KISS - Past and Present (Moved from "Top 2009" thread)

[richseered]

Well, both Classic Rock magazine and a couple of rock radio stations here in the UK have been dropping pretty obvious hints that Kiss are going to announce their first UK dates since 1999

My wife had never seen them, and I'm glad that when she does it'll be this line up, purely from the point of view of the playing not being sloppy. I was watching "Kissology" vol III yesterday, and the reunion era shows aren't as bad as some of the live bootlegs I heard in 96 / 97.

Anyways, I'll be ordering tickets as soon as they're available

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

Funny I just watched the KISSOLOGY vol. 3 for the first time in a while, and I was cringing like mad throughout the whole Tiger Stadium 1996 show. I know it was the first show of the tour (not counting KROQ fest) but yikes, Ace is reaaaaally bad on there. Peter was pretty solid, you could tell he was invigorated at that point.

In comparison, I just got my hands on the pro-audio recording of the Chicago show I just attended a few weeks ago, and it sounds awesome. The only downside is hearing how much Paul's voice has deteriorated but unfortunately I guess that's to be expected at his age.

 

[richseered]

Larry - yeah, to be honest it was more a case of Peter sounding better than I remembered and Ace being pretty awful. I watched all of disc three (I think the Tiger Stadium show is on disc 2?) and as you say, Ace veered from ok to horrible on each of the shows. At the show I saw at Wembley in 96, the mix was a little strange in that the triggers on Peter's drums gave the whole kit a very weird sound, almost like a delay effect, so it was hard to tell how tight he was playing. Ace played pretty well at the gig I saw, which is why it was all the more surprising to see how badly he played on some of the other shows from the same tour.

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

Yeah, at some of the shows between 1996 and 2000 that I saw, Ace played pretty well. When I saw them on the Psycho Circus tour in 1998, I thought he was great that night, and I had a great time. But I like the fact that they are now far more consistent with the current lineup, and while I'll miss seeing Ace Frehley as the spaceman, I more miss him for what he was in the glory days, rather than what he's capable of (or lack thereof) these days. He's doing his solo thing, he seems more content, cool for him. And if he can keep his act together, then all the better.

 

[swany76]

I saw Kiss on that 96 reunion tour in Moline. I was up front, and at the time didn't care for quality of playing, or even pay attention to it, as I do now. I'd love to hear a pro recording of that. What stuck with me was how damn loud the whole show was. What was cool was the Melvins opened that show. I think Iwas the only one that knew or even gave a shit about them, but boy did they plsy thier asses off.

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

I was at that Moline show too. But I was way in the back, still it was a good show, one of the better ones. I saw them right afterwards at the Chicago shows too, so I got to see them with The Melvins more than once, that was cool.

 

[richseered]

Got tickets for me & the missus this morning, already got 'em through the miracle of e-tickets
My wife has never seen Kiss, so she's really jazzed about going. A lot of younger guys I know (younger than me anyhow, lol) are going too. One guy is a major Bill Hicks fan and got into them after reading that Bill loved Kiss! Also, Gene did two series here in the UK of a show called "Rock School", where he mentored a group of teenage school kids as they formed a band. The first series was set at a very expensive, very exclusive school, and the second was in an ordinary school in a pretty run down area. Gene came across very well in both series and the kids really took to him. So between that and "Guitar Hero" they seem to have a higher profile this side of the pond than in the past.

Guys, also on the reunion tour, I read a fairly recent interview with Ace where he said he "wasn't really allowed to drink" on the first reunion tour, which might explain why his playing was better at that point. I saw an tv interview with the band from when they announced the farewell tour, and Ace looked and sounded to be in pretty bad shape when he spoke - it was blatanly obvious he was out of it, and not in a happy Tom Snyder show kind of way, it was painful to see.

Haven't heard "Anomaly" yet, although I will get around to it. I'd be keen to hear what his playing is like on it, cos up until the late 80s, he sounded to be still progressing as a player -there's a couple of songs on "Trouble Walkin'" where you can tell it's him playing (as opposed to Richie Scarlett), but the licks have kicked up a gear and he's playing some pretty fast runs (on "Shot Full Of Rock" in particular). I was really disappointed to hear his playing go downhill so much by the later stages of the reunion era.

Trying to work out how many times I've seen Eric Singer live now- three times in Alice Cooper's band and this will be twice with Kiss.

 

[OPETH_DT]

As far as "Anomaly" goes, I haven't heard it yet; but, to include "Sister" on it doesn't surprise me at all. I heard the demo version a long time ago, as well as the other two songs on that demo, and I saw him perform it twice back in 1995, so I wonder if the cd would sound dated at all, coming from him. It wouldn't be a huge surprise.