From: Ken Gullic
KISS: UNMASKED ALIVE IN SYDNEY! APRIL 7, 2001

THE STARS?

SYDNEY: 5 out of 5... BEAUTIFUL! It's so awesome to see Kiss in the land of UNMASKED! A highly recommended jaunt, even after Kiss stops touring!

THE SET LIST: 5 out of 5! It made a total of 20 hours in the air to get here, worth it- and it made it easier to look passed...

THE PERFORMANCE: 4 out of 5. Imagine listening to Alive II and Alive III at the same time. You like them both, I'm sure- but they're at odds with each other execution and style wise. Better said- listen to a stereo album on a mono turntable... TOO MUCH INFORMATION FOR THE SYSTEM. I'll explain.

THE PERFORMERS:

GENE SIMMONS: 4 out of 5. Gene looked good, played well- but was sloppy with the lyrics, mostly- and is just way too happy. When you have to prompt an audience to chant your name by actually saying (into the mic) "GENE, GENE, GENE..." you lose that larger than life mystique. Don't get me wrong, he's probably my all time face member- that's why I expect a little more than "pull the string, and it's HAP-PEEEE GENE... he bops- he smiles- he's a best friend to any child!"

ACE FREHLEY: 4 out of 5. I actually expected even less from Ace on this occasion, but he seems to have more energy now (despite the fact that his chops are not as good as even the last days of the U.S. tour- and he was not great then)- and MORE BODY FAT! Yes, he's either pregnant, or smuggling his PSYCHO CIRCUS ERA BOWLING BALL underneath that space suit- whose waist line is stretched beyond the norm. It's strange, 'cause his legs are still twigs, but... TALK TO ME made up for it!! (Even though he butchered a chord progression mid way through... authors are entitled, I s'pose.) Musically, though, Ace is now the one holding the band back. Thayer's hair is too short, and I don't think Bruce would wear Ace make up... so I think we are stuck with this fact.

PAUL STANLEY: 5 out of 5! He was so good, you almost didn't notice. I had to think back to realize he never screwed up, was thinner than he has been in many a moon, and sang his ass off almost all night! Good on ya mate! Now play "Tonight You Belong To Me" and I'll be in heaven! SHANDI ruled... I can't believe I'm in Australia and could say that!

ERIC SINGER: 3 out of 5 (now this is complicated!) ; musically he gets 4 stars (a better player than Peter, we ALL know this, but...) and as the CATMAN II he gets 2 out of 5 (sometimes it worked, mostly it was WEIRD). For all that he adds as a player- and that's a lot, he also loses something by overplaying most (not all) of the evening, READ: it ain't no tribute to PETER, let's say that much. Sometimes he was appropriately restrained, but usually he wasn't. And when he did try to literally do some of Peter's more recent bits... well, I actually cringed at a KISS concert for the first time since GENE'S Animalize shin guards (okay, I only saw those on MTV).

THE SET LIST:

DETROIT ROCK CITY: As always, you're so happy the show is starting, it takes a second to realize you,re at a show with some strange element. Well played, but the camera crew was so unabashed about showing ERIC CATMAN II close ups- way more than I was ready for... I found myself thinking... EASY (with the) CATMAN II (sorry Ron!) already. PLUS: Eric plays this song noticeably different than Peter. He adds a slight pause, during the verses, right before Gene (Bob Ezrin's?) signature riff. It actually disrupts the flow of the song, if you're listening with your ears and not your eyes. If you watched with you eyes, you saw Eric chewing gum and bopping his head like it was gonna come off... and you'd think, "Well, it's the first song, and I'd be that happy too- and surely it will stop..."

DEUCE: always cool to hear, and fairly on. Yes, Eric uses the cowbell. I still wasn;t over him being back there. The suspension of disbelief is crucial to any work of fiction, and well... the chewing and bopping continued. Your happy for the guy, but...

SHOUT IT OUT LOUD: played fairly straight. Eric did not have the usual vocal spot at the end of the song that Peter sometimes had... which thankfully eased the weirdness for me. And it didn't matter, 'cause I knew what was next!!

TALK TO ME: AWESOME!! The reason for the long trip, practically. Ace starting the song blew my mind, and this was the first song where Eric actually shined (vocally and on drums). Kinda fitting since Peter wasn't on UNMASKED. It's so cool to be in an audience where Paul can announce... "Hee-yez a sawng frum Un-mayesked" and everybody cheers 'cause they know what that is. The highlight was Paul coming to ACE's mic (for the first time all night) to sing the post solo line "I just wanna, talk to youuuuuuuu..." pretty killer, and as I said, it made up for Ace botching the chord progression early on.

