To start the evening, the opening band hit the stage. A band from Austin called Pushmonkey. They're like a working-man's Alice In Chains. They were OK, but the music, like much of what's out there today, started to sound the same. They played for 30 minutes on the dot...thankfully.
The music roared from speakers hung from the rafters. "Deuce" rang out in all of its glory...truly one of my favorite songs by KISS, and one that must be heard live to be fully appreciated. The original fearsome foursome, Gene, Paul, Ace and the other guy...oh, yeah...Peter...took the stage by storm.
Once the boys had firmly planted themselves on the stage, the show started and never stopped. They ripped through versions of "Do You Love Me" and "Let Me Go, Rock N Roll" that were worthy of being recorded live and sold for a mint. The one complaint that I had was that they didn't perform "She" or "Parasite". The rumors that I've heard were that Peter, in initial practice runs, wasn't able to maintain his action through a set including these songs. Apparently, and I'm only going by rumor, Peter passed out before he was able to complete a complete session. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but I sure would like to hear the reason why they didn't play those songs, some of my favorites.
After Gene performed his ritualistic blood-spitting routine, he was supposed to fly into the air to a platform that was perched above the stage. Well, apparently there were some problems with his harness and Gene had to lengthen his bass solo for a solid two minutes while a roadie messed with the eqipment...very SPINAL TAP-ISH indeed...
As the show came to a close, the band mounted hydralic lifts to finish the song "Black Diamond", one of the pinnacles of the performance. These platforms exteded out over the crowd and came damn close to ten feet from the first level up. As was expected, the drum riser rose into the air to reveal the "tiger" banner (as seen on the inside gatefold of Alive II.). Although it didn't look quite as elaborate as the earlier version, it was still impressive.
Paul was in peak form that fateful night in Dallas, KISSxas. His vocal performance is a whole class different that the Alive! era, but not neccessarily a whole class better. Nowadays, his voice is much deeper, much smoother that it was back in the 70's and this made a subtle difference in his performance. I noticed it the most in his performing of "Firehouse" and "Strutter", both great songs, but containing a different texture than they did in the 70's. Now, I won't pretend to have seen them live during the early makeup eras...my experience is based on the video and audio bootlegs that I have in my collection. But due to the number of times that I've sat and watched these shows, I think that my opinion is validated.
Peter's case is a different story than that of Paul's. When the "jumbotron" screen displayed the Catman's mug for all of creation to see, it was a bit unsettling, for a lack of a better word. It didn't look like Criss was having fun. Whereas in many of the videotaped shows that I've seen Peter looked like he was enjoying himself, he didn't seem to have that same "bounce". It might have everything in the world to do with the fact that he's 15 years older now, but if Paul, Ace and Gene were able to pull it off, why wasn't he?
But aside from that, his performance seemed flawless and his solo mimicked the one from "Alive!"...not a real flashy one, but a real driving one. Very enjoyable. Now, I've heard that the reason that "She" and "Parasite" didn't appear in the setlist was that Peter couldn't go through the movements of a full show including these songs so they were pulled in order to keep Peter seated upright. If that's the case, well, so be it. I still have to admire the guy for doing what he's doing and how well he's doing it.
Ace...now there's a character for ya. I can still remember the first time that I saw Ace perform in makeup...it was on a bootleg, of course. My buddy, Teeth, and I were being dazzled by the band when the camera shifted to Ace...we started rolling on the floor laughing! There he was (probably)half-drunk, pigen-toed, knock-kneed, and barely able to stay vertical. Teeth and I still mock his stage presence by stumbling around the room, half-tripping over ourselves. Now, as far as the current Ace goes, he seems much more comfortable in the platform shoes. He walked around with little effort, not once taking a faulty step.
Again, Ace seemed much more comfortable onstage. It must have something to do with the fact that he has had several years of practice playing in bars and stripclubs. I saw him back in May of 1994 at a small club called "The Blue Note" where he played in front of no more than 200 people. But even then, his demeanor was one of almost "nonchalance"...a bit detached from the performance and the crowd. (It was almost comical how, in the middle of "Rock Soldiers", he turned to the crowd to finish a line and about 3 people know what it was....I knew it, of course...) But I digress...
Ace did a great job, musically and as far as showmanship was concerned. His playing seemed flawless and the smoking guitar brought many cheers from the godless masses. His firework-shooting guitar kept the excitement level high and his solo was beautifully put together...considering that half of it was stolen from his Alive! solo performance.
Gene was...well...Gene. But the one criticizm that I have for the show was his stage-presence. In shows that I have seen from the 70' and early 80's, Gene "leapfrogged" or even did a "long-legged stalk" around the stage. But for this show, he did more of a "mosey" or "shuffle" around the stage. Gene would stand in one place, flick his tongue in and out and in and out and in and...you get the idea...and then walk to a different spot on the stage and repeat it. Now, there were a few times where he would "get down" and revert back to the old Gene that we have all come to know and fear, but these instances were few and far between. Because this show was supposed to emulate the performances of the 70's, I'm suprised that he didn't rework his stage presence.
As far as performance was concerned, he did a great job. The bass was turned up quite a bit, so his performance was very easy to pinpoint.
Well, that about does it for my Dallas review. If you have any comments or rebuttals to make...bite me... ;)