From: Todd
This was the second KISS concert I've been to. I was impressesed enought afterseeing them in Toronto to drive 3 1/2 hours to catch them again in Ottawa.

Unfortunately the Corel Centre was even close to a sell-out. Maybe only 7500 people there (it would hold 15-16000 for a concert I would guess). Lots and lots of empty seats. I was lucky though and had 9th row centre!

A local Ontario group called Serial Joe opened up. I had never heard of them. They were four 16-18 year olds who looked pretty nervous and rightfully so!

Skid Row came on and announced they had a whole hour to play. ACK!!! Not an hour!! Oh how I wish Nugent was there...

There were good things and bad things about last night's KISS show, but even with the bad, I really had a good time.

First the good!

Just before the show started, I could see through the curtains down one of the hallways underneath the stands that Peter Criss was milling about. No one else seemed to notice though. When DRC started, Peter was laughing quite a bit and looking at Ace, who was also grinning. No idea what that was about.

It was good to be able to know more of the songs for this concert. Ace's playing seemed quite good.

Earlier in the week I had been fighting the flu and after standing for a almost two hours I was beginning to feel kind of weak. This part got me going again though! After they all came back to the stage after Beth, Paul doing a little bit of a rap with the audience. I read a previous review from a Syracuse show (I think) where it said they jammed a bit doing other various songs, so this is what I was expecting. Paul asks if we want to hear "I was made for lovin' you". Of course the crowd does. He launches in to it then turns around and stops. He then says something to the effect, "I guess we should have a drummer for this". Peter gets back to his drums. I figured that was it, they were just teasing us. They start it again. A few beats into it Paul stops and says he wants to start again. Being teased? Nope! They played the entire song! I haven't read a review where it says they've played that entire song. They did a pretty good job of it and the crowd really enjoyed it.

Ok, now the bad. And it's real bad...

I'm watching Ace the entire show. As a guitarist, I'm more inclined to watch him. I read in another review somewhere (not sure which show) that someone thought Ace was doing some lip-syncing. I hate to say it, but I'm 100% positive that he was. During Cold Gin, Ace took over the singing after the first verse. At the end of the second verse,he's backing away from the mike, his lips aren't moving yet his voice is heard clear as a bell. Same with the last verse, although this time it was really obvious. Paul jumped over very quickly when Ace moved away. "Shock me" and "2000 man" appeared to be Ace singing, as when he backed away from the mike his voice disappeared. I'm not trying to get people enraged or whatever, but as sure as the sun rises in the east, Ace was not singing live on Cold Gin.

Something seemed up on "Rock and Roll" as well. I could hear chords during the jam session at the end although neither Paul or Ace were strumming their guitars. I didn't have a complete clear view of Ace's fingers, but it sure didn't look like he was moving them. Dunno what was up with that.

I think that Paul's voice was a little stronger in Toronto too. He didn't seem to be wailing/warbling his voice as much. But it is cold/flu season, so I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't 100%. Even if he wasn't in perfect shape, his singing was still real good nonetheless and I'll give him credit for doing the show.

Don't get me wrong and think I didn't enjoy the show. KISS still puts on a fantastic show. It's not a concert, it's a show. AC/DC was a kick-ass rock and roll concert. This was a kick-ass rock and roll SHOW. Much, much better.

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