From: Matt Nutter
This was my first time to see the original band after being a fan for almost 25 years , so, needless to say, I was pretty reved up. I couldn't get the wife to go (she doesn't get it) and I took some razzing from my friends for going so the weeks preceeding the concert were strangely similar to being the only kid in grade school with the KISS T-shirt in the '70's. I loved it! Now for the review: Sitting through half an hour of Skid Row's sadly forgettable music while they attempt to get you excited about it can only be compared to the experience of being accosted by a pan handler with his fly open. They are embarrasingly aptly named and unnecessary. If you don't get to the show in time to see them that's one more thing to be grateful for.

Ted Nugent, on the other hand, is fantastic and has waned none in his ability to super-charge a crowd. His playing, and that of his band, was nearly flawless. "Stranglehold", "Dog Eat Dog", "Wang Dang Sweet Poon Tang" and the rest of the set were as romantic and sentimental as only Uncle Ted can be. A word of caution is in order, however. If you don't have a sense of humor and are easily offended (then what the hell are you doing at a KISS concert?), then you might want to miss the Nuge as well. True to form he still says whatever he thinks however he thinks it. Consider yourself warned. And if you're a liberal, homosexual, vegetarian, anti-gun, anti-confederate flag, democrat consider yourself a target.

KISS gave the crowd all they could hope for. From Detroit Rock City to Rock 'n Roll All Nite they were just what I hoped they would be. The stage set looks great with three video screens (one large behind Peter Criss and two smaller on either side of the stage) so the view was good even in the nose bleed section. The screens alternated between shots of the band on stage and scenes from their history, what looked to be the Nightmare Child video game, part of the "Psycho Circus" video, a skeleton in a fire hat scaling a ladder during "Firehouse" and some clips of the Immortals. The song list was the same as the other shows on the tour, the only surprise being that during his solo Ace played snippets of "Parasite", "Snowblind", "New York Groove", and "Hard Times". Peter played an abbreviated solo during "100,000 Years" that set up Paul Stanley's "Alive" rap. Gene was Gene and Paul was Paul. The entire band appeared to be having a good time. Just a couple of problems with the main video screen for a few minutes and a few times the band almost lost the tempo of the song but everything else was just what you would expect from the Hottest Band in the World. There will never be another band like them. Thanks for the memories guys!

One more thing... One of the T-shirt designs was really cool. It had the Alive IV cover on the front and the back said, "KISS rocks Oklahoma City" and listed the dates of every time the original four had played their together. And by the way, the T-shirts are a lot less expensive if you buy them on the Internet.

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