From: John
Here's how to put a full day of entertainment together: leave Austin around 1 pm to hit San Antonio by 2:30, then go to a theatre near the Alamodome to see a double feature of "Final Destination" and "High Fidelity" (you gotta hit I-35 very early to avoid the 3-8 pm nonstop traffic jam between the cities!). After the flicks have a quick dinner and then head down the road to the Dome. We arrived around 8:10 pm, so Ted Nugnuts was still torturing the crowd with his "patriot rock" claptrap. The first thing I hear from him is the statement "The whole world sucks, but America sucks the least!" to much mindless cheering. Wow, how insightful. The man is reprehensible, potty-mouthed and a national embarrassment -- the Ugly American personified. I went to a merchandise booth to check out the t-shirts and was not impressed by any of them except for the cool San Antonio shirt that listed every show & venue KISS has ever played in S.A. - but not cool enough to be worth $30. I noticed a man in a suit hanging out by the vendors who looked very familiar--it took me a minute to realize it was KISS's manager, Doc McGhee! A few other folks noticed him & were shaking his hand, even begging for backstage passes & one guy had him autograph his concert ticket -- very amusing!

At 9:15 the KISS show began. 2 solid hours, 20 songs + a solo from Ace that had snippets of "Parasite," "New York Groove," and "Snow Blind" in it. No real surprises but I did have to laugh when the flames around the stage during "Firehouse" went off and burned one of the baloons open that had the glitter rigged to open during Ace's solo (when his guitar shoots off rockets). At least the rigging worked great for Gene and Paul to fly around tonight! The songs played, in chronological order, were: Firehouse/Cold Gin/Deuce/100,000 Years/Black Diamond/Let Me Go, Rock & Roll/Detroit Rock City/God of Thunder/Shout it Out Loud/Beth/Do You Love Me?/Calling Dr. Love/Shock Me/Love Gun/2000 Man/I Love it Loud/Lick It Up/Heaven's on Fire/Psycho Circus. I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I'd much rather hear more songs off of "Psycho Circus" than some of the old chestnuts. Overall, I'd say the '96 tour was better, although the band looked energetic and in good form musically. Peter even looked like he spent the day off between Lubbock & S.A. catnapping & was well-rested. Ace's voice just gets froggier by the minute, poor guy, but his guitar playing was fine.

As for the crowd itself, all I can say is S.A. is the hair-metal capital of the Southwest, so that plus the nearby military base = drunk rowdy morons in satin Van Halen tour jackets, Foghat + UFO t-shirts, and constant hollering. I was 19 rows back on the floor, and everyone around me spent half the show climbing over the seats back & forth from buying beer and subsequent bathroom visits! The Local H song "High-Fiving MF" sums them up to a "T" -- the rest of the crowd was older with their kids in tow, which was nice to see the whole family enjoying the spectacle. A nice time overall, but way too pricey and not that big a deal if you went to the '96 shows. (And did I mention that Nugent is a repugnant troglodyte?)

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