For the musicians of the rock band Turning the Tide, music is a full-time gig.

Turning Tide opens for the Gene Simmons Band, 8 p.m. May 8, Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem.

Turning the Tide works as a cover band, performing rock songs from the 1970s to the present, even doing a little country, in gigs from Key West, Fla., to the Jersey Shore, N.J., to the Lehigh Valley.

The Nazareth, Northampton County, based band has had positive responses to its originals from audiences and added the songs to its concerts.

“Things are gearing up. People will be getting more,” says lead vocalist and guitarist John Corsale.

Videos of the band’s original songs, “All I Want Is You” and “Alive,” are on the Turning the Tide’s YouTube channel. The group has recorded enough originals for an album.

The band began in its present form in July 2022.

“We’ve grown into crowds of a thousand, two thousand, and six thousand. We have a team of eight or nine people, including a sound person and stage hand, or even more if you include our video creator,” says Corsale during an interview in a Nazareth diner.

Turning the Tide has nearly 10,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram. “A band is a business with its own brand,” says Corsale. “You have to market yourself.”

Says lead vocalist Juules Wardle, “We jump on modernizing technology.” This includes the occasional use of prerecorded music in live shows. “Some songs might be recorded with up to a hundred tracks. We can’t afford to bring all those different instruments on the road with us,” Wardle says.

Wardle began singing with Erich Cawalla’s Uptown Band. She brings her experience in musical theater to Turning the Tide. “You can’t just stand there. You have to create a character up there,” she says.

Corsale looks at a concert in its entirety, not just doing one song after another:

“We have to grab people, and know when to let a show breathe and put our own pace to it. We play for the song. It’s not about showing off.”

Wardle and Corsale have played at Wind Creek’s Molten Lounge about 30 times, with the band and as a duo.

They have planned a special set to open for the Simmons Band:

“There is dialogue built into the set, linking the songs together. It will be an immersive experience,” says Corsale.

They expect an audience older than is usual for the group, with some people bringing parents who are Kiss fans.

Corsale was lead singer and guitarist for Fuel on its album “Anomaly.”

Turning the Tide bassist and singer Garret Watts has played in many bands, including Crystal Roxx.

Drummer Chad Szeliga has been with Breaking Benjamin, Black Label Society, and Scott Stapp of Creed.

“When we met Garret and Chad, we knew within fifteen minutes we would be playing music together,” says Wardle.

All four members of the band write music in a collaborative process, trading riffs back and forth.

Corsale says jokingly, “We’re going to be the next big thing in Nazareth after Mario Andretti and Martin Guitar.” He just might be right.

Gene Simmons co-founded the rock band Kiss with Paul Stanley in the 1970s. Kiss played at Allentown’s PPL Center in 2020 on its “End of the Road World Tour.”

The Gene Simmons Band will have him playing bass, as he did in Kiss, with two guitarists and a drummer. They are expected to play Kiss covers, especially the ones where Simmons did lead vocals, and a few songs by other bands.

Turning the Tide, opening for the Gene Simmons Band, 8 p.m. May 8, Wind Creek Event Center, 77 Sands Boulevard, Bethlehem. 610-297-7414, www.windcreekeventcenter.com