I LOVE IT LOUD: this was one of those few occasions where OLD KISS (Paul, Gene and Ace) and NEW KISS (Paul, Gene and Eric) could peacefully co-exist. And you were never worried that Peter would somehow mess up such a simple song. And the crowd eats this one up... if only Gene didn't seem so thrilled!

FIREHOUSE: overall, pretty cool- and Eric had the cowbell thing down... GENE had to spit fire towards stage left (with his back to the audience) due to a air conditioning draft. THE WEIRDEST MOMENT of the evening, thus far- was when Eric stood up at the end of the song to do Peter's Cymbal Bell repetition. It looked to obvious, and not very Eric like. An A for effort though...

DO YOU LOVE ME: always a highlight, and Eric actually played more restrained in this than any other thus far- and it worked. It was, however, SOOOOO weird to watch Eric as the Catman in front of classic Peter footage. Too weird for the eyes. I took a photo of Eric as Peter's solo album cover came up behind him. Gotta love Kiss for providing so much irony over the years. They coulda added more UNHOLY footage to even things out or something.

CALLING DR. LOVE: Rock and Roll Over is my favorite album, but this still bores me to tears live. I do remember Eric singing his ass off on b/up vox here.

HEAVENS ON FIRE: another song where old and new Kiss peacefully co-exist. Those flames seemed very hot tonight. They could drop this for Tears Are Falling, and I wish they would.

LET ME GO ROCK AND ROLL: okay, this wins the WEIRDEST SONG OF THE EVENING AWARD! First off- Gene butchers the lyrics... he starts with the second verse ("I never knew I needed...") and does the third verse in the second and so on. He's so happy, he doesn't seem to care. THEN: where Gene used to do his "Peterrrrrr Crrrrrrrissssssss!" intro- he now does "Errrrrrrric SSSSSSSsingerrrrrrrr" bit- and there's no reaction. No booing, mind you, but NO reaction. I assume Sydney doesn't react to prompts, but when Gene does the "ACE FREHLEYYYYYYYY" thing, the crowd goes wild. EVEN WEIRDER: where Peter used to do the dorky "New Jersey... who loves you, KISS- well you can all go rock and roll!" (always hated this, and don't know why they still do this) ERIC does "SYDNEY (which sound like THYDNEY [honestly]) KISS LuhUHuhUHuhUHuhUHuhUHuh-VES you." It was AWFUL. {THIS was the cringe moment where I said "OH MY GOD" out loud. Even Eric doesn't seem comfy doing it. It was just beyond dorky. At least when Peter used to do it, he sounded PISSED. Pissed that it took this long for him to have a vocal to himself, and PISSED 'cause he always is. Eric just sounded wimpy and awkward here. Loved him on Unplugged, so this isn't a Parsite74 rant guys, relax. This was just a dumb embarrassing moment (along the lines of Gene saying "We're still rockin!" on Arsenio during Deuce when they were promoting Alive III). bAD.

SHOCK ME: This is where Ace seemed to have some energy when talking to the audience. And this is where I recommend watching Paul- 'cause nobody does, and that's when he's busiest throwing out pics, and YES I finally got one from Pauly. I did the solo made dash to two chairs over... and scored it unscathed. As for ACE's solo- there were times when it sounded like he was still learning it, honestly. I almost felt for him. That's the thing. When Peter fucked up- his Italian temper allowed you to be pissed at him, but when Ace does it, it's sad or cure or forgivable (until you think about the fact that he's making more money in one night then most of us see in a year). OTHER WEIRDNESS: as Paul is doing the "Ace Frehley... lead gee-tah" bit, Eric goes ballistic and way overboard with some jazzy fills- to the point where he realizes, suddenly, that he's on stage with Gene Simmons, not Alice Cooper- and he looks over at gene in what can only be described as a WORRIED look- and Gene of course is looking back... and sez something. To which Eric replies... and they both kind laugh nervously. Not a tense moment, mind you, but noticeable.

PSYCHO CIRCUS: I really thought that this would be the song where Eric would shine (since Peter didn't play on the studio version), but somewhere along the way I learned to love Peter's live performance, and I found myself a little possessive of the PSYCHO CIRCUS band. We've seen all of the other songs performed by every incarnation imaginable, but NOT THIS ONE (yet). It lost something for me. Eric's still chewing and bopping and altogether way too happy to stand up between songs, and make noise during Paul's raps and everything, by the way.

LICK IT UP: Okay, another old Kiss meets new Kiss thing that worked. Eric laid low... though he did fuck up coming out of the post solo "ooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH" build up and played out of it too fast and nearly lost the band. That's another key difference between Peter and Eric. When Peter would fuck up- he'd pause, then follow the band. Everyone would notice- 'cause he'd usually stop playing and let Paul take the lead. When Eric fucks up- it's usually an error on the aggressive side- and the band has to follow him back in the song. They both fuck up, gang.

