KISS Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History, will be released on Tuesday, October 1 but KISS Asylum has arranged to bring you five exclusive "sneak peeks " inside the book. Here's the third preview. Advance copies of the book can be ordered at www.kissaliveforever.com.


From Chapter 26 The Farewell Tour

May 19, 2000
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Marcus Amphitheatre
Opening Acts: Ted Nugent, Skid Row
Attendance: 17,172 Capacity: 22,828
Promoter: SFX Music Group

Set List:
Detroit Rock City
Deuce
Shout It Out Loud
I Love It Loud
Shock Me
Firehouse
Do You Love Me
Calling Dr. Love
Heaven's On Fire
Let Me Go, Rock 'n Roll
2,000 Man
Ace Frehley Guitar Solo
Psycho Circus
Lick It Up
Gene Simmons Bass Solo
God of Thunder
Cold Gin
100,000 Years
Peter Criss Drum Solo - reprise
Love Gun
I Still Love You*
Black Diamond
Beth
Rock and Roll All Nite

Bob Brigham of Nocturne Productions: "We were experiencing power problems at the venue. During KISS's show, the video screen was turning on and off. We're back there trying to get it running, but everything we tried wasn't working because we were getting power spikes from the building. There was a processor on the LED screen with a surge protector so that when you have a drop-off of power, it clips and shuts itself off. When it feels power return, it turns back on, the end result is that the screen flickers and turns off. After the show, Doc goes nuclear; he fires me and fires Nocturne. I told him that there was always a logical answer to everything. He told me that he was docking us $115,000 for this and fuck you and so on. It turned out that it was just a bad power source in Milwaukee.

"What made the Milwaukee show more interesting was that because Milwaukee is so close, Gene was driven up from Chicago in a Town Car. I was privileged to drive up with Gene. After the mishap, I had to drive back from Milwaukee in the car with Gene, a guest of his, and the tour driver Paco Zimmer. Now, they are waiting in a Town Car for 25 minutes for me to get out of a meeting with Doc. I get in the car, and he says, 'Mr. Brigham, I'm going to make a statement. Then, you're going to respond to my statement. I'll go first. Tonight, it was 50 degrees. I froze my ass off out there. 20,000 fans did not get to see us do our show. I realize that all the cool stuff I did, no one responded to it. Do you know why, Mr. Brigham?' I said, 'Yes, Gene, because nobody saw it.' 'Yes, that's the correct answer. Nobody saw all my cool shit, thus they didn't go nuts. What do you have to say?' 'Well, we still don't have answers as to what went wrong.

"As we were driving back down I-94 to Chicago, Gene got the munchies. We stopped at this little gas station and I started talking to this rough and tumble truck-driver type guy with a KISS hat on. I said, 'Did you go to the show tonight?' He said, 'Oh yeah. That's my 29th KISS show.' I asked him, 'What did you think of the show?' He said, 'I've never seen the band better. That's the best KISS show I've ever seen.' 'Really? Would you do me a favor? I'm traveling with a friend of mine and he's kind of having a bad night, would you go over and tell him how much you liked it?' So, he walks over and he goes, 'Hey bud, we're you at the show tonight?' Gene says, 'Yes, I was there. You might say that.' 'Well, that's the best KISS show that I've ever seen in my life. I loved it.' Gene: "Really? You really enjoyed it?' The guy began stuttering: 'Wait a minute!' Gene ended up signing 10 autographs for him and his family.

Another casualty of mechanical malfunction was Paul's flying rig, which did not work at this gig.

From KISS ALIVE FOREVER: THE COMPLETE TOURING HISTORY by Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs. (c) 2002 by Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs. Published by Billboard Books, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications, New York. Photo (c) 2000 by Greg Dean.