From: Chris Stompanato

I just got back from the first night of the PC tour at the sold out FleetCenter in Boston. Here are the highlights:

-The "circus" was nowhere to be found. I don't know if KISS has ditched this idea or what.

-The merchandise. Those that are fed up with this aspect of KISS will cringe, while those that love it will, well, love it. Tons of new stuff, most of it with a PC theme. Even KISS yo-yos made of two silver coins for $70 a pop! Conspicuous by its absence was the PC cd itself. I'm not sure why they wouldn't sell this at the merchandise stands.

Some Dodger Stadium stuff was on sale. Great shirts.

-I found the 3-D stuff to be very entertaining. Unless I'm mistaken, wasn't some of the 3-D footage supposed to be shot live with a special camera? Either I missed it or it didn't happen. Still, the pre-shot stuff was pretty cool. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it.

KISS collectors: The 3-D glasses really aren't collectibles. They were plain without the logo.

-The effects during the show were great and pretty much went off without a hitch. I enjoyed Peter's new drum riser. Ace also used a new light-up guitar for RARAN and set off a pinwheel firework attached to the guitar neck during his solo. Everything else was pretty much KISS standards. No risers for Gene, Paul, and Ace.

-One nice musical surprise. They dug out "Makin' Love" and it sounded great. Peter's drums on this song were right on, in fact, I really understand what everyone's saying about Peter's improvement. I think he's really turning it up a notch. Unfortunately, no "Nothin' To Lose." I also believe the order of songs was moved around a bit with "Deuce" showing up third.

Ace was great and Paul was in fine form. Gene, Gene, Gene. You have to forget about "Within" live. The problem is, it just doesn't sound like it does on the cd. They better start practicing YWTB or add "I Pledge..." That would work well live. PC is a great show opener and "Into The Void" sounded great and went over well.

-Funny moment. Gene forgets to sing the first verse of "Cold Gin." Ace covered up nicely, Paul was cracking up, and you could see Gene was pissed. He knew he screwed up.

-The stage itself is very stripped down, even more so than the Reunion Tour stage. In a way, it reminded me a bit of the Dynasty stage. Two KISS logos were present on either side of the giant screen. I actually think the entire stage is somewhat smaller than the last tour. Some people may be disappointed with the stage, but between the band and the screens, there's plenty to look at.

There's no question this show is pretty much the Reunion Tour show with a few new wrinkles. I still really can't complain because I had such a good time. All I'd suggest is replacing "Within" with a different song from PC, play a bit more from PC, and dig out a little more obscure stuff to replace some of the classics.

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