Category: Album Review

Kiss – The Interview Discs (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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We are now to a collection of Interview Discs that were included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

I am not a fan of interview discs at all. They came with the collection so I am stuck with them, unless I decide to sell them, but I don’t sell my Kiss collection. The problem with Interview disc is playability. Once you’ve heard the interview once, is there a need to ever revisit the interview? Well, no. There is not.

We have 6 discs that were included with the collection and we will briefly discuss each one. I’m not going to tell you what is said, because if I do that, there is absolutely no need for you to listen to them. This is simply a guide to a handful of interview disc that are out there. And let me tell you, there are a ton. Apparently it is a big market in the bootleg CD arena. Who knew!

THE KISS 25TH ANNIVERSARY STAR PROFILE (1999):

First up is ‘The Kiss 25th Anniversary Star Profile which came out in 1999. It comes with a 100-page booklet that gives you the history of Kiss, the complete Discography (up to that point) and a lot of cool pictures. It is thick, it is heavy and a nice surprise. The interview covers the following topics…

  • Chapter 1 – Early Wickedness
  • Chapter 2 – Noise Form The Dragsters
  • Chapter 3 – Finally Alive
  • Chapter 4 – Toy Story
  • Chapter 5 – On the Even of Destruction
  • Chapter 6 – A Bizarre Concept
  • Chapter 7 – Weakness Exposed
  • Chapter 8 – Kiss This!
  • Chapter 9 – Carnival of Kiss
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Kiss – ‘Days of Sorrow And Madness’ (2012) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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We are to yet another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

This particular bootleg comes to us from The Godfatherecords and was released on October 1, 2014. What you get here are two complete live shows from Kiss on one disc. Surprising, I know, however these shows are from 1974 when Kiss was basically an opening act. The first show is from Independence Hall in Baton Rouge, LA on July 16,1974 and the second show is from The Bayou in Washington D.C. on March 25, 1974. When you look at the names of the places they played, you think the names have to be mixed up because The Bayou sounds like a place in Louisiana and Independence Hall sounds like it should be in our Nation’s Capitol. But, trust me. Those are the correct cities for each arena.

The first show at Independence Hall saw Kiss as the opening act of a three band line-up. The other bands were the New York Dolls and Blue Oyster Cult. Kiss was relegated to only 6 songs which makes it last around 30 minutes. The other show at The Bayou saw Kiss do not one, but two shows that night and both sold out. The first at 8pm and the second at 10:30pm. The Bayou was basically a hole-in-wall club that was said to look like an unfinished basement when I looked it up on Kissconcerthistory.com. The recording is the 2nd show and both shows on this disc I think are audience recordings, but done ver well.

INDEPENDENCE HALL (July 16, 1974):

Up first is Independence Hall and they kick off the show with “Deuce” but not before the announcer says “put your two lips together and get ready for Kiss!”. The band comes exploding out of the gate. Gene sounds a little bit younger here and so does Paul. They are still very early in their touring career but they sound tight and mean. There is a long pause between this one the next one which is “Strutter”. Not as abusive as “Deuce”. Strangely, Gene seems to sing the first couple lines before Paul comes in to finish it off. Being an audience recording, the instruments are little muddied, but you can still hear them pretty well.

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Kiss – ‘What Goes On Behind Closed Doors’ (2012) – Album Review

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We are to yet another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

This particular bootleg comes to us from The Godfatherecords and was released on August 1, 2012. What you get here are a bunch of Kiss demos and these aren’t your typical rough sounding bootlegs. No, these are all pretty high quality sounding demos. The first disc is all demos spanning from 1973 to 1998, giving us 25 years of demos and you get a lot of tracks. There are 21 tracks alone on Disc 1.

And Disc 2 is something even more special. Taken directly from the source tapes that were actually used for the Kiss Box Set, we get the original Wicked Lester album. And all I can say is that is the ABSOLUTE BEST sounding recording I have ever heard of this album. I have the Wicked Lester songs on several different bootlegs and not one of them are of this quality. Damn!! It is like having an official release of the album. Yes, it is that good. Based on this, why have Kiss never officially released that album. Will we get it for the box set of the debut album? I certainly hope so.

