From: Brian Richards
Hello, KISS Army! I was fortunate enough to attend two KISS shows recently, Mpls., MN on May 18th, and Milwaukee, WS the next night, May 19th. The Minneapolis show had originally been scheduled for May 17th, but had to be postponed for a day because severe weather grounded the band's plane in the basecamp city of Chicago that day. There were seven of us attending that particular show, and we were a half-hour into an hour-long drive to the Target Center when we got word of the postponement. Oh,well. . . delayed gratification, I guess. Fortunately, our schedules permitted all of us to make it the next night, so we re-convened to make the pilgrimage Thursday night. Some of us headed across the street before the show for some proper "pawtyin'", as Paul would say. I was feelin' pretty good by the time the Montrose chestnut "Bad Motor Scooter" raced to it's conclusion and the arena went dark. When "The Hottest Band in the World" put the pedal to their "metal" with the opening chords of "DRC", you could barely even hear them due to the ROAR of the Army! Deftly sliding into "Deuce", the band was still barely audible above the din of the crowd. During his first "rap" of the evening, Paul reminded us all that "WHEEEEWWWWWW, MINNEAPOLIS!!!!!!!! GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT!!!!!" This was the only time all night that he really referenced the postponement, which surprised me somewhat. I thought he would have really been working the crowd with it.

Anyways, the show continued with the by-now-standard "Farewell Tour" set-list. "Shout it out Loud", "I Love It Loud", "2000 Man", "Lick It Up", "Heaven's on Fire". Pete did a brief drum solo during, I think, "God of Thunder", if my hazy memory serves me correctly. The main video screen behind Peter, while providing an EXCELLENT picture, had problems all night, a situation that would come to a head the following night in Milwaukee, but we'll get to that in a minute. . . overall, KISS in Minneapolis kicked ASS!!! Paul told us that this show was the "fastest sell-out in (Target Center) history!", and asked us if we wanted them to come back later in the tour. "YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!", needless to say. The strains of "God Gave Rock 'n Roll to You, Too" filled the arena as the crowd slowly, reluctantly, bid adieu to the Fab Four of Hard Rock. Oh, well. . . at least me and my friend Jennifer had one more show to look forward to!

Milwaukee, WS 5/19/00 After partying with the band in Minneapolis the night before, Jen and myself picked up the gauntlet and road-tripped all day Friday to meet up with KISS again, this time outdoors on the shores of Lake Michigan at Milwaukee's Marcus Amphitheatre. "Chilly" was the operative word this night, because mid-May is a LITTLE too early for an outdoor lakefront show. Despite the cold, Marcus proved to be an excellent venue with a good view of the stage, even from the lawn seats in back, and much improved sound over the Target Center's basketball-arena acoustics. Paul's "raps", in particular, came through loud and clear, unlike is the case sometimes in an indoor hall. He again tailored his "patter" to the evening, mentioning that even though it was so cold, he was going to take his shirt off (oh, yay.), and that they would make it so hot, we'd have to call out the you-know-what. The other theme of this night was "Technical Difficulties". Problems all night with the main screen behind Pete, which finally came to a head when the screen quit working completely after about 4 or 5 songs, and Paul's flying rig again refused to work. As we all know, that has happened a few times on this tour now. It's been a part of the show since '97, so you'd think it would work flawlessly by now, but no. The band continued playing "Love Gun" while Paul stepped off the harness and told the crowd "I tried". Particularly galling for the band was that he had just done the usual bit with the crowd and the sound meter, asking us to raise the volume if we wanted him to come out to the platform. Once again, no surprises in the set-list. One surprising thing is that unlike in Minneapolis, Paul never asked the crowd if they should come back to Milwaukee later in the year. I figured this was just part of his normal stage patter, but apparently not. Overall, a very entertaining show at a fun venue, cold weather and technical difficulties aside. Jen and myself returned to the "real world" Saturday after following KISS around for two days. Hopefully, they'll make it back to Minneapolis one more time, as promised!

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