Introduction

Six of the club shows (Hollywood, Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston, and both New York shows) exist in some video form at the present time. The Toronto show is the best of the bunch.

Background

This show is the tenth of the thirteen date Revenge club tour. For more background on the show go to:

http://www.geocities.com/brianj1974/index.html

Video Specifics

The show is shot from a tripod at the back of the venue toward Gene’s side of the stage. There are no zooms or pans but this is not a problem. The stage is so small that rarely do any of the band members stray from the screen. The audio is a tad low but that can be fixed by simply cranking up the volume a few notches on your television.

The Show

Love Gun- a heavier version then most of the arena versions.

Deuce- a rollicking effort here with a nice scream by Gene at the end of song.

Heaven’s on Fire- Gene is often encouraging the crowd through the song. He also rubs his eyes a few times, likely due to sweat.

Parasite- Paul introduces this song as “ this one comes off the first album ’’, which gets a big reaction from the audience. For the sake of accuracy, this song was came off the second album.

Shout It Out Loud- quality vocal work by Gene and Paul are the highlight of this version. After the first five songs of this show, I could only imagine what the band must have been like during the early clubs shows in 1974.

Strutter- good drum and bass work make this one a cut above the rest. Gene and Paul bump each other for a few seconds, which they often did on the HITS tour but the stage is so small that they don’t have much room to move around.

Callin’ Dr. Love- a decent version. A fan in the audience close to Gene looks like he is practically standing on someone’s shoulders. It’s to the extreme left of the screen and thus is a little hard to see. During Bruce’s solo, Gene points this person out to a crewmember.

I Was Made For Lovin’ You- good vocals by Paul make this version better then most. His vocals aren’t screeching and are more controlled.

Unholy- before the song Paul says “ you probably won’t see this video on MuchMusic but as far as I’m concerned, MuchMusic sucks the big one anyway ’’. A less then stellar version is hindered by Gene’s vocals, which are very difficult to decipher.

100,000 Years- “ I can’t hear the people upstairs. Is that the VIP section ? ’’ Paul says before the beginning of this song. A well played version with some solid guitarwork by Bruce and some nice lighting during the “ do you feel alright ? ’’ part toward the end of the song.

Take It Off- Gene spends ample portions of the song pointing at female fans. I think I like the arena version of this song better. The strippers onstage were always amusing but none were onstage during the club shows. On a related note, no strippers were used during the Toronto arena show in October either.

God of Thunder- a generally well played version. Gene’s vocals get distorted like many of the arena versions toward the end of the song “ I am the lord of the wasteland ’’, which was a nice touch.

Lick It Up- a girl is sitting on someone’s shoulders near the front of the stage, which quickly grabs Gene’s attention. He then proceeds to make hand gestures related to her breasts.

Firehouse- an energetic version with no sirens and no fire breathing by Gene.

Tears Are Falling- brief audience participation gets this started. Gene seems to be staring at the boob girl again. The Revenge lineup seemed to do the best version of this song and this version doesn’t disappoint.

I Love It Loud- a rather standard version. Toward the end of the song, a female fan hugs Paul. Shortly afterward, he shrugs his shoulders in what amounts to a bit of an awkward moment.

I Stole Your Love- Paul makes reference to a slow song then says “ do you want to keep getting your ass kicked ? ’’. The crowd responds with a resounding “ yes ’’.

Cold Gin- Gene almost begins singing the first verse at the wrong time but he manages to catch himself before he says anything. Gene yelps the vocal parts during the intro “ Whoo! Alright! ’’ and “ That keeps us together, ow ’’ lyric.

Detroit Rock City- a standard version.

I Want You- if you have any Revenge era bootlegs then you know how this version goes: audience participation during the spoken word intro and outro with lots of vocal flexing by Paul and an abbreviated drum solo (compared to the arena version) by Eric.

God Gave Rock and Roll to You II- simply put, this song doesn’t work in a club setting.

Rock and Roll All Nite- you’ve probably heard this song a few hundred (or thousand) times by now. This version is rather standard with the usual audience participation.

Overall

With arguably the best setlist the band has ever assembled, this show is certainly a keeper. A few zooms by the camera operator every once in a while would have helped but it didn’t really bother me that there were none. Not the greatest video quality compared to some other bootlegs of the same era but still very decent. Overall, a 7.5-8 out of 10.