From: J. Smith
Well as you can imagine it was a bittersweet evening for me. Prior to the show I was thinking this is the last time I will be seeing KISS unless I go to another show before they wrap it up, and I might just do that. I know I spent a few bucks on this show. The ticket was 150 (damn those ticket brokers/scalpers), I bought a tour book (30.00), and a t-shirt (30.00), whew! Anyway It was worth it, Kiss rocked Dallas on this night. The show was fresh and everyone looked really good. I think it was as good as the 1996 Reunion show in San Antonio (the 8th stop of the tour)if not better. Paul Stanley was excellent as usual and spoke to the audience quite a bit. They came onto the stage by being lowered from a platform and then tore into Detroit Rock City. They played three 1980's era songs: "I love it Loud", "Heaven's On Fire", and "Lick It Up". They played old favorites such as "Detroit Rock City", "Deuce", "Shout It Out Loud", "Shock Me", "Firehouse", "Calling Dr. Love", "God Of Thunder", "Cold Gin", "100,000 Years", "Love Gun", "Black Diamond", "Beth", and several more including 1998's "Psycho Circus". During "God Of Thunder", Gene did his spitting blood and bass solo routine in which he flew to the rafters high above the crowd. He really got the audience into it and seemed to be feeding off of the crowd's energy and taking in every moment of it. Kiss' stage was enormous and had big screens in the middle and to the left and the right in which they showed cartoons, close ups of the band and during "Do you Love Me", they showed a retrospective of the band. I think it was during the song "Love Gun" where Paul told the crow that he always dreamed of being in a rock star and playing in front of people like us. He said he thinks the stage is a barrier that should not be there and then said he was coming out to us. Paul then got onto a hoist and "flew" over the audience with guitar in tow and sang the song while shaking his ass and dancing on this little platform. It was pretty cool and the audience really got into it. Ace sang "Shock Me" and went into his trademark guitar solo with shooting rockets. He incorporated riffs from his solo album and just rocked out. His Les Paul signature guitar was right on and sounded tight throughout the huge wall of Randall stacks that must have cost a small fortune. Throughout the night, in-between songs, Paul kept telling the audience that he thanks us for the years. The encore included Peter singing "Beth", which was very good. Peter sounded great, but his drum playing lacked the intensity of his earlier days. At the very end Paul again told the audience that he thanks us and that when bands come to play for you, you are doing them a huge favor by seeing them and that they should always give you your moneys worth. Kiss definitely has done this over the years. It was indeed sad when Paul said "don't ever forget us, we certainly won't forget you". Kiss then went into their trademark anthem "Rock and Roll All Night." They blew out a sh** load of confetti and the band went up into the air on risers playing their hearts out. Peter's risers had his cats blowing out smoke with fireworks spinning in a blaze of glory. Stuff was shooting everywhere on stage, and confetti machines were working overtime. Top notch stuff! I had a great seat to witness this night in rock and roll history (or should I say KISSTORY)! One side note: KISS still had girls taking their tops off for them. Paul would acknowledge some of them he saw by saying baby! One girl, after many before her tried to grab Paul's attention while he was giving his final "speech". Paul saw it and said 'cmon baby don't tease us, or sit down! It was pretty funny. The show was great, the heat from pyrotechnics were felt in the crowd, especially during "Heaven's on Fire". Just a great show, and everyone who misses this is missing out!!!!!

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