Introduction

Don’t you hate when you go to see a good movie, only to have the person in front of you blocking part of the screen ? You’ll get the same feeling after watching this show.

Background

The 43^rd show of the 97-date Crazy Nights tour. According to the book, Kiss and Sell, Gene and Paul met with financial advisors the day before this show. The outcome was, supposedly, not pretty with both Gene and Paul being rather shocked as to their financial position. This likely prompted Gene to encourage the audience to sing “ Happy Birthday ’’ to Paul even though it wasn’t his birthday

Video Specifics

Single cam, handheld from the Bruce side of the stage. Throughout the show, the viewer has to contend with numerous heads that are in the way. Pretty decent video quality except for the people that are in the way.

The Show

Love Gun- the band runs onstage and waits for the intro. An energetic playing with heads and hands getting in the way. Prior to the next song, Paul asks “ how about those Browns ?’’, which prompts the crowd to make a woofing noise.

Cold Gin- Gene is obscured for the first part of the song (people in the way). Paul gives a leg kick and makes a jerk off motion with his guitar during the solo part of the song.

Bang, Bang, You- Paul’s vocals aren’t great. The camera is black for a few seconds. This version didn’t do much for me. Paul introduces the next song with a story about a girl and a kid in Gene makeup and a studded collar, which leads to…

Fits Like A Glove- a decent version with Gene making pelvic thrusts early in the song. Gene and Paul run up the ramp behind Carr for the first time.

Shout It Out Loud- according to Kiss Alive Forever, this song was added to the setlist about a week before this show. A decent if not average playing of the makeup classic.

Crazy Nights- Paul’s vocals are ok but not great by any means. For some reason, Gene and Bruce jump in harmony while singing the chorus. Why is anyone’s guess. Bruce’s guitar solo and Eric’s drum solo follow. Both are probably the best-unobstructed views of the night since most people likely sat down.

War Machine- Gene’s makeup-tongue bass makes an appearance. Certainly one of the better songs of the night in terms of “ view ability ’’. The sirens sound at the end of the song (sounds odd since it isn’t Firehouse) and Gene blows 1 fireball.

Reason to Live- Before this song, Paul briefly mentions, Dial MTV. A decent version although Paul’s vocals sound rather muffled at times during the song. After the song, Paul asks “ turn down the house lights ’’. A lot of lighters can be seen. Jeans get thrown on stage, which makes Paul remark “ note on the front, eat me…I can smell Debbie in the front of these ’’.

Heaven’s on Fire- during Paul’s intro, the screen goes to black. Paul does the intro part of the song (which isn’t great, the flame throwers go off as well) then stops the song abruptly. He re-starts the song from the beginning. The camera work is shaky, to the point of being objectionable (lots of crowd shots).

I Love It Loud- Gene vocals are a little rough. Gene looks back at Carr rather disapprovingly (perhaps not happy with the drum intro tot the song). Shaky camerawork for the most part on this one.

Lick It Up- a long-winded intro about a hotel and a workout. An average version with Paul getting little screen time (damn heads in the way, again).

Rock and Roll All Nite- as they come out for the encores, Gene balances a rose on his nose. During the song, Gene goes down on 1 knee just before the “ they say you’ve been hot for a while…’’ part. During the audience participation section, the camera work is all over the place. Paul smashes his guitar at the end of the song.

La Bamba- Gene sings the first part of the song before it gets cut short.

Whole Lotta Love- a few heads get in the way but still a decent version all things considered.

Tears Are Falling- certainly one of the better versions.

Detroit Rock City- Paul’s vocals sound a bit muffled. Pyro must of hit one of the lighting standards because it is swinging.

Overall

An ok show but it could have been sooo much better had the filmer done a better job. Overall, a 6 out of 10.