From: Clint Gascoyne

I'm torn. Caught Kiss on Sunday at the Meadowlands (http://kissasylum.com/views/psychocircus/live/meadowlands2.shtml) and to be honest, Friday night's show at Nassau Coliseum was better in some ways. The band's energy was so high that it was as if it was 1977 all over again. Especially since they didn't do any material past that year. They dropped "I Was Made For Loving You" and "Makin' Love" from the set, but, unfortunately, didn't replace those tunes with anything. Every song was tighter and faster than on Sunday night. I was fully prepared to be very critical of Peter Criss' performance, but he was so ON! The drummer is the backbone of a band, and Peter was in command on Friday. His solo was solid, and he knew it. You could see on his face that he was ready to challenge anyone who wanted to say he wasn't keeping up on the tour. The chemistry was there all night and the crowd could sense it. Not that the audience was quiet on Sunday, but we were shaking the walls of the Coliseum! Especially when they came back for the encore, after Peter's crowd-silencing "Beth". Paul was introducing the next song: "Do you wanna take a trip with us? Where do you wanna go?" Of course, we all knew we were going to "Detroit Rock City", and that would have been fine, but Ace had a different idea. "You know," Paul said, "even though this is our home, sometimes you find a place where you're greeted and taken in like you belong-" Suddenly Ace began the unmistakable lick to "New York Groove"! The people went crazy! Gene and Peter joined in, but Paul seemed insulted that he was interrupted. It was cool to see them so loose. An all around great show.

I won't bore you with too many details; the shows seem to be fairly consistent night to night. However, I do have a few comments: The set being cut short was a big disappointment, and during "Rock and Roll All Nite", the confetti left a lot to be desired. Now if you hadn't caught a show yet, you wouldn't have known, but compared to the Meadowlands show, there was NO confetti. We figured out what the probable reason was: There was an Islander game the following afternoon, so Kiss may have been asked to keep it short and neat. It's a damn shame, though. Paul's speech about the laser pointers seems to be part of the act now, but it's still a crowd pleaser.

After seeing two shows in a week, I must say it's great to have Kiss back. If they tour during the summer, I'll be there. I just hope they listen to their fans and vary the set a little. The most common comments I've seen by fans are: Drop "Within"; it's too dirge-y. Put "RARAN" back as the final encore; it kicks! Mix it up a little; the "New York Groove" tease was nice, but we'd like to hear the whole thing!

BTW: Ozone Monday (http://members.aol.com/nigelflash/) opened again at the Coliseum, and I started to recognize a few of their songs and sang along a bit. I especially liked "Hello hello" (don't know the title, but that was the chorus). A lot of energy and catchy tunes. A guy behind me arrived late and asked me about them. "It wasn't Skid Row?" he asked. "Well, the three guitarists from Skid Row-" "But it's not Sebastian Bach?" "No," I said, "Sebastian Bach's got a beer belly!" Anyway, keep your eye on them.

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