From: KISS Kollector Online, by Robert Hofman

KISS in Cologne, March 8, 1999

On March 8, the KISS Kollector crew travelled from Holland to Germany to attend two shows. Our first destination was Cologne (Köln), where we arrived in the afternoon and visited the KISS Expo at Die Kantine, located in a somewhat backward area. The Expo was smaller than last time, and there were not that many dealers. The merchandise was very interesting however, and included the new Eric Carr Rockheads mini CD. Bruce Kulick was present as the specialguest. He did an Q&A session and signed autographs afterwards. There were plenty of people, but the Expo was not really crowded.

The Köln Arena is a beautiful new building, which looks very futuristic. It is round and the outside is covered with glas. Although smaller, it somewhat reminded me of Madison Square Garden in New York City. During the show Paul mentioned that this was the biggest arena they would play on the European tour. To our surprise there was a separate area in front of the stage, surrounded by fences. Those fortunate enough to get in early, received a wrist band and were sure they could watch the show up front. This made the show highly enjoyable, because there was a lot more space then usual and no people pushing each other at all. Opinions on European opening act Buck Cherry seem to differ a lot, but I thought it was a good band, putting on a very decent performance. Definitely a lot better than the opening acts on the Alive/Worldwide 1996-1997 Tour. The band plays a punky kind of hard rock, in the tradition of bands like Guns N' Roses and L.A. Guns. The first song sounded very much like The Cult. Buck Cherry played for half an hour and finished their set at 20:30.

The KISS road crew seemed to have everything very well organized this time, the preparation of the stage was done very quickly. They only had to take away Buck Cherry's gear, clean the stage and put up the huge Psycho Circus curtains. There was no last-minute soundcheck or anything like that, KISS could have taken the stage 15 minutes early. Around nine the house lights went down and the crowd went crazy. Spotlights started moving around and the intro tape could be heard. When the band kicked off Psycho Circus the stage lights came up and Gene, Paul and Ace could be seen clearly through the red curtain. The new red stage curtain let's more light shine through than the old black one and looks a lot better as well. When Paul sang quot;Yeah!", the curtains came down. There was hardly any smoke on stage this time, unlike the last tour, when they opened with Deuce. The second song was Shout It Out Loud, followed by Deuce, which even after 25 years remains one of the musical highlights of the show.

At this point Paul asked us to put our 3-D glasses on and started pointing his finger at the 3-D camera several times. I could be wrong, put it is my impression he does this to give 'the 3-D people' (as Paul called them) some time to get the focus right. For a few moments the giant video creen showed two overlapping images (even with 3-D glasses), but this was soon corrected. Do You Love Me was up next. The 3-D effects at the beginning of this song are among the best in the show. Especially the big red heart and Paul's guitar pick and signature coming at you, are very cool. They are right in your face. It probably helped that we were close to the stage and in the middle. From what I hear, the 3-D is not that effective if you are located in the back of the arena or on the side. Ever since they started playing it on the last tour, Do You Love Me has been one of my live favorites.

Up next was Firehouse, a song that always goes down well. Gene's fire breathing at the end was as cool as ever. This tour the fire breathing is repeated on the big videoscreen, but unfortunately they use pre-recorded footage for this. Only after Firehouse we were requested to take our 3-D glasses off. In my opnion, this is bad timing, because 90 percent of the audience now sees Gene breath fire through 3-D glasses. I prefer to see it in *real* 3-D. After this, Paul asks Ace to introduce the next song. He does so and the band rips into Shock Me. Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll is becoming stronger and stronger every time I hear it in concert. They band is always tight when playing this song and there is a lot of interaction with the audience. Surely one of the best songs in show, which makes you onder why didn't play this in concert for almost 20 years. It's always nice to hear Calling Dr. Love, but I wouldn't mind if they dropped this song and played something that they didn't play on the last tour instead.

When Gene was finished growling how bad a doctor he is, we were asked to put our 3-D glasses on for the second time. Paul then handed the microphone over to Ace Frehley once more, who introduced his new song from from the Psycho Circus album with the words: "Let's take a trip... Into The Void!" At the end of the song the rest of the band left the stage and Ace started his guitar solo. At this point I felt the 3-D images on the video screen worked really well. It's safe to say that a large part of the audience that doesn't care much for a guitar solo, but the beautiful 3-D footage in background made the experience enjoyable for everyone. Ace's solo was basically the same as on the last tour. What was really nice however, was his small tribute to Stanley Kubrick, who recently passed away. Among many other great movies, the legendary director, made the science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssee. This is an Ace Frehley favorite and from the soundtrack of that movie he played the theme of Also Sprach Zarathustra, a composition by Richard Strauss.

With the band back on stage and our 3-D glasses off, Paul asked us if we had an album called Destroyer. When the audience made clear they had, he asked if we knew what the first song is called. Of course, everybody started screaming ":Detroit Rock City!": He then said someting along the lines of ":...but we're not gonna play that song right now, this is the *second* song from Destroyer...": At that point Ace kicked off King Of The Night Time World. We got to hear a really nice rendition of this classic, but the bulk of the audience didn't seem to care much for this song. This was not at all true for the next Destroyer song: God Of Thunder, introduced by Gene, letting out the demon in him. His bloodspitting act was as great as usual, but the stage lighting was much better this time (compared to the last tour), so everything could be seen clearly on the video screen as well. Gene's orgasm (thinking about it, I realized that this almost is what it looks like) was preceeded by some very nice images of thunder in the sky, which looked really cool. When The Demon had let it all out, he flew to his little platform on top or the lighting rig. After the usual (but still very cool!) "Oh yeah?!"-thing with the audience, he started God Of Thunder, while the rest of the band joined him, ten meters below.

