Description
Double cd in a tri-folded digipak cover
Kiss in Russia is always special as the band never made it over there until 2008 and this show at the Olympijskiy Stadium in Moscow 2017 was only the bands third ever show n the country and it was also special because it was the first show on the Kissworld 2017 tour, a tour that would see the band in Europe for the first month before ending the tour in Usa in late September. Simmons is the face of Kiss but Stanley’s limousine always arrives first, “because he’s the boss”, someone mutters. Stanley applies his make-up – a soft-faced, effeminate character known as The Starchild – in a private room, while Simmons packs into one dressing room with the rest of the band, playing the Kinks at loud volume. Gene takes over two hours to complete the process “because he is talking all the time”, Stanley says. “It’s very hard to do it when your mouth is moving. Me, I can do it in half an hour.” Stanley drifts down the corridor and thw Olympijskiy Stadium and slips into his his dressing room. It’s a triumph of interior decorating, the Soviet-style lime-green walls and strip lighting obscured by satin drapes. Simmons on the other hand says, You know why we were the number-one banned band in Russia?” he told me. “‘I wanna rock’n’roll all night’, ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You’ – the most powerful word in the English language is ‘I’. There is no scarier word for an authoritarian regime.” The band enters the stage and the show starts. On either side of the stage at the Olympic stadium are small bulletproof tents and half way through the show Paul Stanley takes a zip wire over 15,000 Russian fans and lands with force, on unforgiving platforms, on his second hip replacement. He bursts into a perfect Christ-like arc, and keeps up an energetic but slightly banal stage patter: “Here is a song from 1988!” Over to the left, in a pool of green light, stands a crazy lump – blank of face, rolling of eye, head jerking in time to the music with globules of viscous blood bubbling up from a black mouth. For a moment, there is something tragic about Simmons, like a mad, chained bear, a freakshow. Then he’s breathing fire. Ticker tape explodes on to the crowd from two big cannons; flames leap, and then it’s over. In the hotel car park, the door of Simmons’s taxi falls open to reveal him etched in light, head back, encrusted with fake blood. His minders walk him through the back of the building, but, knowing his tendency to “slime” people, no one wants to share the lift with him. The tour debut is now over and its time to relax before its time to evaluate the good and the bad things before the next show. This limited album also features a bonus concert with Gene Simmons Band from his See You Tonite tour of 2018. This was recorded at the Lynn Memorial on the 16th of February 2018.
Track list:
1 Intro
2. Deuce
3. Shout It Out Loud
4. Lick It Up
5. I Love It Loud
6. Love Gun
7. Firehouse
8. Shock Me
9. Guitar Solo
10. Flaming Youth
11. Bass Solo
12. War Machine
13. Crazy Crazy Nights
14. Cold Gin
15. Say Yeah
16. Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll
17. Psycho Circus
18. Black Diamond
19. Detroit Rock City
20. I Was Made For Lovin’ You
21. Rock And Roll All Nite
22. Gene Simmons Band -Are You Ready
23. Gene Simmons Band -Almost Human
24. Gene Simmons Band -Long Tall Sally
25. Gene Simmons Band -I
26. Gene Simmons Band -Help
27. Gene Simmons Band -Strutter
28. Gene Simmons Band -Sweet Pain
29. Gene Simmons Band -Shes So European
30. Gene Simmons Band -Charisma
31. Gene Simmons Band -Its My Life