From: John Stromberger
Hey Deuce, KP here. Went to the Champaign show last night, my last chance to see KISS. A smaller crowd, around 7,000. It's a college town, so the crowd was pretty mellow. No beer was sold at the concert making the crowd even more subdued. Skid Row is the only opening act, and they have an hour to play, which is too much for them. I like their songs, they sounded great, but they don't have enough songs to fill an hour. During three different songs they bring into this instrumental section, reminding me of Spinal Tap's "Jazz Odyssey", where the lead singer completely left the stage. Stage setup was very short, 15 minutes maybe between acts. I would say KISS was average in their enthusiasm. Peter seemed happy always hamming up to his camera, Ace was Ace, Gene was good. Paul seemed a bit disenchanted. Same set list. The only thing that might be new to add is Peter has added a teardrop to his makeup, below the black of his right eye. I would say the way the stage was setup the could have maybe fit 9,000 in the place, so it was about 80% full. With the apathy of the crowd it is obvious why they have never played there before and why Champaign doesn't draw the big acts. Peoria, Springfield, Rockford, Moline, all are better. They just weren't KISS fans. More there to see the spectacle known as KISS. Anyway, I was glad I went, my 11th and final time I will see them. It's been fun.

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