Nostalgia aside, the quartet who are stretching their spandex to the max delivered a kicking set Sunday at the Meadowlands that had the Kiss Army standing at attention and saluting every gimmick-laden song.

On their "Psycho Circus" tour (which also landed at Madison Square Garden last night), Kiss astutely made the connection between their brand of rock and the big top's gee-whiz style of entertainment. Between the band's superhero costumes, pyrotechnic pageantry and sheer freakiness of the concert, the event smacked of old-fashioned P.T. Barnum values.

At any circus, the key to success is the exotic - something you've never seen before, like a demented juggling elephant. At the "Psycho Circus," the Kiss boys delivered their music (from new tunes such as "Into the Void" to the classic crunch of "Rock & Roll All Nite") in 3-D.

Now, don't get me wrong: 3-D music events where everybody wears those funny glasses isn't going to revolutionize concertgoing, but as hokey as it may sound, ultimately it was a terrific effect at this show.

As you'd expect, the necks of the band members' guitars were thrust and poked at us to maximize the 3-D-ness, but where it was most effective was when the cameras projected well-focused, giant 3-D images of the band members as they played. The color was slightly muted, but the result was still excellent - akin to a 25-foot tall hologram image.

Regulars in the Kiss Army will be relieved to know that bassist Gene Simmons not only still gives the crowd a major tongue-lashing throughout the show (we were even treated to 3-D licks), he also erupted spewing mouthfuls of blood-like liquid and breathed a fireball into the rafters. His antics coaxed a female fan out of her bra, which he displayed first on his bass and later on his mike stand.

In essence, Simmons' armor-bodied demon persona is the fantasy job of most 8-year-old boys. The best songs of the evening's Kiss-tory lesson seemed usually to have Ace "Space Ace" Frehley manning the lead vocals.

Of all the characters in the band, Ace is the serious one - even a non-Kiss fan could tell that, since he was the only member of the band who chose not to be hoisted into the air by guy wires and dangled about the theater.

Frehley's rendition of "Into the Void" conjured the party-like abandon of that new song. He was also excellent on the band's classic "Cold Gin."

Peter Criss barked his love ballad "Beth" during the encore, to the delight of the many fans who came in couples and finally had the sappiest song in the Kiss catalog to hug to. In the past, Criss' drumming has been more energetic than the beats he put on display at the Meadowlands.

Paul Stanley (a.k.a. the Starchild) spent most of the concert shirtless, displaying his furry chest and shaved back as if he were a very butch hermaphrodite. With his effeminate curly do, red lipsticked lips and square jaw, he'd give a West Village veteran the heebie-jeebies.

In spite of his less-than-lumberjack looks and his occasional whining ("You bought the ticket - if you don't want to sing, that's your choice"), the man's upper-register vocals were good and his guitar work was very hot throughout the two-hour show.

The night was marred by bad fan behavior. At one point during intermission, there were as many as eight laser-penlight dots visible on the curtain, and during the encore set, there was a constant dot assault on the bandmates.

Stanley, infuriated, finally snapped when one of the lights possibly crossed his eye. He stopped the show briefly and threatened the unknown laser pointer on the other side of the arena with, "If you'd come on stage with that laser pen, I'll put it up your a--." Suddenly, the Starchild was the guy in the band not to be trifled with.

But most of the fans were well-behaved and were rewarded with plenty of eyeball candy, including an incredible end-of-show blizzard of confetti that stormed for a solid five minutes and formed paper drifts on the floor.

Musically, it was a very standard Kiss concert, which wandered from good to great - especially during "Detroit Rock City."

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