From: Steve

Welp..I finally saw Kiss on the new tour. I want to first off state that I can get pretty critical at times. I also want to state that I have been a huge Kiss fan since the 70's and they have and always will be my fave band of all time. So, if you are the type of fan that thinks Kiss can do no wrong and you don't like to hear constructive criticism, don't read the rest of this review. Utilize the X in the upper right hand corner and delete lol..This is just my opinion. So, I don't need anyone telling me off because of the way I feel about the show.

Right when I walked into the Hulman Center in Terre Haute, I was handed a pair of 3-D glasses for the show. They did a nice job with them. Right in between the lenses, it says Kiss in the classic logo in black. Below the right lens it says Psycho in orange and yellow...Below the left lens it says Circus in the same color. The part of the glasses that u put on your ears, has a pic of each member..Same pics that were used on the back part of the CD tray for the Psycho Circus CD. On the inside part of the glasses, it goes through the ordeal of call 1-900 Kiss blah blah blah lol..And also gives an address, if you don't want to call in..Like one of those people would be the winners or something lol..The contest expired December 1st..Too bad lol..They aren't really giving a Car away for free. They are taking all of the money from the 1-900 deal and using that towards the car..I am sure there are plenty of people who called the # multiple of times. They probably made money on the deal, if anything. God forbid they give anything for free..Hell, I'm surprised you didn't have to pay for the glasses at the door lol..Sorry for going on a tangent like this..back to the show.

I went to the merchandise booth before Econoline Crush was going to hit the stage. They had a bunch of things. From shirts, hats, tour books, leather jackets, trading cards PSYCHO CIRCUS ACTION FIGURES FOR 30 BUCKS A PIECE LOL., trading cards, plaques , etc. The most ridiculous thing I saw were Kiss Yo Yo's lol..That is way out of control..I believe those were 200 bucks for a set of 4..The tour books are nice..Lots of live and studio shots. Shirts were between 30-40 bucks..Pretty steep.

The opening band wasn't that great (Econoline Crush). They hit the stage at 7:30. I have seen them before when they opened for King's X a few months back. I am sure the reason why Kiss brings these bands out is so the fans will have more time to spend at the Merchandise booth..Then again, that isn't really fair of me to say this. I am sure there are some people who might enjoy their music. It just isn't for me. I just remember back when Kiss was doing the official Kiss Conventions. I have many of the Q&A's on tape. One of the points brought up at almost every convention was the lame opening bands they have had as of late. They obviously aren't listening to the fans requests. Hell, I would rather see a Trixter reunion then the crap they have fed us the past 2 years lol. Econoline Crush had a mixture of Techno/Alternative feel to it. Most of the songs sounded exactly the same. Kiss needs to bring back a good rock band, even if they are a blast from past..Give us our money's worth...Anyways, as u can tell, I didn't dig Econoline Crush. They played till 8:10.

The lights went out at 8:45. Time for Kiss. They had a red curtain blocking the stage. It said Kiss on it, but was hard to read because the logo was the same color as the curtain. Then there were a bunch of moons, stars, etc. on it as well. We got the usual, You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best, the Hottest Band in the World, Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss. The beginning of Psycho Circus kicks in with the drums and once the guitars kick in, the curtain drops. Right when the curtain dropped, I looked at the 4 people I was with and we shrugged our shoulders. I was very disappointed with stage. I understand they have to have a huge screen behind them for the 3-D segments of the show..BUT, for Kiss to say this is going to be the biggest Kiss show ever, I was let down. Sorta reminds me of the Revenge tour. How over-hyped that was. After seeing the Hot In The Shade staging, then going to see Revenge, It was quite disappointing. I feel the same away about this new tour. The stage was very stripped down. All there was, was a big screen (which was very distracting) and a Kiss logo on each side (which I didn't care for). Along with that, there are a couple of amps on the stage. They had the same risers, one on each side of the stage with mics on them. One for Gene and one for Ace. That was about it on the staging. I did like Peter's new drum riser. Had real bright lights on the front of it.

