Issue #3:
1974 San Francisco Hotter Than Hell Pro Shot

This month my purpose is to expose the mystical 1974 Hotter Than Hell show from San Francisco. Unfortunately there isn't much to write about being that it is a short video, 60 mins long, and most of the songs are the same classic KISS staples in every makeup show. This review will be short also having to do with the fact I've been working a ton of hours at my job and barely had the time to write this, so please forgive me. Next month will make up for this month's review!!!

3 Facts for this video
1.Besides the rehearsal tape from 1976 this is the only known footage of KISS that is filmed in black & white.
2.This is the only full show from the 1973/74 era
3.This is also the only show featuring the original band that was done in a club/theater

February Poll Results

Favorite Song From '76 Detroit Video
Rank	Song	Votes
1.	Let Me Go Rock & Roll	16
2.	100,000 Years/Parasite	8
4.	Deuce	7
5.	Black Diamond	6
6.	Cold Gin/Ladies In Waiting	5
8.	Rock & Roll All Nite/C'mone & Love Me/Strutter	4
11.	Nothin to Lose	3
12.	Hotter Than Hell/She	2
14.	Firehouse	1

Member Who Gave The Best Performance
Rank	Member	Votes
1.	Ace	23 (using a tad bit of Space gas he barely coasted into this slot)
2.	Peter	21 (missed by a whisker)
3.	Paul	19 (if he'd pranced a bit more he might've taken it two months in a row)
4.	Gene	14 (the bat lies dormite this month)

Song You Would've Liked To Seen Played Live
Rank	Song	Votes
1.	Love Her All I Can	21
2.	Room Service	19
3.	Rock Bottom	17
4.	Two Timer	7
5.	Getaway/Anything For My Baby	5

The Show

The date, November 26, 1974. The place, Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco. An unsuspecting crowd was about to be KISSed like never before. A new band was on the rise. 4 strangely attired lads with leather studs & face paint. Armed with 2 LP's under their belt, they played cuts from both lp's which now we all know as classics: Deuce, Strutter, & Old Man Wise ha ha caught ya!! I had to get a plug in for UNION!!!!! Anyway, they were utilizing an image - which to quote Gene a bit, "We went for black & white" - and it worked. This video is almost ominous looking, seeing them in black in white is very powerful. I wish I had more info like the size of the theater or the attendance of the show. I think it would be interesting to see what they were drawing at that time before they hit it big. I also noticed the infamous candelabra again. A funny thing I noticed is that it seems they showed the candelabra more than Ace & Peter were shown. I guess to the cameraman the candelabra was more exciting to watch. Wow that's rough. Wax dripping off a candle is more entertaining than Ace & Peter.

Now on to their costumes. They were pretty basic. Gene in leather with a skull and cross bone insignia on his back. I noticed he got rid of the horns on his shoulders, which have been documented in many photos in many magazines, due to Gene poking himself in the eye with them. Ace's costume is the funniest to me. It looks like he robbed the local Toys R Us of all its View Masters for his costume. Paul being a "chubbette" at the time his costume consisted of spandex and a corset or a girdle, use your judgment and decide for yourself. Peter's costume is hard to make out due to the drum set concealing him, but obviously he wore spandex pants and no shirt or top that I saw. So now that I've broken down the costumes, without further ado the breakdown of each song on this video!

A Woody Allen look a like introduces KISS with the lamest intro I've ever heard for KISS in my life: "Ladies and gentleman, a big San Francisco welcome for our special guest tonight, KISS." Huh? Well gee whiz let me take a valium and wake me when it's over. I'd be really psyched to see a band after that intro. Not!!!

Deuce - This opener is played a tad bit faster than the LP speed, but not much, keeping its groove & emotion intact. This is a great opener, but I preferred the set list from 90 & 92 were it was played 2nd! The crowd has more of a chance to get going by they time they played it in the 90's set list. I feel in the 70's it's wasted as an opener. But that's just my opinion.

Strutter - A great performance given here as well. This is the first time where we see the Starchild in a full body profile from the left. One thing I noticed was how fresh his rose tattoo looked, so it's my guess he had just had Lyle Tuttle do it for him recently around the time of the show.

Got To Choose - This is the only video I've seen this on with the early line up. The funny thing is Paul pulls away from the mic while introing the song making it sound like the song is called "You Got To Chew". Peter misses a beat during the second verse while fixing his mic for the back ups, but stays in time. Nonetheless, I guess they didn't have a drum roadie to help Peter out with swinging the mic back and forth so he could sing. Boy! Times were rough! This song rocks in every sense of the word and I'd hope this would be included in the new set list for the Psycho Circus tour.

