From: Keith Tarrier
For the last time, I bid KISS farewell, or as they say here in the land of the rising sun, sayonara. After being in Hospital in a very bad way one week before, I missed the opening nights of the KISS tour of Japan in Yokohama. But I managed to make it to Nagoya, where I currently live.

For 22 years I have been A KISS a fan, and KISS did not let me down on what is most probably the last time I will see them live.

The concert started about 20 minutes late due to the left side video screen being out of action. However once, the concert got going it was classic KISS all the way.

The set list was pretty much the same as Tokyo except before the first encore, when they were asking the crowd what song they wanted, Gene started to play a few seconds of LA Bamba, the crowd started cheering, he stopped, then started again, this time for a bit longer, then he started again and got the crowd really clapping. Eric Singer joined in on drums and they played for about 45 seconds with the crowd loving it.

If I remember correctly the then went into I Was Made For Loving You and 100,000 years. After that they played at least a verse and a chorus of

Got to Choose
Parasite Lady
She (played about 3/4 of the song)
Making Love (played about 1/2 of the song)

The finished off with Rock N Roll all night.

The crowd really got into it... in a Japanese way. Most people stayed in front of their seats and fists were raised through out the night. I was seated next to a 45 year old man and his wife, who wood have looked more at home at an evening with Barry Manalow, but the guy new a lot of the words to the 70's songs. He also taped the show and took lots of pictures.

Paul spoke to the crowd a little in japanese and the band humbed along to a famous Japanese song... the name I forget. Crowd interaction with the band could only be higher if everyone got on stage. The band truely seemed to be enjoying it, and played along with, and teased the crowd a lot.

KISS where in very good form. Gene, being Gene, sniffed a pair of panties that were thrown on stage. Paul was the ultimate showman that he is, not slowing down for most of the night. Ace set the crowd on fire with his high octane guitar playing and there was a quite a large amount of friendly communication going on between Eric Singer and Ace. They all looked like they were enjoying the show. Eric was playing his ass off and with a drummer like that, I am sure Gene and Paul must be wondering if they should extend the tour. All those people who thought Eric would suck, well they better eat their words. He was absolutely fantastic, and I am so lucky I got to see him in this very special line-up of KISS.

When Gene went off stage I could see into the side of the stage where he was resting and fixing his make up. He had a towel folded in half like a triangle and resting on his forehead. I wish I had a zoom lens on my camera. And thats another story, the one time I forget extra batteries for my camera.. they go flat. I did manage to get about 7 shots.

The only let down was the time went so fast, it only felt like ten minutes had passed when the the final notes of Rock N Roll All nite finally sounded through the arena. But it will be a night I will never forget.

KISS.....Arigato Gozaimasu!

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