GOD OF THUNDER: okay, gene actually looked evil during the blood bath- especially when he froze, and the cameraman did a close up. It worked mostly, until he rose to the top of his lighting stage, and started the "Gene, Gene, Gene!" chant for himself. It's like Jack Nicholson turning to the screen during One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest and saying "By the way, I'm Jack Nicholson!" Not needed, and it fucks up the moment. ERIC'S SOLO: much much cooler than expected. It was well structured, and went from being Peter-esque to Eric-like w/no problem. The flaming stick bit was actually cool... a nice touch- especially when he did the cymbal solo with them. Not just a cheap visual, and thumbs up from me.

COLD GIN: funny personal moment... I am SOOOOO bored with this song, I sit down. But I am in the fifth row, and apparently the only one doing so. So Gene sees me, before the song starts (Paul's doing his al-chee-holl rap) and points to me to get up. I don't really pay attention, 'cause he does this all night... so I ignore it. He, however, continues and does it again- points and yells for me to GET UP (or I'll lose my seat?). I laugh, and mouth "who me?" while pointing to myself first, and then behind me as if he could mean someone else... BUT EVERYONE is standing behind me. Gene's annoyed- and really waves and yells... he seems pissed that someone is toying with him and ignoring him all at once. I'm in shock that he's paying attention to a guy for once, and finally laugh and get up. At this point- many people in the first few rows are watching this and laughing. Sorry Gene... but at least I got him out of the HAPPY GENE persona!! ;) The song was fine and boring by the way.

100,000 YEARS: fairly cool, and Eric did more so the traditional Peter styled here, not his Brooklyn Rock City bootleg thing.

LOVE GUN: sounded fine, and people lobe the Paul flying thing. For me it doesn't touch ...

THE PAUL MEDLEY (another reason for 20 hours in the air!)

I STILL LOVE... good, and he played a full verse and chorus, enough to make me worry that he wouldn't do...

HARD LUCK WOMAN: AWESOME!! A full verse, chorus, and outro ("I'm just packing my bags..." Killer. Everybody sang along, but not as loudly as they did for...

SHANDI: BRILLIANT! Suddenly Paul's the man, as he does a full verse and chorus and the whole place is fairly loud- along with him.

BLACK DIAMOND: by now- I'm so giddy about SHANDI that I forget that ERIC sings this now. He did a good job. And tonight he said "Gene's got you under his thumb!"

ENCORES:

I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU: speaking of Gene- he played with a Gene bear before this song, held it up to his crotch and everything. Pretty funny. This song also merged old and new Kiss in an okay fashion. The band leaves the stage again... but this wait is worth it...

THE MEDLEY: {not so much are these songs joined together (they are not)- but they've apparently done this enough to where it seems more so rehearsed and organized (and I'm fine with that- given what they are doing with this). Most of the bits had tight endings

PAUL'S INTRO FOR THIS SPOT WAS FUNNY AND SEEMED TO INDICATE IT WAS ABOUT OLD STUFF (which means NO REVENGE STUFF?!!? BUMMER!) "No trains wrecks, just fun.... with the real old stuff" said Pauly.

exact order:

NEW YORK GROOVE (chorus only) {this was okay. not that exciting for a crowd in SYDNEY AUSTRALIA!

PARASITE: (verse and 1st chorus). Cool, but not a fave. Tight ending.

SHE: (verse and first chorus). Though not my fave either... it flowed the best out of all of these.

MAKIN LOVE: (verse, chorus, almost started second verse) this was the one I wanted them to continue. Not as tight as SHE, but cool, and they sloppily ended this one.

ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE: This is the one where Eric's feel is the weirdest. Peter had that jungle drum throb down, and Eric sounds like a machine, but by now- nobody notices.

OVER ALL: a good but weirdly historic show. This line up, however, is too weird to continue- THE ALIVE II AND ALIVE III vibes contradict each other, and Ace is nearly lost in the mix. Bring back Peter or Bruce (in ANKH make up- someone to give it dignity, since it wasn't really Vinnie's design?) for this band to have a future.

OTHER: THE MERCH SITUATION IN SYDNEY SUCKED BADLY. One booth, and very little to choose from. No event shirts at all. One fairly tame Aussie shirt (w/Peter). The programs (yes, with the Eric insert) still had Japanese text, and no other changes. Pretty disappointing. I'd have rather had a shirt with Eric on it...to have an honest representation of this show... as weird as it was.

CONCLUSION: VISIT SYDNEY SOMEDAY, and I'm glad to see Kiss in any incarnation, but this is weirder than any thus far.

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