The second review in the series is for a bootleg of the 1988 tour of Crazy Nights.  And of course, this is another tour that I saw.  This one was recorded on April 18th, 1988 at the Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan.  Now, I saw the tour on February 10th at the Omni in Atlanta, GA.  At my show they only played 13 songs.  They played those same 13 songs in Japan plus 6 more tracks.  Yes, just like the Japanese Edition of CDs, Japan gets extra tracks during live shows as well.

Now the packaging for this release is not quite as nice as the first review.  It is a double LP, but not a gatefold.

There is no pictures or posters included, but it is a colored vinyl.  It is a pretty white with a white label on one and a black label on the other.

Now, about the music.  The show at times sounds like an audience recording and other times a soundboard recording. You can hear the vocals really well, but the instruments aren’t as strong and clear as the vocals in some cases.  If it is an audience recording, it is sensational.  If it is a soundboard, it is okay.  But, you can still hear them all really well so it isn’t as bad I am making it sound.

Here is the track listing:

1. Look Wot You Dun To Me (A Slade Song)
2. Introduction
3. Love Gun
4. Cold Gin
5. Bang Bang You
6. Calling Dr. Love
7. Fits Like A Glove
8. Crazy, Crazy Nights
9. No, No, No (Bruce Solo prior)
10. Reason to Live
11. Heaven’s On Fire (then Eric Carr Drum Solo)
12. War Machine
13. Tears Are Falling
14. I Love It Loud (Gene Bass Solo)
15. Lick It Up
16. Black Diamond
17. I Was Made For Loving You
18. Shout It Out Loud
19. Strutter
20. Rock And Roll All Nite
21. Detroit Rock City

As you can see it is a diverse set and is covering the whole timeline of Kiss (which they didn’t always do).  The strange thing about the set is that damn first track. It is Slade playing “Look Wot You Dun To Me”.  It isn’t the full song it is just a snippet before they do the introduction of the band.  Totally weird to me.

They kick the show off with “Love Gun” and bang through several tracks and then at the end of side one they do “Fits Like A Glove” which Gene sounds great, Eric plays his ass off and Bruce does a killer solo.  This is my favorite on Side A.

The one thing I noticed is Paul’s banter.  He sounds like he is struggling with the right thing to say as the Japanese crowd is not quite like American crowds.  It just seems forced at times and not his natural flowing banter (I guess it isn’t natural as it is completely scripted usually).

“Crazy, Crazy Nights” kicks off Side B and all these songs are 80’s tracks.  The sound on this track is not perfect, a little rough around the edges, but the song is still enjoyable enough.  The highlights on this disc for me are “No, No, No” as Bruce opens up with a full on solo that shreds with the best of them.  It is why he is my favorite technical Kiss guitarist (Ace is still the best).

One thing for sure is that Paul is singing which he could do really well back in the day.  He goes through “Reason to Live” and sings that opening on “Heaven’s on Fire” just fine.  The songs are fine, nothing special added.  At the end of “Heaven’s on Fire”, we get the Eric Carr drum solo that will lead in to the opener of the 2nd LP.  Eric tears it up on the drums and it ends with a killer, electronic sounding ending that was totally cool.  I hate the side ended here and didn’t go straight into “War Machine”.

The second LP kicks off with that same electronic drum sound from Eric in to “War Machine”. I totally don’t remember that from when I saw them (but it has 30 years so give me a break.  “War Machine” sounds brutal and vicious, just like Gene should be.

They jumped into “Tears Are Falling” and then Paul says “Gene, Bass Solo” and there it is.  Funny thing, are you supposed to announce the solo?  Isn’t usually pretty obvious what it is?  Anyway, pretty short solo and then into “I Love It Loud”.  They then finished up Side C with “Lick It Up” and then ended with Eric on vocals for “Black Diamond”.  It was always nice to see Eric get the attention he deserved.  He always did a fair job on the song.

Side D starts off with the disco hit “I Was Made For Loving You”.  The guitar riff was exciting, but sound was a little rough for this one or maybe it was just the overall vocals and backing vocals that seemed off.  Either way, not my favorite track on this one. They end the show with a rambunctious version of “Shout It Loud”.

The Encore was 3 songs including the classis song “Strutter” which was a pleasant surprise (not really a surprise it was on the track listing, but surprise in that they didn’t play that one a ton for awhile).  This was a highlight song for me.  After that it was the usual fair with “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Detroit Rock City”. If I don’t hear “Rock and Roll All Nite” for 20-30 years, I would be okay with that.

And that is it.  This LP is way better sounding then ‘Accept No Imitations’, by far.  I totally enjoyed this set and there were some great songs and awesome solos with Bruce & Eric.  All in all, I will listen to this one again as I said earlier, it covers a lot of years worth of music.  I would give this one a 3.5 out 5.0 Stars.

Check out the rest of the series if you have time!!  Thanks for stopping by!!

1. Kiss – ‘Accept No Imitations’ (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (ASYLUM TOUR)
2. Kiss – Look Wot You Dun to Me (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (CRAZY NIGHTS TOUR)
3. Kiss – The Summer of Satan: The Devils Ride Out! (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (DESTROYER TOUR)
4. Kiss – Return to Capital Center (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (DYNASTY TOUR)
5. Kiss – With Fire & Thunder (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (HOTTER THAN HELL TOUR)