Colisee de Quebec

Introduction

All in all, not a bad show and certainly the best from this tour. The only other show on video from this tour is the dreadfully filmed show from Essen, West Germany in November of 1983.

Background

This is the fourth last show of the Lick It Up tour. This is approximately the 55^th show of the North American tour.

Video Specifics

This is a single camera, handheld from Vinnie’s side of the stage in the stands. The audio is decent but has no bass and sounds rather tinny. Also, the vocals are hard to hear at times. It would be a good idea to listen to the Creatures and Lick It Up albums before this show if you are unfamiliar with the lyrics since they are hard to decipher in this video. There are a few video cuts between songs but nothing too problematic.

The Show

Creatures of the Night- a surprisingly decent version of this song with good vocals and guitar by Vinnie.

Detroit Rock City- the whole band seems more energetic during this song then most of the Creatures tour versions of this same tune. I guess taking off the makeup did make a difference in terms of energy.

Cold Gin- Paul’s attempt at speaking French is half-hearted; “ tres-bien ? ’’. As he introduces this song, he has a bottle of some sort that is supposed to be gin although it’s probably water. The camerawork is shaky during this intro so it’s a bit hard to see.

Fits Like A Glove- an ugly version of this song. Gene’s vocals are garbled and hard to hear and Vinnie’s solo sounds like a cat being skinned alive.

Firehouse- a rather typical version with Gene blowing 1 fireball at the end. Paul’s audience participation segment follows which leads into…

Gimme More- Paul’s vocals are hard to hear but the backing vocals are clear and probably the best thing about this song. Vinnie’s solo follows and is worth mentioning.

Vinnie’s solo is arguably the most energetic solo by any Kiss member ever. He runs around the stage and humps the speakers, a la Hendrix, while his guitar is wailing away and I do mean wailing in every sense. Paul comes on stage and says “ Vinnie Vincent on guitar ’’ in order to put a halt to this seemingly endless solo.

War Machine- one of the better songs of the night with decent work by all members. Gene’s Quasimodo bass solo with ample posing ends the song and segues into…

I Love It Loud- the filmer gets a good view of the stage at the beginning of this song. Gene’s vocals aren’t great but passable.

I Still Love You- a decent version with the camera focusing on Paul for most of the song. Unfortunately, Eric’s drum solo is cut out almost completely.

Young and Wasted- the vocals on this song are horrendous. Near the end of the song, Gene leads the crowd in a “ Young and Wasted ’’ chant. As Vinnie is playing during this interaction, Paul and Gene give each other a “ enough already ’’ type of look in obvious reference to Vinnie’s over-the-top guitar playing.

Love Gun- Paul’s guitar intro sounds like the guitar intro to Exciter but he then goes into Love Gun.

All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose- finally, a Lick It Up era song that works reasonably well in a live setting.

Black Diamond- again, the vocals are hard to hear. The band ends the song on the tank.

Lick It Up- a standard playing.

Rock and Roll All Nite- ditto. Paul smashes his guitar at the end.

Overall

This show shouldn’t be too high on your list if you want only top quality shows. However, if you want one show from every era then this is the one to get especially since not much exists in video form from the Creatures, Lick It Up and Animalize era’s. An interesting but flawed show. Overall, a 7.5 out of 10.