Circumstances have left me seeing Kiss twice in the last couple of weeks.
These guys (albeit only the original Gene and Paul) could teach the kids today about true rock and roll concerts.
I had the pleasure of seeing them in Sarnia and in Ottawa and … WOW! I bet they’re pushing 60 but due to the clever marketing (makeup and wigs) you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish them from their heyday. They sound fantastic!
Rock and Roll all Night and Party Every Day.
Ditto! My wife had never seen them and I am a card carrying member of the KISS army so we saw the Ottawa show. They’re still the greatest rock and roll show on Earth!
I have seen them about a dozen times since 1979 and wasn’t sold on Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer at first but you forget pretty soon they’re impersonators.
Who knows when they’ll ever tour again, see them now!
Their first album in ten years is scheduled to drop in October, and there is a big North American tour in the works.
Musically, I think they’re better off with Eric and Tommy at this point. They sound pretty tight on the youtube clips I’ve seen from the Canadian shows going on now.
My son (9 yrs old) loves their music and wants to see them. I’ve been to a few rock concerts (not KISS)over the years and the only thing that prevents me from taking him is open the drug use of concert goers. I think he is too young to be exposed to that. (yes I’ve become a prude in my old age)
Judging from what you saw at the two shows you were at and by my concerns would this concert be “safe” to take my son?
I saw them in Seattle in 1975 or 1976, right after “Rock and Roll All Night” came out. I was way too young then, and I think I’m way too old now. 
No.
Just … no.
I cannot begin to tell you how wrong that statement is.
You may like the wigs, the make up, the exploding props, the fireworks, and the masturbatory guitar solos, but don’t call it rock and roll.
Ugh.
Dude, it’s all about the music.
Pfffffht.
KISS was a pseudo-heavy metal version of the Monkees marketed to 11 year old boys. I have to give them credit where it’s due – their marketing job was so well done that the subset of 11 year olds who fell for that crap back in the 70’s are still hooked on it well into their forties. Gene et al have been doing a masterful job of cynically milking that audience for 30 years now.
If I want to see fireworks, I’ll go to a fireworks show. If I want to see make up, I’ll go to the Clinique counter at Macy’s. If I want to see a great rock concert, a KISS show is the last place I’d go.
I remember being in the grocery store when I was nine in 1979, begging my Mom to buy me a KISS lunchbox. I almost had her on the hook until this busybody lady nearby butts in and is all “Oh no, young man, you don’t want THIS lunchbox…these men worship The Devil!”.
Needless to say I ended up with a Spiderman lunchbox instead. I’ve never forgiven that random lady.
::shakes fist::
So which one is it?
And I thought I was being snarky!
This is exactly why I used the term “show” instead of concert. I’ve seen hundreds of concerts, by pretty much everyone who’s toured in the last 30 years… but for pure spectacle and entertainment value KISS is a must see at least once in your lifetime.
I’ve seen many, many concerts, and the 1976 Destroyer show has to be in the top ten, if not the top five. (Being 12th row center may have had something to do with it :D)
After a show like that, I never had the urge to go to another KISS concert–how could they possibly top it? I’d rather keep it in my memory like a specimen in rock and roll amber.
One other thing about KISS…Gene Simmons and Vinnie Vincent coined a phrase that dovetails very nicely into my personal philosophy: “You’ve gotta live like you’re on vacation!”
I just saw a Nickelback show several weeks ago. They stole all of that from Kiss.
Honestly, their first four or five albums as much straight up rock and roll as anything in their day. Don’t hate on Kiss, marketing or not, Strutter rocks. Yeah the song is old, and I can’t tell you a song they’ve released in the past 10 years but I could say the same for the Stones.
I wonder about these ‘circumstances’ that cause one to see a KISS concert.:dubious:
Why so dubious?
How dubious is this? What are you implying?
Wife spent much of a KISS concert in a stairwell trying to sell “ludes” (which were aspirins) to kids and their moms back in the 70s (Not surprisingly, they shunned her, but their concert-going-experience was improved MANY-fold), and she says they knew how to put on a show.
I think this speaks volumes and wraps up this thread nicely 
I’m not a KISS fan by any means, but I went to see them when they re-launched themselves at Tiger Stadium back in '96, and I have to admit, it was the best show I ever saw. It was quite the rock spectacle. Musically? Meh. Performance? Killer!
I concur. Care not a damn about their music but I saw them in Anaheim a few years back and it was an incredible show.