From: T.D. Gunz
This was the 2nd time that KISS stopped by Denver on their "Farewell Tour". The first time I paid 425.00 per ticket for 2nd row center (about 6 feet from the stage), and coerced (blackmailed) my younger brother into driving up and seeing the show. After seeing KISS myself 20+ times, I really wanted him to see them up close. KISS rocked!, and he said that it was by far the best show he'd ever seen.

This time KISS was booked in an out-door venue called Fiddler's Green, there were only about 4000 reserved seats, the rest were G.A. lawn seats. I bought two 2nd row seats in front of Paul for 625.00 each. I also bought four 3rd row tickets in front of Gene at 300.00 each for my ex-girlfriends daughters: Amy (17) and Melissa (16) and their boyfriends. Neither of the girls had ever been to a rock concert. When I was with their mother I had subjected them to endless hours of bootleg KISS videos (of questionable quality), and had told them if KISS ever came to Denver I'd get them good seats.

I was dressed in black leather pants, KISS-like platform boots, black leather shoulder armor and fore-arm guards, white contacts, and custom-made vampire fangs. (I'm having a mid-life crisis, I'm 41! work with me). All in all, it was a "Creature of the Night" look. House of Blues.Com took some picture's of me. Check them out if they're still there, the sight is hob.com/pix the venue is Fiddler's Green, the picture codes are bb0210t, and bb02118.

I couldn't find a date for the show, so I gave the extra ticket I had, to a friend from work. I just got out of the hospital with disc surgery and couldn't fight for picks, so my friend was instructed to get as many as he could. Which he did.

We waited in line for t-shirts so long that Skid Row was done with their set (Awwwww) before we went to our seats. Ted used the stage as a political forum as always, but he can still rock! When KISS started it was different that the first Denver show. Before, they were announced, decended from the rigging, stood around, and then began Detroit Rock City. This time, after they were announced, they were playing D/R/C as they decended from the rigging, Peter was already at the drums. Just before KISS started the front row (as always) filled with pretty little girls. I asked one of the security guards if those girls were old enough to do the things they did to get front row and backstage passes. His reply was that he just checks tickets not I.D.'s. Strangely enough, when KISS started one of the girls suddenly stripped down to a tiny thong and danced like that for most of the show.

KISS was awsome, as always. For some reason, they seemed to pay a-lot more attention to Amy and Melissa (go figure) that to me. I had trained the girls how to "beg" for picks, and they each got a handful. Gene almost torched his hair due to a bad wind gust after 'Firehouse'. During Ace's solo, where his guitar shoots fire into the rigging and hits the balloons of confeti, the one on the right blew up and a whole mini section of lighting fell onto the stage (wouldn't want to be that roadie that night!). After Gene spit blood and went to fly into the rigging, his aparatus got stuck about 2 feet away from the handholds he grabs to get to the platform where he sings 'God of Thunder'. You could see the "OH SHIT!" expression on his face, even thru the make-up. Suddenly the harness started moving again, and got him to the hand-holds, He sang and flew down fine. Paul flew out over the crowd to the sound board for "Lovegun" and back, without a hitch. Peter came out and sang "Beth", (I don't think Peter can carry a tune in a bucket), but it's good to get him out from behind the drums and up close in front of the crowd. He does sing form the heart I will say that. Peter gave the towel to the nearly naked girl in the front row. I guess he thought she looked hot, or cold. Paul's solo before "Black Diamond" sucked, he did a short version of "I Still Love You" (how many songs does Paul have to choose from, and he still picks a stiff like that?) They did show a cool shot of the full moon on the screens as Paul did the "Black Diamond" intro. When the rest of the band joined him on-stage, Gene bumped his bass walking out. It made a low ominous sound, Paul, improvising said, "Oohh, sounds like thunder." It was kinda cool.

I saw the girls (Amy and Melissa) on the screen 4 or 5 times. I myself was on the screen a lot. It's not often that a vampire gets 2nd row. About halfway thru KISS, I gave my ticket to my friend and he went up and brought another friend down to our seats. This person was instructed to get the guitar that Paul throws out after "Rock & Roll All Nite". When Paul broke the guitar, it only broke into 2 pieces, the body didn't break all the way thru, it just sort of folded in half. I knew that Paul wouldn't through it out into the crowd (for fear of braining someone with it), but that he would just 'short' throw it, between the wall and the stage. I pushed my friend over the front row seats yelling, "GO! GO!" He made it up there and Paul handed the body of the guitar RIGHT TO HIM. But because my friend was #1 VERY drunk, and #2 inexperienced in getting stuff. He turned stupidly around and was beset upon by the rest of the crowd. Needless to say the guitar body was plucked from him in short order. He came back to our seats, arms bleeding and muttering to himself, "I had it, I really had it."

KISS was GREAT! They did an exellent job of paying attention to the crowd, threw out tons of guitar picks (except Gene, who is always a tight ass with picks). After the show when we were walking out, a father was walking ahead of me with his 7 or 8 year old son holding his hand. The boys turns to his father and said, "Dad, when I grow up and have a son, I'm taking him to KISS too!" It was almost enough to make me cry. I guess I was on the screen a lot more that I thought, because walking out I was stopped by people over and over saying, "You're that video dude, that vampire we saw on the screen, Right on!" I'm a legend in my own mind!

Never forget KISS RULES!, and like their shirt say LEGENDS NEVER DIE!

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