Steve Bartlett | The Telegram

Keith Gosse

It wouldn’t surprise me if St. John’s city council had an emergency vote on roof repairs for Mile One because KISS blew the lid off the place Sunday night.

I joke, of course, but if there ever was a show to wreck the rafters and release the rivets, it was this one.

There were explosions. Lots and lots of explosions.

And lots and lots of pyro.

And a whole lot of other things that made it a one-of-a-kind, over-the-top rock spectacle.

The band landed on stage playing on a monstrous mechanical spider that did all sorts things throughout the show.

They kicked it off with the song “Psycho Circus” and proceeded to rock ‘n’ roll all nite, delivering a set that mixed most of their popular stuff with a few new ones.

While the music rocked, but was not for everyone, the show wowed the entire audience, which included bassist Gene Simmons’ wife, Newfoundland-born Shannon Tweed, and their daughter, Sophie Tweed-Simmons.

Besides the explosions, guitars fired like guns, singer/guitarist Paul Stanley sailed over the crowd, and Simmons ascended to the rafters atop the spider, spitting blood and singing his signature “God of Thunder.And that’s just the bottom of the platform boot.

The show was packed with too many things to list.

A colleague who saw KISS’s first show at Mile One Saturday night rightly described it as “a comic book come to life, the rock concerts of old, revived.”

KISS ended that revival with a blizzard of confetti, more explosions, and the song “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

When the band said goodnight, there was a huge sign at the back of the stage that said something to the effect of “KISS loves St. John’s.”

Judging from the smiles on the faces of the crowd after the show, St. John’s loved KISS, too.