From: Jodiemax
Oh Yeah!!! Hello Sydney! The boys opened with Detroit Rock City, which showed some great computer imaging on the big screen of a car with no time to turn crashing into a truck ahead. Then they launched into Deuce followed by Shout It Out Loud. Then Ace came on to do something special from Unmasked and did Talk To Me (strangely, it didn’t turn out to be Two Sides Of The Coin. These Australian shows seem to bring out the best of Unmasked, which was huge here when Kiss first toured and the legacy has continued. Then came I Love It Loud which really gets the crowd into it, although Gene seemed to sing the verses in an unusual order (unless my memory had got it wrong for some reason – maybe it was the bottle of Moet and Chandon before the show or the Hunter Valley Cab Sav). Then it was get out those red sirens for Firehouse as well as Gene breathing a bit of fire. Only the one fireball – I seem to recall it being bigger and maybe three in years gone by – nevertheless always a buzz. Then Paul had a question for us from Destroyer – Do You Love Me? which had some great riffs towards the end (very unlike the studio version), but it is a song they’ve really revved up live over the last few tours. Gene’s standard, Calling Dr Love, was next. Heaven’s On Fire trailed this. From the 13th row, the heat off the fire columns at the back of the stage every time the band chorused Heaven’s On Fire was quite intense. I noticed Gene didn’t have any hair on his exposed thigh holes which was probably from being seared off from this heat. The band then fell into the extended live version of Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll with Eric Singer finishing up calling out Sydney, Kiss loves you. Shock Me was next including Ace’s solo which involved a bit of Star Spangled Banner. There was the smoking guitar, sacrificed into the heavens arising like Jesus on Ascension Day with Ace waving fondly goodbye, then coming out with a new guitar and telling us that guitar was only 3 years old and shouldn’t be smoking followed by a sensational cackle at the joke. Then he fired a couple of rockets to explode confetti filled balloons in the rafters – the second bringing some fake stagelights crashing down. Paul then introduced a song from a 1997 album, the title track off Psycho Circus. Some great stuff here, the first of three songs tonight I’d never heard live, Paul said we were all a bunch of circus freaks, also the computer imaging off the Psycho Circus 3-D stuff was up on the big screen. Lick It Up was next – this was a fairly extend version with a lot of guitar work after the song proper had finished. Gene then started his blood spitting routine in an eerie combination of red and green light, and was then lifted to the ceiling to kick off God Of Thunder. This was also where Eric did his drum solo, which was huge, especially the flaming drumsticks. It’s amazing how much difference a drummer like Eric can make to a band. Of course he was resplendent in cat makeup and short dark hair (they must have paid him a lot to do that). That old crowd favourite, Cold Gin, was next – Ace did some lead vocals in one of the verses. 100,000 Years followed including a reversion to the do you feel all right part like the Alive version. Love Gun came next with Paul coming out into the crowd provided we could get the sound meter into the red. Flying in his harness, he landed in the middle of the floor at about row 26 and performed most of the song there before flying back. At row 13 it was hard to know whether you were wanting to watch Paul behind us or the rest of the lads playing in front of us. Paul then did his solo part first doing a bit of I Still Love You, then Hard Luck Woman (the second song I’d never heard live) and Shandi (another Unmasked legacy that Australia loves, including me). The show then concluded with Black Diamond (Eric on vocals) with the drumkit rising out of the floor and exposing the two cats on the riser with spooky green lit eyes. The encore opened with I Was Made For Loving You which seems to be even rougher and heavier every time I’ve heard it live (there’s not a lot of disco sound left) and Paul tried hard to hit those high notes with his can’t get enoughs. Then came a medley of tracks opening with New York Groove which started at the chorus and then they played a verse. Next was Parasite (the third song I’d never heard live) and then She. The medley concluded with Makin’ Love. In the end, it was just down to Rock And Roll All Nite with all that confetti. For me the song of the concert was God of Thunder and overall Gene got the man of the match (although traditionally I have preferred Ace or Paul). Eric shouldn’t be left out either – he just makes Kiss that bit better if you would think that possible. To finish, in the words of Spiccoli AWESOME, TOTALLY AWESOME

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