From: Chris Flora

WOW! As a Kiss fanatic since the early days, this was by far the most intense concert the boyz have dished out in the 20 some odd shows I have seen them.

Our seats were center ice, first row, Genes' side. I'll be in Toronto Dec 2, 5th row floors, center. Then Dec 3 (Thursday) I am one of the lucky 300 who will be filming 'Detroit Rock City" with them in Hamilton.

Positives:

1) Sound was great. Pyros were awesome, I don't know if it had something to do with New Line Cinema being there filming, but it seemed like they have tripled the pyro over '97. The columns of flames were even in several colors. More gadgets and gimmicks too.

2) Was that Peter playing? This guy still has his chops, I'll bet Ringo and Watts couldn/t touch him at that age.

3) Gene and Paul were at the top of their game. Psycho Circus was good, so was Cold Gin, Detroit Rock City and Deuce.

Negatives:

I guess we have been pretty spoiled over the years and I couldn't help but notice a few things that I would have liked to see or not see:

1) Both Into The Void and Within had weak choruses. Into The Void especially. Ace as good as he is had a hard time concentrating on playing and singing all night, often getting late to the mike. Within needs to tone down the guitars so we can hear Gene sing.

2) I am a big Ace fan and continue to be dissapointed that he is not singing much. Where was New York Groove? (Duh! Buffalo, NEW YORK) How about 2,000 Man, Rocket Ride?

3) Fan turnout was poor, about half full in a 20,000 seater. I felt it was pretty heavily promoted and there was no football game in town either. We picked up our tickets at cost from a scalper.

4) That cheap see-through curtain entrance has really lost some of it's drama. Whatever happened to the rising up from below the stage circa Dynasty? I am sure everyone will admit that the most exciting moment is the anticipation of THE moment, kinda like sex. C'mon guys can the curtain and bring back the hydraulics.

5) I think that 95% of the fans on this tour saw the last one, and judging from the attendance, Kiss is not gaining huge numbers of new converts. So how about throwing in some later tunes. I would love to see Lick It Up, War Machine, I Love It Loud, Unholy, Heavens On Fire, etc. and dumping King of the Nightime World, Do You Love Me and the horrid Beth.

All in all, a fantastic show, with ahigh energy level throughout. I'll send you my review of both the Toronto show and filming Detroit Rock City the next day.

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