Everything was going so well for KISS this weekend. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and co. put on a great show for almost 10,000 fans at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle, another happy stop on their huge world tour.
Then they flashed up an Australian flag instead of an Austrian flag on the arena’s big screens and social media had a field day with the awkward faux pas. “KISS loves you Vienna” flashed on the screen, with the word “KISS” covered in the Aussie colours.
No one from the band has yet commented on the incident, but fans on Twitter definitely did. “Americans and geography!” bemoaned someone. “The Commonwealth of Austria,” joked another.
Someone else got very technical: “Kiss’s farewell to Austria last night, illustrating the modern technological rules of: 1/. Don’t let the intern roadie near the graphics projector…2/. Always check the autofill on the drop down menu.”
And it seems like the two country’s getting mixed up is nothing new. “When I was a kid my dad had a T-shirt that said ‘There are no kangaroos in Austria’ and the number of people who would stop to correct him,” recalled a Twitter user.
“I had that same T-shirt and the same experience when travelling through Europe. Austrians usually got the joke immediately (even though “Austria” is spelt very differently in German), but people from other countries would stop me,” added another.
The flag mixup occurred on the European lag of the band’s ‘The End of the Road’ World Tour. They’re set to play on Tuesday, June 28th in Stuttgart, Germany. Which flag will they mistake for Germany’s? Poland? England?
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KISS will reach Australia on their tour this August, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if they got in on the joke by displaying an Austrian flag?
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Kiss played in Austria last night 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/XAvaXfRGqh
— Ben Nguyen (@BenNguyenTV) June 27, 2022
KISS played in Austria, not Australia! @mitchlafon @JeremyWhiteMTL pic.twitter.com/bdL267kYXg
— Kevin Ganley 力 (@Ganley5150) June 27, 2022
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