From: Chris Keenan
First let me say my review is critical at times and thats only because we true Kiss fans think of them as our Kids, we may spank them but we will never stop loving them, the big picture is Kiss Rulesand it was a great show, now for the inside/nitpicky stuff....Four of us went and had great seats center on the aisle 14th row, my best seats ever for Kiss. I quit drinking (John 3:16) and this was my first Kiss show sober and it turns out that a Kiss show dosent require any drugs or alcohol, you couldnt convince the tons of stumbling drunk idiots at the show of this unfortunatley. Anyhow on to the show, at 9:15pm the lights went down and they came levitating down from the rafters to 'Detroit Rock City' and we all sang along, my last kiss show I was gonna make the best of it, I sang and yelled and clapped for every song. It was about 90 degrees under the pavillion and we were drenching with sweat so the crowd died down at times. Gene, Ace and Paul were having fun and at one point Gene grabbed Ace's nipple and then tried to pull Paul's pants down, then Paul and Gene made an Ace sandwich by pushing him back and forth between them and squeezing him. During Ace's solo (2001? dosent sound much like it) the big screen put up his name ACE and blinked it, telling the crowd 'now start saying ace, ace, ace' I mean that was really cheesy, it was like having an applause sign come up after a song was over, please, I love ace and I dont need a sign to blink to tell me to say his name, when Gene spits blood and flies to the top (still cool) do we need a sign to go GENE, GENE, GENE no me thinks not. Our Seats were right under the tract where Paul glides over to the back of the arena for Love Gun and it was awesome I had never been so close to a costumed member of Kiss, Paul looked kinda spooked as he flew over, he didnt make eye contact with anyone but it was so cool and surreal to see it. One unexpected highlight of the show was how good "I love it Loud" sounded, I was surprised and any shit about Peter not playing well is crap, he kicked ass last night and during his solo he pounded the drums and played super fast on the snare, one snag during I love it loud is when Peter's Michrophone fell off the pole and he was trying to get a roadie up there. Conversley a song I was really looking forward to fell a little flat that was 2000 man, I was psyched to see it live for the first time and it was a little stale, but still good, just not great. The sound was loud and my right eardrum is shot, the sound was a little muddled at times but we are there for the fireworks anyway. The fire was cool during 'heavens on fire' and '100,000 years' and the fireworks for black diamond, although the stage could use a more smoke and the fireworks at the end of Rock and roll all nite were just OK, the confetti storm was endless but only hit certain areas of the audience, get more fans maybe. At various times Paul thanked us for being there all these years and not to support a band that dosent give a show like Kiss, but since Kiss is retiring it was kind of dumb in light of the fact that its a farewell tour.. The video montage during 'do u luv me' was neat, although during othere songs the video stuff was leftover from psycho circus and made me wonder if I had brought my 3-D glasses from that tour would it have worked? It got me thinking that during psycho circus song they should have done the 3-D bit (am I the only one who enjoyed the 3D gimmick?), I am sure they had enough glasses left over from the last tour and at $88.50 a ticket they could have squeezed it in the budget, it would have been a nice twist. They need to drop the Lick it up song and 5 minute audience bit, face it the song sucks and dosent sound good live, please Kiss put "Makin' Love" back in the set, thats a song you always play in philly and just because we were on the other side of the bridge dosent mean you cant play it. I was melancholy after the show because its the end of an era and its kind of sad with no Kiss stuff to look forward to, although Gene is such a moneygrubber that I am sure the "Return of Kiss Tour" has already crossed his mind. But assuming this is the last tour it was a great ride and Kiss was such a part of my youth (I am 31) and it was great seeing them one last time, my 10th time actually, so while there was a 'we've seen this all before' sense to the show, in retrospect it's why we were all there to begin with, if it wasnt the same it would have been lame. Thanks for all the fun Kiss, and goodbye.

SETLIST: (as best as I can remember song and order wise)SETLIST: (as best as I can remember song and order wise)

DRC
Deuce
Shout it out loud
Shock Me
Let me go Rock and Roll
Firehouse
I love it Loud
Do you Love me
Psycho circus
Heavens on Fire
Doctor Love
2000 man/ace solo
God of Thunder (blood and flying)
Cold Gin
Lick it up
100,000 years
Love Gun
I still Love you/Black Diamond
encores
Beth
Rock and Roll all nite

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