From: Derek

WOW...Halloween Night...Dodger Stadium...KISS!

My first KISS concert was back on November 8, 1979 at the L.A. Forum. I was 10 years old, and my dad took me with 2 of my friends. WHAT A SHOW!

Here I am, 19 years later, back to see KISS on October 31st, 1998 at Dodger Stadium in LA, and, ironically enough, my dad took me with 2 of my friends. Just kidding. lol

Does the word spectacular even justify this show? I had never seen KISS play in a venue this size, and the place was packed. My guess, having attended tons of Dodger games, is the audience was anywhere from 43,000-48,000. Literally, the only place people were not sitting was where you couldn't see the stage. So much for the pessimists that said the show wasn't selling tickets.

The stage set is tremendous - two KISS logos on each side of the stage, a huge video screen behind Peter, an incredible lighting truss, tons of pyro and fireworks, etc.

The show kicked off with the always earth shattering "You Wanted the Best..." line as the guys walked on to the stage. In front of the stage was a curtain like the one on the cover of the new album. As soon as they broke into "Psycho Circus" there was a massive explosion, the curtain fell and KISS spent the next 2 hours and 15 minutes kicking the asses of almost 50,000 people.

The highlights? "Shout It Out Loud" was phenominal. I was thrilled to see and hear them do "100,000 Years." Ace's "Into the Void" sent the crowd into a frenzy (how nice is it to see NEW material going over this well?!). Peter sounded INCREDIBLE on "Nothin' To Lose." And Paul & Gene...what can you say about these two? Paul seemed to REALLY get off on the fact that the place was packed and the people were crazy. He kept shaking his head in amazement, kept telling the crowd he loved them, and continually put his hands to his heart and said "Thank you" to everyone. It was very cool to see.

When Peter made his way to center stage for his encore of "Beth," he looked out into the stadium (let me give you an idea of how packed this place was - at the very top of Dodger stadium, in the top, top level away from the stage, in addition to every seat being filled you could see the silhouettes of people standing BEHIND the seats watching...and I'm talking an unbroken chain of people from aisle to aisle). Peter just looked out and mouthed the word, "Wow."

Gene was his typical demonic self. Being in my positioning for this show (I watched the entire show from the photo pit), it was great to catch all the little details. it's amazing how much Gene controls the production from the stage: he's constantly talking to the band about things on stage, he was telling photographes to get down, he shook his finger at one fan for doing something (not sure what) as if to say, "Nuh-uh! We'll have none of that!" It was very cool. I loooooove Gene. The guys just kicks ass.

Other highlights...Paul swung out to the middle of the stadium (quite a trek at Dodger Stadium) to sing "Love Gun"...Ace's guitar didn't start smoking like it was supposed to so Ace started cracking up and walking to the side of the stage to switch guitars and then it started to smoke...They performed "I Was Made for Lovin' You" (which they didn't do at any of their LA shows last time) and it went over BIG...

The show ended in a spectacle of lights, music, confetti, etc. When Paul broke his guitar, there was a rabid fight for the body of the guitar. Security eventually ended up taking it. I stuck around in the pit because 50 people were waiting 15 minutes at the front to see who would get it! I had 10 people offer my money for it. lol. There was one guy who I tried to convince Security to give it to because he really seemed like a fan and wasn't even in the fight. He wanted so badly to just get a pick or something...I thought how cool it would have been for him to get Paul's guitar. But alas, they decided to return it backstage. At one point, I thought they were going to ask me if I wanted to take care of it. lol. Thank God, they didn't, otherwise I would have had Paul's guitar sitting next to my coffee and laptop right now!

GREAT, GREAT, GREAT show. The one and only...the best. No questions.

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