We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of Tuesday’s Memes to bring you this special announcement…

August 10th, 2019, Kiss bid farewell to the city of Charlotte, NC.  The End of the rode made a stop on a beautifully, hot night and a venue that holds 19,500 people was pretty freaking packed!!  If it wasn’t sold out, it wasn’t by much.  The place was filled with young and old alike and the costumes and make-up were a plenty including leather pants so tight, I don’t know how the women got them on (or off for that matter).

My first show was December 26, 1983 and August 10, 2019 was my last.  That is according to Kiss as this is the Farewell Tour or so they say.  I tried to drag my kids to it, but in the end, my oldest was the only one to go so I let her bring a friend.  My youngest has a few issues with noise sensitivity and after the show, I realized, she was probably right not to go as it would have been too much for her as the explosions and music were pretty darn loud.  Hell, my ears are still ringing a little this morning as I type.

With tickets in hand, we found our seats and were ready to see “The Hottest Band in the Land…KISS”

But first, we had to sit through the opening act.  No, not a rock band.  Nope, not a comedian either.  We got the great pleasure of having David Girabaldi doing some performance art…painting.  What?  Painting is a performance art?  I was not aware of this.  David is immensely talented and whipped through 3 paintings in about 30 minutes. He did one of Jon Bon Jovi, while their music played.  His final one was of Kiss which was raffled off with proceeds going to Make a Wish Foundation which is cool.  The 2nd painting was of Ozzy!!  And it was really great…heck…they all were. The problem was it was so boring and unexciting.  The crowd liked it somewhat, I thought it sucked.  I would have liked a band to play, a young up & coming band or someone that had toured with Kiss before…Actually, Bruce Kulick’s band would have be the bomb!!

Here is Ozzy’s picture…

Before we get in to the show, do you want to see my souvenir? I didn’t go with the Kiss T-Shirt, although my daughter did.  I have a ton of shirts.  I went with the Kiss Program (it was cheaper than the T-Shirts).  I have a program from ‘Animalize’ and ‘Asylum’ Tours so I thought why not one for the final tour. It is really nice and has a page for every Kiss tour and then a couple pages for each member.  I mean it is nice!!!

Okay…sorry for the distraction…on with the show…

Kiss came on about 9 pm, about an hour after David finished (at least it felt like an hour), but the band played for 2 solid hours.  They whipped through 20 songs and delivered one of their finest performances I have seen.  It was loads of fun, worth every penny and I am sad to see it end.  And that is it.  I hope you enjoyed my review.  Thanks for stopping by!!!

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I kid!  The review will be as long as the show.  First…Do you want to see the set list?  I thought you might….

1. Detroit rock city

2. Shout it out loud

3. Deuce

4. Say yeah

5. I love it loud

6. Heaven s on fire

7. War machine (Gene Breathing Fire)

8. Lick It Up (mixed with I Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who)

9. Calling Dr. Love

10. 100,000 Years (with Eric’s drum solo)

11. Cold Gin (with Tommy’s guitar solo)

12. God of Thunder (with Gene’s bass solo and Blood spitting)

13. Psycho Circus

14. Let me go rock & roll

15. Love Gun (with Paul Flying to center of arena in the crowd)

16. I Was Made For Loving You (with Paul still in crow

17. Black diamond

18. Beth (Encore)

19. Crazy Crazy Nights (Encore)

20. Rock & Roll All Nite (Encore)

21. Show was over, but on your way out over the loud speaker they played a recording of “God Gave Rock & Roll To You” and everyone was singing it as they walked out.

The band opened with “Detroit Rock City”, a complete classic and the show was full of smoke and lights and fire and it was a grand entrance.  Gene, Paul and Tommy descended from the sky to a crowd already going nuts and losing it.

“Shout it Out Loud” was up next and then in to “Deuce” and the band was sounding awesome.  Let us go ahead and jump right in to Paul.  There have been complaints about his singing and lip-syncing and I am here to tell you Paul sounded GREAT!  He was singing his heart out and he WAS singing.  Yeah, he can’t hit some notes, so guess what, he didn’t try.  They worked the songs so he could sing it how he can sing it.  If there was backing tracks, it only enhanced the performance, not cover it up.  So there!!

Anyway, “Deuce” was cool as the big screen behind showed clips of the band of old that we grew up loving.