Hotter Than Hell - This is played at a slow pace, but doesn't drag like the studio version. Good thing KISS sped up the tempo on some songs live or else the crowd might have fallen asleep. Nothing against this song.

Firehouse - Pretty much the standard live version, nothing special to talk about. Except, the fire breathing segment is kind of lost due to sloppy camera work. Too many angles at once trying to get the shot and they ended up missing the shot.

Watchin You - Ok, I'm biased here. This is my favorite Gene song period!!! This version is so amazing from beginning to end. The groove is never ending and, unlike like the Reunion Tour, Gene can hit the high note during the second verse here "And I'm trying baby, trying not to stare ahhhhh!" = high note =D.God I love that part!!! Gene's makeup looks undone around the eyes making him look very evil was that a plan or was
A. he too lazy too fill in his eyes
or
B.couldn't afford the extra smidgen of make up to fill in his eyes.
By this time Gene's lipstick is also all over his face.There's more on his cheek and side of his mouth then on his lips. Anyway, Ace's solo is also tacked onto the end of the song! Very basic, with some of the classic licks he's been doing for the last 25 years with a ton of finger tapping and hammer ons.

Nothin To Lose - Great version here, with the bass & drums playing together before the song starts. This gives Paul time to play with the crowd and get them into the song. Also, like I stated last month, this song is always a treat due to the fact that Peter never sings the same line during the chorus & this version is no different.

Parasite - There is only word to describe this song: steamroller!!! It takes you and gives you no mercy, from the opening riff to Peter's drum breakdown and catchy chorus. It's very interesting to watch Ace during this song being that he wrote it: it looks like he came to life during this one, and during Cold Gin. It's almost like he's saying to himself, "Hey, they're playin my song!" and it gives him motivation to move around more than he usually does.

100,000 Years - Another stellar version of this timeless classic, with yet another long Peter Criss drum solo. The camera guy does some strange things during Paul's rap such as he shoots Paul's butt a few times okie dokie there big guy & during the drum solo he zooms in & out, but in a stuttering motion. It's hard to explain to those who haven't seen this but I'll try. The camera zooms in a bit, then a bit more, than some more, but in a fast manner. Boy I hope I didn't confuse anyone with that and that it somewhat makes sense to you all.

Black Diamond - A great vocal showing by the Cat. On this number I must admit it is very funny watching early footage of KISS that contains Black Diamond and watching Peter's riser go up. It barely goes up 6 feet and is shaking, but probably not as much as Peter was as this was happening! But, it was a move way ahead of its time. This time only 5 booms.... guess they couldn't afford much pyro. Well, they were just starting out so I forgive them.

Cold Gin - This song has a few cool points, 1st one is Paul's rap. It goes as follows: "we had a party the other night and we finished up 2 fifths of bourbon, a 1/2 a qt of vodka, but we couldn't steer clear of 6 bottles of cold gin." Wow! All this coming from a guy who got drunk at the photo shoot for the Hotter Than Hell album cover from a couple of glasses of wine (it's just an assumption not a fact by the way about what he drank). To me it sounds more like an Ace & Peter party knowing of their reputation for drinking & partying. The other point, like I stated before, is that Ace comes alive and kicks his leg - yes boys & girls, men & women, children of all ages - Ace Frehley lifted his leg and actually kicked with Gene & Paul, wow! It's alive it's alive!!

Let Me Go Rock & Roll - A cool version here, but one problem is that the song cuts out due to the footage being so messed up that this is all they could salvage. My hat's off to the man who cleaned up the footage because I saw the original version of this show and seeing that compared to this one is one hell of a difference. For the record, I know and some of you know who cleaned the footage up, but discretion being the better part of me I won't give his name here out of respect for this person.

Video Rating
On a scale of 1-10 I give this one a 9 just on the fact that it's so evil & gothic looking and it's Black & white. The quality is very good considering what the tape originally looked like and the performance is awesome.

Well, that concludes this month's issue of Video Spotlight. Til next month's review, see ya!!!

Just a suggestion: as part of the UNION Work Force it is my pleasure to say the UNION CD is out and it rocks! I highly recommend it and I will be writing a review of it for The UNION Asylum.

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