From: GenesPig@aol.com

This review is by Mary Kunz with her permission from the Buffalo News --Local Buffalo Paper.

KISS, With 3-D video, is still rockin' right

If KISS in person is formidable, Imagine KISS in 3-D on a gigantic vide screen. There was Ace Frehley, red lips pursed in his grotesque, white-painted face, thrusting a guitar forward, jabbing its neck into our faces. And Paul Stanley, shirtless and sweaty, Waving his hands in front of his face in a hypnotic peekaboo, then reaching straight toward us, wiggling his thin fingers with their painted nails. Finally, there's Gene Simmons' tongue, arguably the most exercised organ in the history of mankind, slithering, extending and undulating. It's hundred times life-size. It's inches from your face!

That's when it's time to take off those little plastic glasses. Even without them, the band's show Sunday was still quite a spectacle. The guys known as KISS, who in the last few years have been enjoying a triumphant comeback (last night they were in Rochester, and last week they played a sold-out show n New York's Madison Square Garden) didn't get to be where they are by way of any sort of subtlety. In the pyrotechnics department, where they've always excelled, the musicians are under constant pressure to outdo themselves. The band's smartly choreographed show Sunday in Marine Midland Arena, complete with their new 3-D effects, included all manner of fire and flash. Thanks to wires and pulleys, ghoulish Smmons, during "God of Thunder," was able to perch high over the people in the front rows, drooling fake blood on thei lucky little heads. Once, as Frehley played his guitar, it burst into flames, giving the phrase "smoking solo" a whole new meaing. And before pounding out "Love Gun," Stanley floated to the center of the arena on a trapeze. "It's not much," he said of his flying machine, "but it gets me where I want to go."

Fire was never far away. As the "Love Gun" military beat throbbed, greem and yellow blowtorches shot from below stage. Even a good distance from the stage , We felt a flash of heat. (Heaven knows what it felt like to the band). There were clouds of orange smoke, red fire engine lights and motor-like growls that suggested hook-and-ladders. In short, the show lived up to the title of the band's latest album, "Psycho Circus."

The evening began with the title track, and swung without much ado into "Shout It Out Loud." Sheets of sound boomed through the arena, vibrating the seats. How did they get that sheer volume? It seemed impossible, especially given the cavalier attention the musicians were paying to their acutal instruments. Simmons may be looking a little haagard beneath the face paint---- but he's active as ever, strutting like a cat in his thigh-high silver boots, wiggling that tongue, sometimes slobbering fake blood. He swallowed fire, and his guitar turned on a few occasions into a giant sparkler.

Interestingly, though, for most of the evening he seemed to be content to drool in the background, allowing gregarious, gyrating Stanley to carry the show. Stanley, with his outrageous scampering and preening and shrill, strained voice, is a natural crowd-pleaser.

His showmanship appealed to the junior-high rocker in all of us. He does simple old rock 'n' roll things: gets the crowd clapping, shouts for us to scream, "It's hot in here." he said once "Do you mind if I take my shirt off?"

On we went through "Do You Love Me?," "King of the Nite Time World," "Dr. Love" and other gems of the KISS songbook. The 3-D effects contiued on the video screen, and occasionally the cameras were trained on the audience (giving at least one wag in the crowd a chance to imitate, publicly, Simmons' tongue derring-do).

Good feelings peaked in "Rovk and Roll All Night," when a blizzard of confetti billed forth. It was---dare I say?---very pretty. And, just as he did two years ago when the band played one of the first shows at the Marine Midland Arena, Stanley wound up "Rock and Roll All Night" by smashing his guitar against the ground. With each whack, fireworks spat from the stage. Whack! Pink. Whack! Sliver. Whack! Red and Gold.

Until the calm encore---"Beth," sung by drummer Peter Criss---scarcely anyone stopped to take a breath. It was all good fun. And, pyrotechnics aside, uncomplicated fun. "This song says everything we've ever stood for," Stanley screamed, introducing "Rock and Roll All Night." "It's really very simple."

KISS: It was sparks, fireworks and confetti as veteran rock band held forth for fans.

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