Now the low-light of the show was actually the song “Say Yeah”. The song just isn’t that great and the crowd didn’t know it very well or seem to like it much.  They energy dipped slightly for this song. If they were to change one song in the set…this would be the one.

The band went full on 80’s mode with the next set of songs…”I Love It Loud”, “Heaven’s on Fire”, “War Machine” and “Lick It Up”.  As an 80’s teen, this was awesome!!!  I mentioned the band changed some songs around so Paul could sing it better, well “Heaven’s on Fire” was done for that reason. Those big high notes at the beginning of the song, well Paul just didn’t sing it and the band went straight in to the heavy part of the song. It was still awesome.  The crowd really loved this one.

“War Machine” was Gene being has badass self.  Plus it was the fire breathing part of the show.  Sorry no picture of that, it didn’t turn out.  With “Lick It Up”, the band threw a little bit of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” which the crowd loved as well.

Gene sang “Dr. Love” and then we get in to the solos.  First up, “100,000 Years” and Eric’s Drum solo.  Eric’s legs must be made of steel because he showed off his ability to do the double bass kick drums like no one else.  The speed and shear length of the solo had to be exhausting and his legs must have burned but he never missed a beat.  It was killer.

Then came up “Cold Gin” and Tommy Thayer’s solo.  He did the whole Spaceman tricks of shooting rockets at the flying saucers and the explosions were many.  My daughter seemed to like it.  However, the solo was lacking…well…pretty much a solo.  Tommy is a hell of a player, but he didn’t do much of a solo.  Disappointing for me a little. (Sorry, no good Tommy pictures).

Gene was up next with “God of Thunder”.  Okay, not yet. First it was the demon’s little bass solo. The lights went green and there was a little blood dripping down from his lip.  Then there was a little more and then the floodgates opened and blood was everywhere.  Always so cool!!

After the “Oh Yeahs” and the “Alright”, we get “God of Thunder” as Gene rises to the rafters. Gene is having a blast on this tour and I will admit, I think he sounds as good as ever.

After that came one of the best songs of the night, in my humble opinion.  “Pyscho Circus”!!  That song really kicked some major ass and the crowd loved it and were singing along. This might be the best of the most recent songs that the band has done and it works so well live.  Amazing.

The band plays “Let Me Go, Rock & Roll” next and then Paul flies out to meet us in the center of the arena.  We are in the center rows of the arena, really far back, but this put Paul about 15-20 rows from us.  It was great.  They played “Love Gun” and “I Was Made For Loving You” with the disco ball and all!!

After Paul flies back to the main stage, the band goes in to “Black Diamond” which is always a favorite for me.  After Paul’s opening, Eric takes over vocals and the man can sing.  He does a fantastic job and especially this late in the show because he has to be tired as he has destroyed that drum kit all night. At the end of the song the drums rise and the old cat symbol comes up from the stage.  Totally cool.  And that was the end of the show…almost…

Now it is the encore.  They play three songs.  After the lights went out, there was movement on the stage and then the piano started playing with Eric at the piano and he started singing “Beth”.  The crowd went nuts.  Again, Eric is a great singer and he did the song proud.  At the end of the song, in a Paul Lynne show tribute, the band came out and stood around the piano.

The band went in to “Crazy, Crazy Nights” and it was a strange choice for an encore, but it was a lot of fun.  Big Kiss Balls fell from the rafters and people were hitting them around the arena.  I told my daughter and her friend if they come back here to grab it and hold on to it, don’t knock it back up.  I want it!!  And, I didn’t get it.  They never made it back that far and people had the same idea as me.

And last, but certainly not least, the band closed the show with the only song they could…”Rock and Roll All Nite”.  And the crowd was loving it. The pyro was sick, the explosions were blasting off everywhere and the confetti, OMG, the confetti was raining down from all over the place. I was pulling confetti out of my clothes walking to the car there was so much.

Here is some of the confetti we collected…

And then it was over…sad, but in a good way!  That was probably my last Kiss show and it was one of my favorites.  The band promised more fire, more explosions, hell more of everything and they delivered.  There were lasers, flames shooing up, sideways and from one side of the stage all the way to the other side and then all at once.  Each song had something different to show and the presentation was top notch throughout.  Hell, even Sam the Serpent was on the stage breathing smoke (no picture of Sam turned out).  It was an incredible night.  I will miss their live shows, but all good things have to come to an end!  Farewell Kiss!! Farewell!!

And here are a couple more shots for you…