KISS with
Buckcherry
Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA
November 22, 2009
By Dan Wall
KISS Set List:
Deuce, Strutter, Let Me Go Rock and Roll, Hotter Than Hell,
Shock Me, Calling Dr. Love, Modern Day Delilah, Cold Gin
,Parasite, Say Yeah, 100,00 Years, I Love it Loud, Black
Diamond, Rock and Roll All Night.
Encore: Shout It
Out Loud, Lick It Up, Love Gun, Detroit Rock City. 2 hours.
Buckcherry Set
List: Tired of You, Next to You, Lit Up, Out of Line, Talk to
Me, Rescue Me, Highway Star, Everything, Sorry, Crazy Bitch. 50
minutes.
KISS was never
as big in the Bay Area as it was everywhere else, and I could
never really figure out why. You would think that a band off
heterosexual men dressed in leather and wearing more make-up
than 17 hookers would appeal to such an open-minded city as this
one by the bay, but when it comes to KISS, it was not to be.
I first saw KISS 34 years ago from the front row
of the old Winterland Arena in San Francisco, and that night had
a profound effect on me. It was that night that I decided what I
wanted to do-not be a musician, but to attend every rock concert
I could. That’s how good, how over-the-top, how wonderful that
night was.
I have loved the band ever since the group’s
first In Concert appearance on ABC back in 1974, but I still
wondered what it was the rest of the world really got about
their heroes that the Bay Area didn’t. When the band sold out
five shows in Los Angeles in 1977 and what seemed like a month
in New York City and adopted hometown Detroit the same year, the
made-up ones could only sell-out one night at Daly City’s Cow
Palace. (The rumor was the very chic Bay Area was too hip to be
bothered with cartoon characters in make-up. Believe it if you
want).
Sunday night (November 22), the band returned to
the San Francisco Bay Area with a show at the Oracle Arena in
Oakland, and sold about half the house. The crowd wasn’t bad,
but for the show that was presented, and with Buckcherry in tow
as the special guest, it wasn’t very good, either.
It wasn’t as if KISS isn’t still firing on all
cylinders, either, because this show was easily on par with
those from the heyday and that’s not an easy thing to do when
you have the history that KISS does. Obviously, original members
and mainstays Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons can’t move like they
once did, but Stanley is a revelation for a man 57 years old and
the guys certainly laid out a bunch of money on a show that is
spectacular as they come.
Reviewing a KISS show is pretty simple for me,
actually, because you either love the band or hate it, so as
long as you provide the hardcores with a laundry list of what
was sang, presented, stacked or blown up, you’ll be okay.
Everyone else has already moved on, so here is the list:
·
The
staging was incredible and modern, with three high def screens
(one huge one behind the band and two smaller ones on the
flanks) beaming the faces of our icons all over the arena.
Missing were the usual hundreds of amps, as the band placed a
simple row of 20-25 along the drum line and replaced all the
others with a more elaborate screen system that sometimes looked
like those amps but at others times were used for a video
presentation (the infamous “KISS” sign and other effects). The
drum stand was 10 feet high and rose during Eric Singer’s solo,
and the stage featured ramps and three other risers that shot
the band more than 20 feet into the sky during “Rock and Roll
All Night.”
·
The
lightning truss was innovative and spectacular and the sound was
loud and crystal clear on this night.
·
During the opening “Deuce,” there were more explosions and bombs
than the annual fireworks display over the bay.
·
There was enough flame during “Hotter than Hell,” “Lick It Up,”
and “100,000 Years’ that the local fire Marshall was reportedly
woke up and put on call.
·
Simmons spit fire at the conclusion of “Hotter than Hell” and
flew into the lighting truse (and landed on a small platform
that he sang from) after puking blood during “I Love it Loud.”
·
Stanley also flew, out and over the crowd to a small stage set
up at the sound board to sing “Love Gun.”
·
And
at the end of set-closer “Rock and Roll All Night,” Stanley, as
per his custom, smashed a guitar and flung the body into the
crowd, while more bombs, fireworks, sparklers and confetti
showered the crowd with just about every trick in the KISS
playbook.
And so on and so forth. This is KISS at its
absolute best, and with a set list that included some long
forgotten chestnuts (“Hotter than Hell,” “Let Me Go Rock and
Roll”), you got the idea that the boys were having fun up
onstage again. This version of KISS can play anything it wants
as well, because guitarist Tommy Thayer (playing Ace) and
drummer Singer (playing Peter) are far superior musicians to
those that they replaced. You can talk about chemistry all you
want, but these guys, veterans of many famous and popular bands,
can play as well as any musicians on the scene today. (And I
love the original band as much as anyone-just telling the truth
here, KISS haters).
Thayer (looking more like Joe Perry in KISS
make-up than Perry actually would) should know what he’s doing,
since he started out in 80’s hair band Black N’ Blue, played in
a KISS tribute band as Ace and was the band’s archivist for
years. He waited for his chance in the spotlight and hasn’t
screwed it up.
Singer is a rock on drums, and a guy who also
waited for his chance, since he was sent packing when Peter
Criss rejoined the band for the first reunion in 1996 (Singer
played on a Stanley solo tour and was KISS’ drummer from
1991-96). Singer is as solid as a rock and has actually been in
the band (combined years) for nearly as long as Criss was.
Stanley is still one of my rock heroes, and if
there is a chink in his armor, it’s that he struggles mightily
to hit the high notes now, but what 50-ish rock-and-roller
doesn’t. He can still move and dance like a man 20 years
younger, and his raps are still entertaining. Simmons does what
Simmons always does, stalk the stage like a demon, spit blood,
breathe fire and sing the occasional tune. Despite the fact that
he runs the band with an iron fist, he is careful to let
Stanley, one of rock’s greatest frontmen, run the show onstage.
KISS was never afraid of anyone, and with a solid
opening set from Buckcherry, once again presented a hot,
entertaining band in the opening slot. Josh Todd and Keith
Nelson have revitalized this band from the gutter of Hollywood
with its last two records, and have toned down its stage act
from a XXX to a mild R. Still, it’s funny to see a bunch of
middle-aged women go absolutely crazy during the band’s biggest
hit “Crazy Bitch,” with its strip club lyrics and funky strut
turning these mild-mannered women into raging maniacs.
The best part of all of this for KISS fans-the
band has a new album, Sonic Boom, which is easily the
best thing it has done since the late 70’s. Two songs, “Modern
Day Delilah” and “Say Yeah” slotted nicely into the set against
the classics, and proved that there is still life in this old
warhorse yet, nearly 10 years after the band first announced its
retirement. I dare say that they will have to drag Stanley and
Simmons, kicking and screaming, from the stage (and the bank) if
KISS is to ever end.