The cover of this 2 CD set is an outtake of the photo shoot from The Elder. It has non-make-up wearing Paul Stanley touching the door knocker from the original album and his hand partially covering his face. The back cover has the the track listing, but the interesting thing are the pictures inside. You get a ton of snippets of pictures for the band on this tri-fold digipack release. There is one set of pictures that I refused to take and show on this review and no, it is not because there is nudity. It is because it is Paul, Ace and Peter wearing Nazi attire. And even one where they give the Nazi salute. By today’s standards, it is pretty offensive and controversial and I don’t want any of that non-sense here. So let’s just talk about the music.

CD One:

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Kiss – ‘Houston: The Summit Sept. 2, 1977’ (1992) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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While on the Love Gun Tour, Kiss had a two night stop at the venue The Summit in Houston Texas. Those shows were on September 1st and 2nd of 1977. Here for this next Bootleg in the series, we are capturing the 2nd night of the show and this is a really cool show as Kiss were in their prime and they simply slayed on the stage that night. It is a high-energy, explosive performance for a band that was untouched at the time for their live performances. The people in Houston definitely got their money’s worth on that night. This bootleg was released in Germany on Deep Records back in 1992.

This show has never been released from the band, but they definitely have this in their archives as the videos for this show have showed up a couple times in the Kiss camp. First, in 1987, Kiss released a video called Kiss Exposed…a man was it cheesy. On that video that had a few live shots of the band from the heyday and three of those videos were taken from the Sept. 2 show in Houston. The songs used were “Beth”, “I Stole Your Love” and “Ladies Room”. But it gets better. On the Kissology Volume One 1974-1977 DVD released back in 2006, the full show of the Sept. 2 night was released so you got the full video performance. Sweet. Okay, starting with “Rock & Roll All Nite”, the video actually switches to the previous night and the last 4 songs are that night. So, almost the full show.

This is another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at an auction where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

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Europe – ‘Secret Society’ (2006) – Album Review

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Europe is a band that has been tied down by it’s massive hit “The Final Countdown”in my opinion. That time is also considered the classic line-up of the band. Shortly after the success of that album, lead guitarist John Norum up and left the band. It was a shock to many. He spent time working on solo material and with Don Dokken. The band would go on to make a couple more albums and then disappeared for the rest of the 90’s. In 2003, the so-called classic line-up got back together and John Norum was along for the ride. Joey Tempest, John Norum, Jon Leven, Mic Michaeli and Ian Haugland were back and in a big way.

Why do focus on John Norum so much, well, it his guitar playing that is so amazing. Yes, Joey Tempest is the voice and the principal song writer, but the two albums after ‘The Final Countdown’, though great, were missing something. Norum has a way with the guitar. It can be extremely heavy, but there is always a great melody to it and a style all his own. For me, it was the missing piece in this band being the best they can be.

In 2004, the band released their comeback album, ‘Start from the Dark’ and it was a reinvention of the band. It was a more modern, more raw sound than anyone was used to hearing from them. And it was great. But great wasn’t good enough for Europe. They had to outdo that album and they did that and then some. In 2006, the band released ‘Secret Society’ and probably delivered their best album…EVER! I finally picked up the CD and I haven’t put it down. It has been on constant rotation for about a month now and it gets better and better with every listen. There are no skippable tracks, no weak spots and the guitar playing? Well, John Norum will make you stop and take notice. In fact, the whole band is on fire with this one.

The opening track, “Secret Society” comes out of the gate swinging. The heavy bass lines, the down-tuned guitars and a pounding drum beat all exploding at you with full force. Joey still sounds amazing, such a distinct voice and so melodic. The riffs by Norum flow magically from his fingers. And the keyboards, so well done by Michaeli. Understated, yet so effective.

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‘Shakespeare’s MacBeth: A Rock Opera (Featuring Jeff Scott Soto)’ – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Many years ago, Greg Cherone and John Bettencourt got together with an idea to turn William Shakespeare’s most tragic of tragedies into a Rock Opera. The tragedy in question is MacBeth, one of his most well-known works. Greg and John got through a number of songs in the first Act done, but the project was shelved for years collecting dust and going no where. That was until a new collaborator was brought in who had a background in musical theater, Greg’s cousin, Robert Clapp Jr. Greg asked Robert to work on one song called “A Dangerous Thing” and after that was done, Robert agreed to work on another, then another until he was in hook, line and sinker. After a year or so of work, we get a finished project with two full acts, 27 songs telling the story of MacBeth.

