From: thunder@cloud9.net

KISS at Madison Square Garden 11/23/98

Gene, Paul, Peter and Ace were on the Opie and Anthony Show on WNEW earlier in the afternoon and they were hysterical! Man, I hope these guys are getting along because they were just tearing each other up! It was very funny - anyone who was listening to it has a new phrase in their vocabulary too - "Purple Dragon"!

Crowd was definitely in a better mood. Much more up and much more excited. A few celebs were there too - Sebastian Bach was getting more camera time than Gene! And of course he had Richie Scarlett in tow.

Paul had to do his obligitory Taxi cab story about him being a cab driver and dropping people off at the Garden for shows - wishing it was him they were going to see. But the crowd was loving it! Ace's guitar effect during Rock-n-Roll All Night was just too cool! I was with a friend of mine who is a tremendous Ace fan and he thought it was the coolest trick! Also one of my friends pointed out a small detail I overlooked, Ace's smoking pickup is not in the middle anymore - it's the Neck pickup. And he must be worried about what Gene and Paul think because when he made a little mistake in Let Me Go Rock-n-Roll - he turned around looked at Peter and mouthed "I F**KED UP"

Gene is using the Axe bass on only 2 songs!! God Of Thunder and Within, all the other songs he used the Punisher. As for Within - I may have been a little hasty in my earlier panning of how it sounds live. The first part of the song drags, but the last part where Paul and Ace are doing the solo it's pretty cool. I also forgot to mention in the last review that when he flies up to the top for GOT he starts hocking (blood filled) lugees on the crowd below. He still hasn't gotten that rig working right yet though and his costume seems to get in the way sometimes. He hit the strings and then flew up in the air but you could tell it was just a little too slow. By the time he had gotten to the level of the upper stage, something was wrong. He was only up to his knees, so he tucked them up and then the rig dragged him on to the platform. Now think about this - you're 6'2"+ on a 3x3 platform about 50-60 feet in the air in 7" platform boots and you're on your knees. Gene was pissed! He! grabbed the (bolted down) mike stand and just stood right up, but he was still pissed - he looked up in the air and yelled "F**K" But then continued like nothing had happened, but I'm sure someone got an ear full that night.

The Drum solo was a little different, but Peter is just not hitting the drums like he used to. My seats were off to the side of the stage, and I could see during Paul's "Black Diamond" guitar thing, Peter was resting on the stairs behind his drum kit and he had 2 guys rubbing his arms or shoulders - it was pretty dark, I couldn't tell, but he looked like he was in some pain. Makin' Love was painful to watch because you could tell the song was killing Peter, he didn't do the long drum roll at the end of the song, and he didn't play the alternating snare - floor tom outro drum part right either. Less laser pointers, but there were still a few flashing on the screens during the show. Not as much confetti as Continental Arena, but still a lot.

There seemed to be some technical difficulties as well that I hadn't noticed the night before in NJ. I noticed it most on Love Gun, during the chorus, there was a terrible humming or buzzing, almost like a few of the PA speakers had been blown. It was pretty annoying and lasted through the last third of the show. But the highlight of the show was when current (but not for long) Mercury Records President, Danny Goldberg (Sp?) presented the band with Gold Records for Psycho Circus - they all had them - very cool. You could tell they were very happy about it.

Overall - very good show. You can tell the guys are getting into the swing of it now. I am concerned about Peter - a few weeks ago I read a posting that he is done at the end of this tour, the next week I read another saying Gene has Peter and Ace confirmed for 3 more albums. What do you believe? I believe what I saw the last 2 nights, which is a guy who is some serious pain, and has difficulty reproducing songs he recently recorded. Just by what I've seen in the last 2 nights - I would be (pleasantly) surprised to see Peter continue beyond 2000. I love the guy, but you can tell he just doesn't have it in him anymore. One good thing - Paul said that the guys would definitely be coming back to MSG, maybe for another multi-night deal!! One more night to go - Nassau Coliseum on Friday!!!!

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