From: Lance
After freezing my ass off for two nights in row at The Tweeter Center I was glad to finally be inside. Lets start off with The Cumberland County Civic Center. In one word "cesspool" and belive me I'm being kind. Your talking to a veteran of many a show in the New Haven CT Colesium and CCCC makes that place look like the Taj Mahal.While I"m on a roll lets talk about the security or lack of I should say. Lots of the guys with yellow shirts and its a safe bet that if you ever crossed them they would have you whistling the theme from Deliverence in no time, then you know they would want you to squeal like a pig before they were through . As far as crowd control though they were a pretty non existent entity. People on the stairs, people in the aisles, people blocking exits, real bad news if anything would have happend. The worst thing these guys just didn't give a fuck. Then I saw one of these goons snag a pick that Paul had thrown to a ten year old kid. Yeah you got it right the kid can't come up with the pick and even though Paul had clearly intended for him to get it Mr Fuckwad Security Man abuses his power in order to get a souvenier that he should have handed to the kid. Safe to say I will never return to this shithole again. On to the show. Skid Row --- How many times do I have to say it, truely great band, truely mediocore singer. With the response they got though you would have thought it was 1988 all over again. It may be 2000 everywhere else but the eighties are big business up in Maine. Next up old Uncle Ted Fuckin Nugent !!!! I don't know if someone up front was using deer urine for deoderant or what but Ted was in a series rutting mood all night. Along with his rhythym kings Tommy Aldridge and Marco Mendoza these guys blazed through not only Cat Scratch Fever but many other Motown classics as well. Dog Eat Dog, Wang Dang Sweet Poon Tang, Paralized, the always epic Stranglehold, and of course the Great White Buffalo is alive and well in Maine. Kiss My Ass and its politiclly charged intro went over like gangbusters up there where the Maineiacs don't even want to think about anyone trying to take their weapons away.

Then the main event Kiss !!! We managed to snag great seats on stage right in the first row. Really cool to see all thats going on backstage, onstage and in the audience. The boys did not disappoint tonight as they seemed really tight and really in the pocket on most tunes. The two exceptions would be Ace on Shock Me, Ace you wrote this song can't you at least play it a little better ?? Also on Psycho Circus Gene had to help Peter pick up the pace a little by pounding on his bass to get him going a little faster. All in all a great show, real appreciative audience for all three bands, but I will never go back to that shithole Cumberland County Civic Center ever again I don't care who goes there. Take my advice wait till they hit Boston, Montreal, Hartford anywhere but Portland unless of course you can whistle a good rendition of Dueling Banjos.

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