From: Chris Karam
On Monday, June 12th, KISS massacred Mansfield, Massachusetts at The Venue Formerly Known As Great Woods. The show kicked off in high gear with a rousing version of "Detroit Rock City." No surprise there, but the energy level was a surprise. In my opinion, this show was much better than the last show I saw (Reunion Tour, Boston 1996). The band was tight, the vocals were strong and even Peter Criss, whose drumming was the weak point of the reunion tour, was playing better. Granted, he's still no virtuoso, but he kept much better time on this outing. In fact, he seemed to be having the most fun of the four. Every time the video screen showed his face, he was grinning from ear-to-ear.

The show was nearly perfect, the only noticeable gaffe being Ace's stumbling as he began the solo on "Shock Me." He quickly got his bearings, however - so much so that when he played the solo to "Firehouse," he played it flawlessly, note-for-note and at the precise tempo.

About the only disappointing thing was the fact that Gene didn't fly to the rafters for "God Of Thunder." I suspect this is probably due to a logistical snafu (i.e., the Great Woods stage couldn't accomodate the stunt). By contrast, Paul was able to swing out into the audience to belt out "Love Gun" from a remote platform. Also worthy of note was the excellent video production: In addition to onstage shots of the band, there was vintage footage and excerpts from KISS' online cartoon, KISS Immortals.

It was nice seeing a couple of old traditions reinstated for this show: Ace's solo once again takes place at the conclusion of "2,000 Man" and Peter's drum solo is once again incorporated into the middle section of "100,000 years," with Paul's patented audience-participation shtick at the conclusion.

Seeing the original band in 1976 costumes performing 80s tunes such as "Heaven's On Fire," "Lick It Up" and "I Love It Loud" is kind of like being in the middle of some ironic time warp, but it somehow works. Speaking of the 80s, there was a genuine surprise, as Paul performed a solo version of "I Still Love You," sequeing into the traditional set closer, "Black Diamond."

The encores were no surprise to anyone except a KISS fan who's been hibernating for the last 27 years, Peter's karaoke version of "Beth" and KISS' self-proclaimed "National Anthem Of Rock 'n Roll." If I have to give you the title, you're not a real fan. (Okay, it's "Rock And Roll All Nite!" Happy now?) As the band played that song, there was a blizzard of confetti, smoke and fireworks. The effect was dizzying - in other words, a typical KISS finale.

After the final chord sounded and the last bomb burst, the lights came up and, appropriately enough, "God Gave Rock 'N Roll To You" played over the loudspeakers. An appropriate ending for the fitting final act of The Hottest Band In The World...

...you know who I'm talking about.

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