From: Tesg
Anybody who tells you that high ticket prices are due to increasing costs of doing business is absolutely full of shit. Ticket prices are based exactly the same way as Ticketmaster surcharges and the taxes you pay to the government: "How much can we get away with?"

If you think you can get away with it, you'll try it. KISS tried $65 (over $70 by the time Ticketmaster and every little leech latched on their share) in Ames and overshot the mark. The result...A 2/3 filled arena of about 7,000 people. The upper bowl was largely abandoned. The lower bowl corners were as well. I saw bigger crowds on the "Hot in the Shade" tour (tickets: $17.50.)

The positive aspect to this is those who DID pay are generally willing to pay that much because they're that devoted to the band. So the crowd that IS there tends to be a good one. That was the case at Hilton.

Our seats this time around thanks to a T1 line and a link to Ticketmaster the day they went on sale were eight rows up from the floor, seven rows from the stage. Fantastic seats and a perfect view for everything. We'd done the floor already this year in Oklahoma City (fourth row) and cleaned up on picks and confetti, and we already saw the show from damn near the ceiling in Moline. So this was a nice place to relax and see everything up close and personal.

Skid Row has improved with age...specifically...in the months of this tour's existence. They did a tight show and lead singer David Lee Wannabe actually has developed a banter repretoire that is entertaining ("Kiss is the hottest band in the world! Ted Nugent has lost his mind!") I get a kick out of their Holiday-Inn-esque 'fuzzy amplifiers' though. They aren't as well received as they'd like I'm sure but they look happy just to be playing a venue that seats more than 50.

Nugent was on his 'A' game but the crowd was on their 'B' side for response. He was well received but not nearly as well as we saw in Moline and Oklahoma City. I don't know why I never noticed before, but we actually noticed the guitar tech change guitars at the end for the "Great White Buffalo" finale. Nugent hangs his guitar on the amps at Stage Left, wanders to Stage Right to take the distraction away, and his good guitar is replaced by the 'sacrifice' guitar. The reason the guitar keeps playing while Ted sets it up and shoots it is because the tech is playing it behind the left side stage curtain. I don't think I'd ever even given it a second thought as to why the guitar kept playing perfectly along with the end of the song until we witnessed that.

Technical difficulties with the great Curtain Drop during "Won't Get Fooled Again" had roadies scrambling up the rope ladders to get Stage Left covered up. That's about as bad as the technical difficulties got.

Kiss hit the stage at 9:15 or so in the usual fashion. The crowd went wild and I did everything humanly possible to make a complete ass of myself acting like a spaz over the next two hours. It worked...as several co-workers all around the arena noted. I think I dropped ten pounds.

Not a lot has changed since Moline. Most noteable was Peter's renewed affection for the cow bell. It's amazing how one little change like that can make a show feel different. He used it liberally throughout and it really brought an older feel to the songs...like early 70's KISS. Pretty damn cool. Peter looked more relaxed and into his drumming than I've ever seen.

The biggest technical difficulty during the show was when Paul launched into Firehouse and almost immediately stopped the band and announced he was changing guitars. "You know, this song sounds so much better when you're guitar is in tune" he said.

I see they brought back Ace's "bring a bit of the lighting rig down with the bottle rocket" bit. Or maybe I just didn't notice it the last two shows...

Somebody apparently decided they needed to encourage more band name chants, adding a flashing "ACE" graphic to the video during the solo, and flashing the KISS logos to entice a crowd chant for the RARAN encore.

Gene has a continuously maintined arsenal of water bottles (Ice Mountain at this show) carefully mounted to his right so he can stomp on them and soak the crowd in front of him. He throws a few out as well (in lieu of picks?!?)

Aside from that, your garden variety "farewell" show. Our fourth and last will be Saturday in Cedar Rapids at the godawful Five Seasons Center. One door entrance/exit and festival seating. I think we're going moshing...

KISS ASYLUM -- KISS Museum News Archive Features Tour Dates Photos