kiss Loves You'
filmed by Jim Heneghan. It shows us at the 1996 Kiss
Expo performing our original song, "Put It Back
On" as well as 'Shock Me'.
The band was a lot of fun and we got written up in several
Kiss fanzines as well as Ace's 'Rock Soldiers' fan club
magazine. We eventually called it quits because Preston
and Rex had another band that was signed, and honestly,
I just didn't want to pay tribute to Ace anymore after
not speaking with him for a few years. My musical tastes
were changing. Check out the photos and videos of us
through the years.
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