While the audience was putting their 3-D glasses on for the third time, the band immediately kicked in Within (the third amd last song from Psycho Circus that was played), without taking a break. Although most certainly still not an 'in concert' favorite, this new song sounded a lot stronger than during the opening show of the tour, at Dodger Stadium in L.A. last year. It seems it has grown on the band and may turn out not to be a bad choice for the setlist after all (many fans have critized the band for picking this song from the new album, instead of You Wanted The Best, for example). At the end of the song, the music stopped and Gene sang the line "I wanna see from within" a capella. Very cool indeed! Peter then started his drum solo, while the platform with his drumkit on it was lifted by four thick cables. Bright lights were shining over the audience. I found Peter's solo very enjoyable this time. Maybe it was the amazing drum riser (which didn't move forward in Cologne, like at other shows), maybe it was shorter, I'm not sure... but I liked it. Peter is definitely in better shape this tour, although he also takes less risks during the songs. He's doing less fills and breaks than on the Alive/Worldwide 1996-1997 Tour.

It has gotten somewhat better over the last 2½ years, but I Was Made For Lovin' You is still one of the weaker songs in the set. I know a lot of die-hard fans don't care much for it either, but the audience in Cologne was very enthousiastic. Well, it is KISS' biggest hit in Europe after all. After his rap about wanting to come down, Paul counted off Love Gun and then flew over the audience to a small platform in the middle of the arena. Unlike last tour, the little platform was now located *near* the soundboard, instead of on top of it. Why became obvious: because it is lower now, Paul can come down all the way to the floor. So he did what he said he wanted to do and the audience went crazy. Nothing needs to be said about Love Gun, this song must be one of the best live songs of all time! Another pretty good one is 100,000 Years and personally I'm really happy this song is still in the setlist. After a nice rendition of this 1975 classic, it was time for the grand finale. Rock And Roll All Nite is on way too many KISS (compilation) albums, but I guess it can never be played enough live. It rocked and ended the show with more confetti than ever.

After a few minutes Peter came back on stage, while the violins of Beth could already be heard. Peter's voice was in good shape as well, he sang beautifully, overlooking a sea of burning cigarette lighters. When the last strings faded, Gene, Paul and Ace joined him on stage to receive ovations from the audience. For the last time we had get our 3-D glasses out and the band started the fourth song from Destroyer, the all-time live favorite Detroit Rock City. Paul's musical introduction to Black Diamond was very cool. His guitar sounded awesome at this point: as much distortion as one can take. Black Diamond (sang by Peter, of course) ended the set and since there were no hydraulic lifts time time, Gene, Paul and Ace remained on stage. I thought it was very cool to see them do the classic Black Diamond 'threesome' (with Gene and Paul playing opposite of Ace) again, so I didn't miss the 'cherry pickers'. Peter's drums *did* go up in the air at the end of the song however, and in a sea of light the band ended the show. With our ears still ringing from all the explosions, the house lights came back on almost immediately. It thought this was horrible, especially since Peter was still on the way down on his drumriser. Fortunately I didn't see this happening again at other shows.

All-in-all the show was pretty amazing. The band was thight and most songs sounded great. The three new songs (Psycho Circus, Into The Void and Within) are still the weakest in the set, but especially Within shows some potential. The sound wasn't really fantastic tonight, but this was clearly due to the arena, not to the KISS sound people. This surprised me however, you would expect a brand new building like the Köln Arena to have better acoustics. The special effects were excellent, as far as I could tell, everything worked tonight. The new effect on the neck of Ace's guitar during Rock And Roll All Nite (first used during the SuperBowl performance) is absolutely something to keep. In my opinion the new lighting is not really special and weaker than the lighting on the Alive/Worldwide 1996-1997 Tour. I got the impression they have to compromise between the lighting and the quality of the images on the video screen. This may be due to the fact that they use a different kind of technique for the video this time. Instead of a screen that lights up itself (live on a TV set), they now use a beamer that projects the images from the soundboard (like in the cimema). But I'm not really an expert on this, so I'm just guessing.

To round up this review, let me say the new KISS tour is a must-see. Expecting basically the same as on the last tour (and a lot of things are the same of course), there were more changes and new things than I had anticipated. The order of the setlist is quite different and the stage looks very different as well. Not all for the better, but at least it's fresh. The 3-D stuff was better than expected (after reading negative things about it), but it really draws away your attention from the band itself. During this show I really enjoyed it, but during the second show it was already less interesting and by the time I saw my third show on this tour, I couldn't care less. So I guess we it's nice for one tour (and we have to give KISS credit for being so innovative!), but unless the technique really improves a lot, they shouldn't do it next time. Well, let's not get ahead of things and enjoy this tour first. Those of you that haven't seen the show yet, be warned... it's a Psycho Circus!

Setlist:
Psycho Circus
Shout It Out Loud
Deuce
Do You Love Me? (3-D)
Firehouse (3-D)
Shock Me
Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll
Calling Dr. Love
Into The Void (3-D)
King Of The Night Time World
God Of Thunder
Within (3-D)
I Was Made For Lovin' You (3-D)
Love Gun
100,000 Years
Rock And Roll All Nite

Encores:
Beth
Detroit Rock City (3-D)
Black Diamond

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