From: Kevin H
Kiss made their return to Erie for the first time since 1990 and they did not disappoint the crowd at all. The Civic Center is a small building so it was interesting to see if the Kiss stage show would be scaled down for the show but all the bells and whistles were there and used. The show started right at 7pm with a 30 minute set from Skid Row. The band sounded tight and the new lead singer did a good job. The crowd was still getting to their seats during their set but the fans that were there seemed to get into the set. After that came Uncle Ted Nugent who played an hour set. What can you say about Ted?!!! The man still has it after all these years. As a matter of fact he pointed out to the crowd he is 51 years old and celebrating 51 years of never touching alcohol or drugs which was cool. He did most of the popular sounds and finished with Great White Buffalo(He shot the bow and arrow at his guitar and amazingly missed the guitar tonight!!!). Also don't invite Al Gore and Hillary Clinton to the same party as Ted!!!

On to the main event. Kiss came out at about 9:20pm and to say the crowd was into would be an understatement. They looked and sounded tight. I don't think Peter stopped smiling throughout the show. Ace was even smiling more then usual. Gene was his demonic self and Paul never sounded better. The ultimate showman. The set list was the same as the rest of the tour. Paul’s singing was incredible, Aces guitar work was in good form(Except for the solo during Shock Me), Gene sang well and spit his fire and blood and Paul just sounded awesome and knows how to work a crowd. The only minor faults were they kind of messed up the middle of Heavens on Fire and the background music for Beth sounded horrible!!! Time to get a new copy of the tape!!!

The setlist was as follows:

Detroit Rock City
Deuce
Shout It Loud
I Love It Loud
Shock Me
Firehouse(Gene does the fire)
Do you Love Me(Video history of the band shown on the video screen. I wish they would have included Eric Carr in it but still very cool)
Calling Dr. Love
Heavens on Fire
Let Me Go Rock n Roll
2000 Man(Cool video shown on the screen of the band as cartoon characters going into outer space and fighting aliens)
Ace Guitar Solo(Sounded great!!!)
Psycho Circus
Lick it Up
Gene Bass Solo(This is where he spits the blood and it seemed rushed. he normally starts slow and gets into it)
God of Thunder(Gene flew to the top of the stage and sang this)
Cold Gin(Best sounding song of the night I thought!!)
100,000 Years(Peter had his small solo during this and sounded really good. He's not the drummer he used to be but he can still hit them. All the concerns about him earlier in the tour were exaggerated in my eyes.)
Love Gun(Paul flies through the crowd)
Intro to I Still Love You
Black Diamond
Beth(As mentioned earlier the background music was horrible!!!)
Rock N Roll All Night(Confetti everywhere!!!)

All in all a great show. This was at least the 10th time I've seen the band throughout the years and even after 27 years of great rock n roll they still put on one hell of a show. I have one more chance to say goodbye to them this Saturday night in Buffalo. Long live rock n roll and long live Kiss!!!

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