From: Justin Caldwell
From the freeway I saw that the San Diego Sports Arena was full and knew that KISS was onto something good.It was only the second time that I have seen the lot full.The reunion tour and now the farewell.San Deigo has not been a real KISS friendly town.The previous tours ie; Asylum,Crazy Nights,Revenge were not the greatest of success at that venue.Not too mention the venue itself is a 14,000 seat concrete cave.But with all that aside lets talk about the reason we all came for.

I missed the Skid Row set.The "Nuge" was wrapping his 45 minute set up so I missed the 1st half of the nights festivities.KISS was prompt as usual 915pm.From the time the big KISS curtain went up it was not long after that they came on.Gone was the Who's "Won't get fooled again".Oh well.The guys came down from a platform that was very reminiscent of the platform from Lick It Up.In fact alot of the stage show itself was bits and pieces of the last 25 years which was cool.Also gone was Gene's flying act.But from what I heard from the Anahiem show the night before it was just as well.Ace's solo was a medley of his greatest riffs and some new fret work as well.Same smoking guitar and rockets but hey that's what we came for.No Peter Criss drum solo.Why, I have no idea.During 100,000 years he did do a little drum solo but no big thing.Paul flew through the air again was greeted very nicely.And the technical difficulties with that stunt the night before in Anahiem as well must of been worked out.Though Ace did give him a good luck thumbs up before he took off.The music was pretty tight but with the acoustics of the SDSA they could of been lip syning and we would of never knew.There were fireworks galore.And to the man who works the propane fire columns.."Give it a rest"! If I can feel the heat from where I"m at I could just imagine what KISS feels. Every song had those fire columns.They were even synced to the music.All in all it was a good night..They said their obligatory thanks and goodbyes and left the arena the only way KISS does filled with smoke,confetti and people telling their friends,"You see why they are the greatest show on earth"! and "Can you believe they want $264 for that denim KISS shirt"!

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