From: Michael Bournazian

KISS
December 1, 1998
Molson Centre
Montreal, Canada

Hello from Montreal, where there is actually a street named Stanley Street! I'm going to try and be as comprehensive as possible here, so that this can be considered as the best review of this show here on Kissasylum.

VENUE: Kiss was one of the first acts to play the then new Molson Centre back in August 1996. What makes the Molson Centre great is that 1) it's a damn nice building, 2) it's a sound engineer's dream. On this night (12/1/98), the place was pretty much full (95%). Only the very back upper sections were empty, but the same could be said of the show from 8/3/96.

ATMOSPHERE: The crowd was very excited and antsy while waiting for Kiss. It seemed to take a long time for them to hit the stage, maybe because the opening band was horrible (more on this later). During the show, the crowd was incredibly responsive to everything, whether it was visual or verbal. The crowd was really into the show, no doubt about it.

THE STAGE: FLAT!! That's the best way to describe it, but that's not a putdown, the Alive/Worldwide stage was also flat. The big screen behind Peter was great, and with the 2 screens on the sides up high, no one misses a thing. Also the KISS logo at both sides of the the big screen was a nice change from the usual.

OPENING BAND: These guys were called Bionic and last year they won a contest as best band in Montreal. Well, to be honest, their 27 minute set ended 27 minutes too late. No one really cared they were there, and their music is more in line with Nirvana and Green Day. They made me appreciate D-Generation's opening set from 8/3/96 all the more. I wore my earplugs to save my ears for what I paid my money for!!

LASERS: During the change-over, about 4 laser lights put on a pathetic show on the curtain encompassing the stage. Given the occurrences during previous shows, I had a feeling something would happen during this one.

KISS: Song-by-song for completeness sake.

PSYCHO CIRCUS: Heavy bass drone with the curtain all around the stage. Curtain falls and the crowd goes nuts. Paul immediately endears himself to the crowd with a "Hello Montreal" during the break leading up the solo. Song goes over very well and the band is tight. This is by far the best of the 3 PC songs of the night. This song, as well as the next 2 are very pyro heavy!

SHOUT IT OUT LOUD: This song works very well as the second song, although I can't help but think that You Wanted The Best would be even better in this slot.

DEUCE: After the customary hellos and Paul's weak attempt at French, Deuce kicks in and rocks the crowd. Feels weird as a third song, but I'll never get tired of it.

DO YOU LOVE ME?: Time for 3D. Paul reaches towards the camera and the crowd goes "oooooh". Personally, I thought all the 3D was great, especially during Ace's solo.

FIREHOUSE: "We won't let you down, if you don't let us down" was how Paul prefaced Firehouse. Again, nice 3D especially leading up to Gene's fire breathing. Call me a freak, but every time I see this, I kinda hope his hair does catch on fire, just so I can say I saw it happen.

SHOCK ME: Ace time!! Before the song starts, Paul reacts to a girl in the crowd by saying "Ma petite fleur" (my little flower), followed shortly after by another equally romantic line: "Bite me"!! Just before introducing the song, Ace gets all serious and checks to his left, checks to his right, as if to make sure the coast is clear. He then reverts back to himself and the song is off. We all know it, we all love it!

LET ME GO, ROCK 'N' ROLL: Pretty perfunctory performance, but still fun. I would have preferred hearing Makin' Love or even IWMFLY.

CALLING DR. LOVE: Instead of the usual intro, Paul's asks Ace to call medical emergency for a doctor, to which Ace promptly does by kicking into the song, and Gene starts exhorting the crowd to clap. During the intro, Paul has another interaction with a female (maybe the same one as before?), saying that he'd like to check out her lungs.

INTO THE VOID: I truly love this song, but they haven't quite got it right yet. The problem is in the chorus. Perhaps it's because on the record the chorus sounds smooth and melodic, while live it sounds rough. Still great to hear Ace singing something other than Shock Me or New York Groove. His solo had the usual suspects, but this new "2000 Medley" he does with nice 3D animation of a guitar launching like a rocket and flying through space is wild. Best 3D of the whole show.

KING OF THE NIGHT TIME WORLD: Paul starts by saying how they wanted to make Destroyer a special record and starts naming off all the famous songs and ending with "and as well this one" which leads into Ace's intro. How I would love to hear Flaming Youth!! Still, the crowd loved it.

GOD OF THUNDER: Blood and flying, no difference from last time, except that Gene had his Axe bass. After the blood, the camera did a close-up on the bass and you could see the blood dripping down it, just wild!!

WITHIN: This song suffers in a similar fashion as Into The Void. With this song, the chorus is fine, but the playing isn't tight enough. This song is probably being played 'cause it's Gene's only "heavy" song on PC. I would like to see them take a stab at We Are One: bring out the acoustic guitars on the stands and do it. Iron Maiden have done it on their last 3 tours to very good effect of some songs, there is no reason why Kiss can't. I love the guitar intro to Within: actually reminds of the Bruce Springsteen song Murder Incorporated, believe it or not. Peter's solo was amazing, with his drum kit being lifted up and over the crowd. He certainly has improved his skills during the downtime between the tours.

COLD GIN: Laser incident!! Paul says that in every crowd there is at least one idiot, and points to a guy in about the 10th row with a light. He threatens to shove it up the guy's ass if he doesn't stop and the crowd cheers very loudly. This all leads to Cold Gin, with a short and sweet "Don't drink and drive" message to start it off.

LOVE GUN: Paul breaks out the sound meters on the screen to measure how much the crowd wants him to fly out to the middle of the arena. The crowd goes nut and he flys and does his magic "in the centre ring". Great stuff.

100,000 YEARS: Nice to hear, but would've preferred something else (do I hear Makin' Love?). We were very close to the stage on Gene's side, so we could really feel the column of flames.

ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE: Nice as the set closer, and with confetti during the whole song!! The Stones did the same thing on their last tour during Brown Sugar. Can't get tired of this song and the crowd went nuts. Ace has a new guitar with revolving sparkles at the end of the neck that goes on during the solo, very cool. Lots of pyro at the end, smashing guitar, yadda, yadda, yadda!!!

BETH: Recording sounded a bit distorted at the start but then improved. What can be said, same old same old but still nice to hear.

DETROIT ROCK CITY: The thing I remember most about this performance was Gene's tongue on Ace's neck during the solo. Ah Gene, where will your tongue be next?

BLACK DIAMOND: Nice to hear this as the closer. Paul's solo was great and Pete was in strong voice. Traditional ending with the drums going up and the band on the stage finishing off. In a move that was very "outre", Gene turns to the crowd on his side of the stage and does kind of a curtsy towards us near the end of the song. I promptly responded by clapping and wagging my tongue!! Again tons of pyro and it was over after 2 solid hours of great music and great show.

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

-Better than the 1996 show overall.
-Great sound.
-Great performance from the guys, all were in a good mood especially Paul.
-Within should be replace by We Are One.
-Add some different songs than those already played to death during 1996/97 tour.

OVERALL RATING: 9.5/10

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