It has been a long wait to get us to tonight’s show in more ways than one, but that wait has only served to build the anticipation. As the crowds milled outside before the doors opened on this final gig I spoke to a 74 year old man sporting a Kiss-emblazoned battle jacket that wore the signs of age well. He told me he had heard Kiss Alive in his mid twenties and had never looked back. He was upset that his son wasn’t there (his son had caught them in the US earlier in the year) but he had his two grandkids in tow who were excitedly swapping Kiss facts and legends. That, I thought is what Kiss is all about.
I still remember when I first heard Kiss back before I was a teenager when a kid at school played me Double Platinum and after those first two songs I knew I had to have it. That was where it all started for me and it never really stopped. I have seen 32 Kiss shows over the years since my first when Kiss were supported by a young band called Bon Jovi and whilst you never match that wild eyed wonder of the first show tonight I admit came close. It’s hard to say goodbye to the things you love.
Thankfully any thoughts of shedding a tear are dispelled by the crowd who are here for the greatest Rock and Roll party of the year. We may have had delays, we may have had to endure Covid, and we may have had the itinerary switched on us but tonight is all about the music and the legacy of the greatest Rock and Roll showmen of all time.
Nine years ago Kiss put on a great show for Perth but tonight it is quite simply breathtaking, and for those that really know their Kisstory the set really does capture almost all of the elements of the Alive II set and make them look even cooler.
Opening tonight local rockers Legs Electric play an enthusiastic set to a decent crowd and more than make it worth the early arrival. As they play you can already see the die-hards gripping the barrier knowing that they won’t give an inch until the very last note has rung. The anticipation during the interval is palpable and Perth feels unusually hot tonight, and then as the last strains of Led Zeppelin ring out the curtain falls. You could hear the roar in space!
We lead of course with the legendary ‘Detroit Rock City’ and that immortal opening line and we proceed to get it all, the cannons, the lights, the lasers and the flames. This is what Kiss is about – the spectacle. More than a concert, better than any show you’ve ever seen, these guys may have been doing it for 49 years this year but to see it all explode again never ever gets old, and for a moment even the old stagers out there feel like kids again.
All the elements are of course there, from Stanley’s high pitched banter and call and response audience participation to Simmons dribbling blood and fire and Thayer’s rocket firing guitar! Then there’s the platforms that lower the band to the stage and the cannons and flames that punctuate the set!
The crowd chorus to ‘Shout It Out Loud’ is something to behold and ‘Deuce ‘ allows Thayer to take the limelight for a moment before we get a taste of Simmons rumbling ‘War Machine’, which in my mind is second only to the show-stopping ‘God of Thunder’. There’s a rare and welcome step into the 80’s with ‘Heaven’s on Fire’ from the underrated Animalize album.
Stanley hams it up again to open ‘Cold Gin’ and the trio of ‘Lick It Up’, ‘Calling Dr. Love’. and ‘Do You Love Me’ for me sum up all that I love about Kiss, great songs made to bang that head to! Like any Kiss show though the Rocking and Rolling is interspersed with the much loved set-pieces and tonight Simmons brooding intro to ‘God of Thunder’ feels more like a step back in time to when Kiss were seen as ‘dangerous’ and a corrupting influence on the youth of the day! Kiss may have had their origins in Japanese Kabuki Theatre and superhero comics but there has always been the Broadway meets Barnham and Bailey aspect to them too, and tonight this last time it all seems perfectly realised.
You want more Perth? Of course we do! It’s time for ‘Love Gun’ and Stanley flies out over the crowd to a smaller stage at the rear of the crowd to perform it, instantly giving front row access to the fans over there. It’s just another excuse to party and he even stays for the evergreen radio staple ‘I Was Made For Loving You’ whilst the rest of the band oversee the party at the front.
Drummer Eric Singer gets his first showpiece with ‘Black Diamond’ and it’s spectacular as the drumkit rises above the stage with the full Alive II effects blazing! There’s lasers fireworks and the two distinctive golden cats that appear beneath as the drums rise. Then after that spectacle there’s darkness, and as the crowd screams for more Singer appears at a piano front and centre stage for what is still the band’s biggest hit – the ballad ‘Beth’.
Traditionally of course we get ‘Shandi’ from Unmasked, the album that saw Kiss first tour Downunder, and as it comes in giant Kiss-emblazoned balloons drop from the roof. It hits me then that this is nearly over, that this is the last time I’ll see these guys that have been a part of my life since childhood. It’s a huge moment as the mayhem of ‘Rock ’n’ Roll All Night’ erupts and we get the works – a full arsenal of pyro, lasers, cannons, balloons, and confetti which rains like snow cloaking us like Christmas. This is the hottest band in the world, in that final song there is no doubt about it.
As everyone rises to their feet, I’m happy just to sit there in blanketed in confetti with a streamer over my shoulder and savour the moment. It’s my last Kiss 40 years after my first, and if there is a little tear and a lump in the throat I like to think it’s not the last time we get to see a show like that. Gene may have pronounced Rock and Roll dead, but tonight he’s proven it will never die even after Kiss is gone.
Kiss may just have one more show to play in Australia but no one here is ever going to forget tonight.
Set list:
Detroit Rock City
Shout It Out Loud
Deuce
War Machine
Heaven’s on Fire
I Love It Loud
Say Yeah
Cold Gin
Lick It Up
Calling Dr. Love
Do You Love Me
Psycho Circus
100,000 Years
God of Thunder
Love Gun
I Was Made for Lovin’ You
Black Diamond
Beth
Shandi
Rock and Roll All Nite
