Description

Kiss 1988 Japan tour was part of their Crazy Nights World Tour, marking their first visit to Japan in a decade, featuring the line-up of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bruce Kulick, and Eric Carr, with multiple sold-out shows in Tokyo (Budokan, Yoyogi) and other cities like Osaka and Nagoya, celebrated with special tour merchandise and praised for great sound and setlists, including classics and tracks from Crazy Nights. With nearly 20 months passing between the end of the Asylum tour in April 1986 and the start of the Crazy Nights tour, Kiss had enjoyed their longest break in their history. However, enjoyed may well be a completely inappropriate word to describe the circumstances the band faced during that interim period. And Crazy Nights was a gamble. Wait for a producer and hope that he is able to replicate with Kiss what he had successfully done with act such as Heart and Ozzy Osbourne. Hope for a hit single to drive album and concert ticket sales. The band prepared a huge stage show and hoping the tour would be as mammoth as the album and set up a 85-city schedule. The tour attendances being a roller-coaster, Paul became somewhat fatalistic about the tour as it became apparent that the grand plan was a failure. At the time when he was carrying the weight of the band on his shoulders he said: I think there will always be a KissS. I hope so. I may not always be in it, but I think there will always be a Kiss. I can be replaced just as anybody in the band can be replaced, This was an underlying threat that could be seen as a veiled message directed at Gene, that he too was at risk. That Paul suddenly decided to embark on a solo tour the following year is illustrative of the stress on the dynamics within the band at the time. For the 6-dates Japan tour the staging had been more limited and the band left the pyro out and let the band’s musical performance to do the talking. Compared with the previous set used in the U.S., the band added Reason To Live and Black Diamond for the Nagoya show (first date on the Japan tour). The following night in Osaka, the set was further expanded with Calling Dr. Love, No, No, No, I Was Made For Lovin’ You and Strutter being performed. This album was recorded on the bands 5th date in Japan which was the second night at the classic Budokan Hall in Tokyo on April the 22nd of 1988.

Track list:
1. War Machine
2. I Love It Loud
3. Lick It Up
4. Black Diamond
5. I Was Made For Lovin You
6. Shout It Out Loud
7. Strutter
8. Rock And Roll All Nite
9. Detroit Rock City