Description

Double cd in digipak cover. Limited 100 copies

Who is the top heavy metal rock band around today? Def Leppard? Iron Maiden? Quiet Riot? Not quite. The true Masters of Metal, Kiss, put all these upstart bands in their place Friday night during a concert at the Long Beach Arena 27th of January 1984. You remember Kiss. The band that wore make up and the bass player who spit blood and breathed fire. The band that everyone liked in junior high school, and everyone thought was washed up in high school. Well, it seems that Kiss showed everyone that they weren’t washed up, if they ever were, during an hour and a half long set that showed headbangers that the groups of today are just cheap copies of the original. Aside from unleashing oldies like Firehouse, Rock and Roll All Night, Black Diamond and Love Gun, Kiss also showed the crowd that tunes like Lick it Up, All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose, I Still Love You and Creatures of the Night can compete with, and blow away any of today’s hits. Yes, bass player Gene Simmons did breathe fire. Yes, the volume of the show was deafening. And yes, there was a huge backdrop sign that flashed the word KISS throughout the show. But that was all that remained of the old Kiss. The make up, once the trademark of Kiss, was gone. So was the blood spitting. But listening to the band play, and watching the stage show, you realized that Kiss, the band that started the wild stage shows that are so often copied nowadays, was still the best at it. Singer/guitar player Paul Stanley, who along with Simmons are the only remaining members from the original line-up, sang in such a manner that even Ronnie James Dio would have been impressed. Vinnie Vincent, who replaced Ace Freyley on lead guitar, is equal to, if not better than, Frehley. Vincent set the stage ablaze with ripping solos throughout the night, especially on Firehouse. And drummer Eric Carr, perched atop the stage on a drum set that looked like a tank (turret and all) pounded away with excellence time and time again. His drum solo concluded with the tank shooting the overhanging speakers out with a massive explosion. Opening acts Riot and Vandenberg put on passable shows to warm up the crowd. Riot, who is doing some opening shows for Van Halen on the east coast, grabbed the crowd with songs like Born in America and Swords and Tequilla, while Vandenberg, named after lead guitar player Adrian Vandenberg, played a set of mellow metal. The highlight of the band was the guitar word of Vandenberg, who although not yet popular, may be the best guitar player around today. This show can now be found on this double cd. This is the show that Gene refers to in the Kisstory book where Vinnie over-extended his solo because he wanted to show off in front of his hometown fans. They had to go onstage and cut him off after about 6 minutes. Another interesting note is that Paul are doing the lead vocals on Black Diamond for reasons unknown.

Track list:
1. Intro
2. Creatures Of The Night
3. Detroit Rock City
4. Cold Gin
5. Fits Like A Glove
6. Firehouse
7. Guitar Solo -Paul Stanley
8. Gimme More
9. Guitar Solo -Vinnie Vincent
10. War Machine
11. Bass Solo -Gene Simmons
12. I Love It Loud
13. I Still Love You
14. Drum Solo -Eric Carr
15. Young And Wasted
16. Love Gun
17. All Hell´s Breakin Loose
18. Black Diamond
19. Lick It Up
20. Rock And Roll All Nite
21. 94.7 KMET Gene & Paul interview with Lucifer Larock, January 27, 1984