From: Clayton
Thankfully there was a day in between this and the Bakersfield show so I had time to drive back home to S.F. AND get some rest in before the Oakland show. True to form, I again missed Skid Row and Ted Nugent, but a friend of mine .

Ted Nugent didn't go down all too well, what with his usual songs about tender gay sex and Communist preachings. Apparently, he kept trying to get an unresponsive crowd to say, "Kiss My Ass!" for about five minutes. He said a lot of stupid sh*t about Californians in general, including "San Francisco's full of faggots!" Yeah, f*ck you, too. Now, I've been told he's a good guitarist-- so what? Ted should consider joining "Wykyd Sceptre" (a reference for any Mr. Show fans out there!) His T-shirt read, "F*ck you, I'm an American!" and featured a photo of him flipping double birds. How very trailer-park. OK, but seriously, he'd be a lot easier to take if he had a couple of decent songs, but hey-- who am I to say? If the man does it for YOU, then obviously YOU had a better time for him being there.

Anyway, after (thankfully) missing his set, my brother and I arrived just in time to meet an agititated, apparently pissed-off crowd. I dunno, maybe it was just coincidence, but the night seemed to have some very bad vibes. A fistfight broke out in the audience about 10 minutes before Kiss came out. Thanks, Ted.

So at last the lights went down, and of course the negative charge evaporated. Kiss are consummate masters of the live show, of really getting everyone happy and rockin'. This night was no exception.

The show was identical to Bakersfield in terms of set list, but the boys were a little less inspired-- only a little, mind you. Ace's solo was only about 2/3 the length of Bakersfield's, and Paul was a bit less chatty.

Peter, however, was doing something curious which I forgot to mention in my review of Bakersfield-- he's been improvising patterns during songs, something he used to do in the '70s. Check out old videos to see what I mean. The Catman's firing on all cylinders, baby! Anyone who tells ya less is a liar.

A Notable moment, I'm sure recounted in others' reviews, was when Paul mentioned that when they first played the Bay Area in the '70s, bands like the Grateful Dead were the biggest thing here-- a comment which promptly elicited boos from the audience (OK, so I was booing, too!). Paul looked a bit shocked-- I think he expected a rousing cheer. After a moment, he informed us that "I like them! Ace likes them! Peter likes them!" At this point, I noticed Gene looking over (stage left) to a luxury box beside the stage, looking embarrassed. Paul asked Gene, on-mic, what his favourite group was. After a few more glances to the luxury box, Gene walked over to the mic and said, "Phil Lesh is the best one of 'em!" (Phil Lesh sang and played bass for the Dead, I'm told.)

My (obvious) theory is that Phil Lesh was watching from the luxury box in question. Oops.

Anyhow, although the performance wasn't quite as good as in Bakersfield, it still ROCKED! As the confetti fell over the entire crowd during "Rock and Rock All Nite," I was literally jumping up and down-- and I don't really think it's one of their best songs! That, to me, says more about the power of Kiss than anything else.

Several times during both tonight and Bakersfield, I had very deep, emotional experiences when it would hit me that I was actually seeing Peter, Ace, Paul, and Gene-- for real! I mean, I've seen Ace in a tiny club (he kicked ass, of course) and caught both the San Jose and Sacramento shows on the Reunion tour, but STILL. It was very sad to see them walk off the stage for the last time here, but they left us loving them. I've already gone through a melancholy period over the weekend, knowing that I'll never see the four of them in makeup again, but man, what a ride!

What more can anyone ask?

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