Anyways, while they were playing the opening track, it didn't seem like Kiss wanted to be there at all. Their stage presence was the worst I've ever witnessed at a Kiss show. Ace was stiff as a board and Gene and Paul were not much better. As the show went on, Ace seemed to get more into it. But Gene and Paul didn't throughout the whole show. There was absolutely no energy at all with them. I know Paul recently had knee surgery. I hate to say this, but the crazy Paul we used to see prancing and running all over the stage, might of had it's day. It is so obvious that the band is going through the motions. The fire and the hunger for it are gone. I will admit, musically, they were very tight...except for one track. That would be Within. This song needs to be dropped from the set list. It does not flow well with the other tunes at all. Plus, Gene can't sing the chorus during this. In the studio, it's one thing. I think it is a great song, even though Bruce did the guitar on it. But, the problem with the Psycho Circus CD, on a whole, was the fact that it is overproduced. Makes it very hard for the band to recreate these tunes live.

The set list consisted of the same tunes they have been playing since the opening night of the tour. Nothing new. I am not going to list the set list and do a song by song review. Like I said above, they were very tight, musically, I still don't understand why they dropped She and Nothin To Lose. But, whatever..U would think they would give the fans a few different songs from the last tour. The only new ones were the ones from the new CD. They could drop King of the Night time World & Do You Love Me (Even though I really like those tunes) and add something different.

Peter did his drum solo after Within. I did like his new drum riser. It rose about 20 feet (not 60 feet like they said it would) over the first 5 rows of the audience. It was held up by some cables. I think Peter's drum solo was amazing on the webcast of the LA show. His solo was ok, at best, last night. It was a little more interesting than the reunion drum solo. He had some electronic drums during part of it, which I did not dig. I can't complain, though. Peter was very consistent throughout the whole set. Very tight and much more focused than the reunion tour. He played many of fills on the older tunes that he didn't on the last tour on some of the older tunes. Two thumbs up for Pete. Gene did his bass solo at the beginning of God Of Thunder. I heard from some people that there were supposed to be a section called the blood seats. These consisted of the first 5 rows. Well, I was in row 5. The bass solo was the same. He hit a few notes, drooled blood, and then flew up to the riser up by the ceiling. When Gene got up to the riser, the mic was dangling from the stand. Took him like 15 seconds to get the mic back on the stand. U can see he was quite pissed. The riser, instead of being right above the stage, was actually over the first 5 rows on the crowd. I was wondering when the blood was going to come down on the first 5 rows, since he already did his ordeal on stage. Well, as I was looking above, Gene stuck out his tongue and dribbled some of the blood he had left in his mouth, onto the crowd. This consisted of 2 or 3 little drops. Some girl in front of me got hit in the forehead with it. That was it. I was expecting something more. It was over-hyped, to say the least. Like I said above, Gene was not into this show at all. He didn't do any of his classic moves on stage and seemed to be really distant form the audience. He wasn't really trying to get the crowd into it at all. His playing was good . It usually is. He only used the Axe bass on 3 tracks. He used the Punisher on the rest. He just needs to watch some vids and listen to some audios of him singing Within. It just doesn't work.

Ace did his solo after Into The Void, which actually sounded pretty good live. Like Ace said in Goldmine (Might have been Peter), this was the only song that all 4 of them actually played on the CD. It showed on stage. It is also the only tune that really sounds like classic Kiss because that track was actually mixed By Ace. He told Bruce that he was going to mix it or he would leave the band because he didn't like the polished mix that was originally done. Ace's playing was top notch. I don's recall hearing any sour notes. I noticed Ace is playing through Randall heads and cabinets now. It sounded great. Wonder what happened to his Marshalls. One thing Ace needs to do is go back and learn some of the lyrics to Into The Void. He botched those up at times.

Paul's voice was very strong throughout the whole show. Like I said above, Paul had surgery on his knee before the tour. It has definitely slowed him down. It was just strange not seeing him go crazy like he usually does on stage.... He used the same cliche lines that he usually does. That is one thing that is getting old, quickly. The show is too rehearsed. Needs some spontaneity to it. Paul's guitar playing was great, as usual. He said something strange on stage after Peter's solo. He called him the Egyptian cat. What's up with that? lol. He did the usual flying over the crowd during Love gun. That part was cool...

