From: Fernando Avendano
It wasn't so much New Year's Eve, but a KISS concert, which made for a really great night. My wife and I and another couple put the grease paint on and made our way to BC Place from Coquitlam. We got some strange looks from other cars along the way. I put Peter's face on, which wasn't my first choice but I guess it was fitting, since I am a drummer. We were sitting in the reserve section in the stands, which was a lot farther away than we had anticipated, but it gave us a great view of the pyrotechnics and stuff, which were REALLY excellent. I've seen the Creatures, Animalize, Asylum, & Reunion (twice) tours and I think that the NYE pyrotechnics were the best that I have seen. BC Place was a great venue for the effects, but I think that the sound was pretty bad. We didn't catch the first 2 opening bands, but we caught Big Wreck, and the sound was really bad. Big wreck has a lot of reverb in their guitar work and it just bounced all over the arena. KISS sounded pretty good, but it would have sounded a lot better at GM Place, which is just across the street, and where they played the last 3 times.

All in all the "show" was fantastic! I thought that they didn't play as tightly as they have in the past, but they haven't toured for a while, so that's to be expected. They really looked like they were having fun up there, which makes up for the playing. I hate to say it, but Ace was a little sloppy during some of his solos. I especially noticed it during Love Gun. It looked like Peter was playing very cautiously due to his recent operation and on-going arm problems; however, he played very well, and I liked what he did during Lick It Up and Heaven's On Fire. I don't think we should be surprised that he didn't do a drum solo. Paul and Gene were in fine form, of course. Gene's voice was just fine and Paul's was in exceptional form. I can't remember which song it was, (it may have been Into The Void), but Gene and Paul weren't getting the notes during the background vocals and Gene kept shaking his head and hitting the mike into Paul, which was pretty funny. It was also cool to see Ace flirting with Gene's tongue a few times. Just before Love Gun, Paul had to summon Ace to the stage, which seemed so typical because of all of the stories we have heard about Ace.

The song selection was fine. The 80s tunes that they picked were the only ones that I'd want to hear from this lineup, anyway. I was disappointed that they didn't do Forever, but it may not have been right for the night, anyway.

We were lucky to have seats...unlike those in the General Admission area. That would have sucked. There were a lot of non-diehard KISS fans there, but that was okay. We got a lot of cheers and attention because of our makeup job. I was disappointed that we didn't get a NYE t-shirt, but that's our own fault for not getting there earlier. Oh, and those beer and wine lineups were just awful. That was the first NYE in many that I was completely sober. I wasn't planning to get drunk, anyway, because I wanted to watch and remember the show, but I didn't even have 1 beer.

Well, there you have it....My account of NYE with KISS in Vancouver. I hope all of you that went to the show had a great time. I hope the rest of you had an excellent NYE, whatever you did.

KISS ASYLUM -- KISS Museum News Archive Features Tour Dates Photos