From: DDLynch

Living in the northern part of Minnesota there are not alot of bands that I would drive 3 1/2 hours to Minneapolis to see, except of course- The Greatest Show on Earth-KISS.

I met my buddy at the Target Center and immediately started to search for a scalper so we could "upgrade" our nosebleed seats a bit. After moving down about 30 rows and a little closer to the stage, we started to scope out the scene around the arena.

There were tons of fans that donned the make-up of their favorite band members ( mostly Gene and Ace ) roaming around. There was even some booths set up that air-brushed make-up on your face for 10 or 15 bucks. ( If you happen to read this before going to the show, and are thinking of getting painted up, wait. Get it done there. It looked great!) This Kiss tour had everything you would ever want to buy with a Kiss logo on it, for a price. They were selling everything! The shirts were all cool, but pricey. Bring your credit card if you plan on getting souvenirs for friends or whatnot.

Ok, after roaming around and a few $5.00 beers we found our seats right before the opening act "Econoline Crush" started their set. Opening for Kiss has to be one of the toughest gigs in the world, but I must say these guys did a admirable job. I didn't really know what to expect after reading some tour reviews before the show, and I still don't know how to describe them. They were pretty heavy, and the singer had a pretty good voice. They weren't getting much of a pop from the crowd, so the singer tried to get them going by saying he liked Minnesota because "You elected Jesse the Mind, and the Minnesota Vikings" then put on a Randy Moss jersey for the rest of their little set.

Now on to the main event. The lights went out, and the low synthesized tone came on. The adrenaline started to pump. Then ALRIGHT MINNEAPOLIS! You wanted the best......etc. Then they revved up the crowd with Psycho Circus. A great live song, a better live song than any written with Bruce and Eric. The stage set had a giant screen in the middle and to large Kiss logos to the sides. The screen was to be used for special 3D effects whenever the Kiss clowns face was up there. Next was "Shout it out Loud", everybody seemed to know that one so it got the place jumping. Deuce was next which kind of surprised me because the usually played that one for the opener or a encore song, none the less, I love that song, and it was a high point for me. Then the first of the 3D songs came up-" Do You Love Me". This is also a great live song. They had the 3D camera on the band during the verses, than when the chorus came up the screen showed pre taped animations of each member sticking the guitar necks towards the camera, pointing their fingers, sticking their tongues out ( gee who could that have been?) trying to get the 3D effect. Now maybe it was me, but I was going more cross-eyed than I was seeing 3D. Don't get me wrong, the animations were very cool, I just wish they would have had them on the screen without the 3D effect. Ace's animations were by far the best. That is my take on the 3D, I won't mention it any more. They tore through "Dr. Love", "Shock Me" and "KOTNTW". Gene spit fire which is always great, but seemed to have a hard time rinsing the kerosene out of his mouth, he was spitting water for the whole next song. Peter seemed kind of out of it to me. Most of the time he would just look to the side of his kit and do his own thing. The only time he smiled or seemed to be having a good time was when he knew he had a close-up on the big screen. Ace was Ace. You know what to expect from him. He never seems too excitable but his playing is always right on, oblivious to the craziness that is going on around him. When I saw Ace on the Halloween episode of MAD TV I had suspected that he had gained some weight, at the show it is obvious that he had been eating well, which is good, because he was a twig on the reunion tour, but it seems the spandex is a little unkind to the spaceman. Gene was his normal growling, stalking the stage, tongue wagging, blood spitting, pelvic thrusting self, awesome as always and usually the head of attention, but it did not seem that way tonight. Paul was by far the star of the show. There is no doubt that he is the best frontman there ever was in the business, if not the best lead singer. As the saying goes "Women wanted him, Men wanted to be him." He was great. There is just not any other way you could put it. He still has the hilarious one-liners, the sexual innuendos were flying fast and furious, and for a 50 year old has the body most men half his age would be happy to have.

"God of Thunder" was defininitly one of the highlights of the show, with Gene flying to the rafters to growl it out with blood still dripping off of his chin. I thought the song itself could have been played with more punch though, ala Alive II.

Paul was teasing the crowd saying that he wanted "to come out and see all of you, but I was thinking to myself, 'What if Minneapolis doesn't want me to come out there?'" He then pointed to the big screen where the camera was on two decibel meters. "If you can get those little hands to go all the way over I'll come out there!" Of course it took all of 10 seconds to push them over the top, so he said "Get ready, I'm coming out there!" A little jewel studded trapeze lowered, Paul placed his 7 inch heels on the trapeze, held on tight and was delivered to a much smaller stage right in front of the soundboard as Love Gun was played. A tech gave him a microphone stand, and he tore through Love Gun while the surprised fans around the sound board were going crazy. He then jumped off the little stage and was getting a little up close and personal with the fans letting them touch him and his guitar, got back on the stage, gave them a wave, and got back on his trapeze and was back on the main stage and ended the song.

Within was now being played. Nobody knew what the hell it was at first. I would have much rather heard "You wanted the Best" or "Raise your Glasses" if they had to play new tunes. I would also rather hear older tunes like "Take Me" or even "I Was Made....." than Within. I'm sure that Gene is proud of his song and wants it in the worst way to go over, but it just isn't.

The last song of the regular set was "R&R all Nite". People always go apeshit over this song, and the pyro and TONS of confetti they shoot all over the arena just added to the excitement. They took a bow and were off.

After about 3 or 4 minutes Peter came out and crooned "Beth" and said "God bless you all!" took a bow and walked off stage.

Enter Paul rappin about going to Detroit. The band then started playing Detroit Rock City, but something was missing. No Peter. After missing the first 10 seconds of the song he popped back up behind his kit. After Detroit, Paul stood center stage by himself playing soft then hard the opening of "Black Diamond." He then started playing a little crowd participation with the crowd pitting one side of the arena against the others. When finished with the crowd the rest of the guys came out and played "Black Diamond". It was great. They took a bow and left the Taget Center in a haze of smoke and confetti.

Overall the band sounded really tight, especially Ace who played all of his classic solos note for note. The pyro seemed a little toned down from the reunion tour, but it was still more than any other band uses. The 3D just didn't do it for me, but others around me seemed to be impressed, so maybe it was just me.

It was still the greatest show on earth, and I will always make the long trek south to see them whenever they come to Minnesota.

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