Now for the 3-D..There were high points and low points in doing the 3-D (My opinion)..

The 3-D was amazing. They had prerecorded stuff and they also had a 3-D cam to show Kiss while they were actually playing. Most of the things they had came right at your face. I did have some problems with it though. A lot of the prerecorded stuff was shown over and over again. That got a little old. There was one scene where Gene stick out his tongue..They had to of shown that at least 5 times throughout the show. Also, some of the prerecorded stuff wasn't really in sync with what was going on with the show. Let me explain....They showed, a couple of times, Peter playing drums. While this was going on, Kiss was playing and the drums he was playing live did not sync with what he was playing on the prerecorded video. I know this sounds petty, but when U have music playing in the background and u have this 3-D image of Pete playing something totally different, it looks strange. The least they could have done was film Peter playing along with the tune they were going to use live so it would be in sync with what was going on during the show. Would have made more sense. I also had a problem with the live 3-D camera they were using. While the images they showed were outstanding, the boom stand the camera was on only went from the middle of the stage to the right end of the stage. So, basically all you were able to see were Paul or Ace. Gene and Peter were not seen on the live 3-D camera at all.

I will admit, the 3-D was outstanding. There were a couple of times I actually ducked. It looked like I was going to get hit in the face with a guitar pic and a drum stick. There was also this very cool thing they did with a 3-D image of the Kiss army logo. But, overall..I found it to be a distraction. U had to put on and take off your glasses during many sections of the show (It said on the screen when to put them on and take off). And I feel, it is hard to concentrate on the music while watching the 3-D. It's like the music is taking a second seat to the 3-D. That is just my opinion.

Just a couple of more things lol..I PROMISE. Kiss ended their first set with Rock and Roll All Nite, which was a nice change. This time, as opposed to the last tour, they had confetti going throughout the whole arena. I feel bad for the people that have to clean the shit up lol..Tons of pyro as the song was ending. It was fantastic...For the encore, they did Beth, Detroit Rock City, and Black Diamond. This is what got me. For Black Diamond, there were no levitating risers. Gene and Ace stood on each of their risers (The ones to the left and right of the stage with the mics), Paul stayed in the middle of the stage, and Peter went up like 4 feet on hid drum riser. I guess they must have ran out of most of their pyro. There were like 2 explosions and the show just ended (show ended at 10:45) . I am sure the reason why there aren't any levitating drum risers is because they are trying to cut back on as many costs as they can on this tour, due to the fact it is not selling well. Which is the reason why Kiss didn't bring the traveling freak show with them and are having opening bands that pay them to perform in the opening spot.

I know I seemed pretty harsh. I still had a decent time, believe it or not. It's just that I expected more. Like I stated, I thought the music was incredible..very tight, (which is really the most important thing). Their vocals were incredible, except for Within. It just seemed like they were going through the motions. I really don't know what Kiss can do to resurrect themselves. I am not saying they are dead, but I think we can all agree the CD is a major stiff and the tour is not selling that great. I really don't see them doing another album or tour after this (My opinion). I know they can't be as happy as they state they are. It shows on stage. As far as the 3-D, they did a great job doing this. They are the firsts to be doing it! I just found it to be a distraction, at times. And as far as the set list...They really need to put a few tunes in there that would knock us off our feet. Their music should be tight after playing the same songs for 2 years straight. Time to make a change. Of course, I love the classics. We all do. I do realize that there are many tunes that can't be dropped..After seeing the reunion tour, I was just expecting more, especially with all the hype there was surrounding it.. Just seems like their focus was lost along the way..I know this is only the first leg of the tour. I am hoping they will make some changes along the way.

That's all folks..Im outta here. Remember, this is just my opinion. I don't care if u comment on this, but I don't need any hate mail telling me to fuck off.. I am seeing them again in Chicago on December 29th....Review #2 after I see it...

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