From: Brian Schroeder
To begin, my brother ( from Buffalo, NY) and I (from Tampa, FL) arrived in Seattle Washington for the event of the millenium. Our drive from Seattle to Vancouver was fine until the rain and another problem came along. I checked our reservation and realized that we were booked at the Holiday Inn in Vancouver WASHINGTON instead of Vancouver BC. My brother pulled over and phoned the hotel and straightened out the mistake. WHEW! what a close call. We arrived around 6:00 pm at the Holliday Inn on Broadway in Vancouver and noticed that we were not the only fans staying there. The next afternoon we put the final touches on my Gene costume and by 5: 00 pm I was getting into make-up and costume. By 7:00pm I was in the lobby of the hotel awaiting a cab, ( we did not drive because we thought the parking would be a problem), and posing for alot of pictures with people who thought I looked great. We arrived at the stadium and there were lines at all the gates. As luck would go we had to get to gate F which was on the OTHER side of the arena. As we walked around to gate F, a girl interviewed and videotaped me as well as many other people taking pictures of me and cheering as I walked by. I have to admit that the attention was great. We were waiting in line and the smell of pot was so strong that I was stoned by the time I was let in. My brother was afraid of getting into trouble with the camera he brought and he shoved it down the back of my coustume. Security did feel it as I tried to walk on through but let me go anyway. Again, WHEW! Once inside we made a beeline for a beer which took quite a bit of time. My brother went to get tee shirts which was another disappointment since he waited forever and by the time he got to the stand the millenniumm tees were sold out and he had to settle for leftovers from the England and Germany shows, (good work on the part of the merchandise department). As we waited for the show to begin we met up with the tribute band "Shout it Out Loud" and a few others who were dressed up. They looked awesome. I had a great time posing for pictures with them and some really cool people. But alot of the drunken knuckleheads who were staggering around and really making a nusance of themselves made me realize what KISS and other famous stars have to put up with sometimes. No wonder KISS tries to avoid the fans so much. The lights finally went down and a video history of the band was shown. I especially thought it was great that Eric Carr was FINALLY acknowledged as a member of the group, (THANK YOU). When the show began everyone went beserk but I noticed right away that the tempo of the songs seemed slower and the guys seemed less enthusiastic than usual. When midnight came it went by without a real "HAPPY NEW YEAR" but some fireworks did light up the place. The band did the typical KISS repertoire and seemed rather pissed off throughout the show. I noticed a few problems and the accoustics were rather horrible. It was good to hear several of the 80's songs and I personally wished they would have done "Creatures of the Night", "Tears are Falling" and maybe a couple of songs from "Revenge". Toward the end of the show some guy got me and my brother into the reserved seating area with his extra ticket stub, (THANK YOU!!!), and we saw the last few songs a bit closer to the stage. The ending was great with all the pyro and I was drowning in confetti. As we were trying to get out of the reserved area some drunk tried to climb over the barricade to maul me and instad ended up sprawled on the floor after falling over it, it was hillarious. I went to the side of the stage where people with the backstage passes were waiting to get in. I was hoping that by some miracle I would possibly get in but after a while one of the roadies told everyone to go since the band left. I have to wonder why those passes are given out if no one gets to go back to meet the band. By that time I was ready to leave anyway since my feet were in pain from the boots and I was limping pretty badly. It was raining when we got outside and we could not get a cab even if we were dying. We went to a hotel near the stadium to wait and see if one would eventully stop and get us. I was really amazed and pissed off that on such a night the taxis were so hard to get. My brother finally walked back to our hotel, which was just over the bridge, and got the car to pick me up. I was lucky to be able to walk to the car since my feet were even worse. I will never make fun of a woman in high heels again! When we got back I took off the boots and saw a steam cloud rise from them as well as my feet go from a size 9 1/2 to a 12 in seconds. There were blisters on both of them as well. After I washed off the makeup, which still looked pretty good, we had a New Years toast in a Gene gobblet that was given to me for Xmas and went to bed. The next day we toured Vancouver a bit and I have to say that it is a BEAUTIFUL city. Even though there were a few bad moments, we DID have a great time and KISS still put on a good show. I hope to have another chance to see them in Tampa or anywhere else in Florida soon, though there are rumors that they may call it quits for good now. But if this is the end I 'm just glad that the beginning of the year 2000 started out so good.

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