Robert played all the instruments and even sang all the parts to kick things off so they had a base tracking of the album. They added vocals to each song by using friends, family members and even hiring singers using the app Fiverr which was very successful for them. But they still needed a name, a person that would help draw some interest into the project. Their main goal was to get a backer to help stage the show in the theater and bring these songs to life. Greg mentioned to me that he styled the Rock Opera in the same way as Jesus Christ Superstar of which all three of them are a huge fan. I believe Robert Clapp was actually in Jesus Christ Superstar at one time.

As luck would have it, during the Monsters of Rock cruise back in March of 2025, an evening dinner would start the interest in someone to sing MacBeth. On the cruise was the band Extreme and as it so happens, Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt of the band are the brothers of Greg Cherone and John Bettencourt the creators of the MacBeth Rock Opera. Gary was having dinner with Jeff Scott Soto and talked to him about the MacBeth project. Later, Gary told Greg about Jeff so Greg reached out and asked Jeff to sing on one song. Jeff did it and they loved his work so they thought, why not ask Jeff to do all the MacBeth. The worst he could do is say No. Well, Jeff doesn’t like to say No and he happily agreed to handle all the vocals as he had barely enough time before his next project, a Brazilian tour.

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Needtobreathe – Best of The Insiders: 5th Edition – 2026 Insiders Club

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For the 2022 Insiders Club, Needtobreathe changed things up. They were no longer going to release a physical product and only do the Digital Songs only. I stopped being a member right then and there as I want a physical product. Well, I think the backlash was swift and loud as a few months in to the year, that all changed. They decided that there will be a new tier level in the Insiders Club, more expensive of course, but a physical product would be given. This time around instead of only a CD, you will get an autographed vinyl copy as well. They still have the digital songs, which are different then the ones on the vinyl. The new CD and Vinyl are now a Best of The Insiders giving us the 9-10 songs from the 8 years of The Insiders CD series they had started 8 years earlier. The 1st Edition came in March 2023 almost a year after the announcement, but the band was smart as they went ahead and worked on the 2023 Edition at the same time they were working on the 2022 Edition. We received this vinyl in April 2023. Then in February 2024, we got the 3rd Edition and a year later in February 2025, we get the 4th Edition. And if you have figured out the trend now, February 2026 we get the 5th Edition. And I have them all…

This time around, we get 9 songs but you have to remember they are trying to fit them on easily on a vinyl with only a set amount of time, so I’m okay with only 9 songs. We did get the CD again which is unsigned but that gives me all five of those as well…

You also got a handful of other items including including a 2026 calendar…

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Kiss – ‘Return to Thunder: Winter Tour 1976/1977’ (2015) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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When Kiss were preparing to tour their album ‘Rock And Roll Over’, They rented some space at Camp Curtis Guild Armory in Reading, Massachusetts and rehearsed. They recorded one rehearsal on November 15, 1976 which is a very famous bootleg that has been going around for years. In fact, I recently reviewed this rehearsal on a vinyl bootleg I have called ‘Choppers ‘N Chicks’. This time around it is the CD from 2015 called ‘Return to Thunder: Winter Tour 1976/1977’. We get that whole show rehearsal as well as some bonus tracks not on that last release.

This package comes in a cardboard vinyl sleeve replica with some cool live shots as well as the Kiss logo from the Rock & Roll Over album. The disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve and if that wasn’t enough they included a 4-page booklet that has 4 pictures. One of each Kiss member including Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, the late, great Ace Frehley and Peter Cris…oops…they have a typo…it should be Peter Criss with two S’s.

This is another disc that was included in the John Humphrey Collection I bought last year at auction. where I got my hands on 38 Bootleg CDs from his personal collection. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…which I did.

Track 1-19: Rehearsals Camp Curtis Guild Armory, Reading, Ma, U.S.A. November 15 1976:

The album opens with a fade in as the band is doing “Detroit Rock City”. It picks up right as Paul starts singing the lyrics. It all sounds a little hollow due to the type of recording, but you can hearing everything fairly well. Vocals are good as no one has blown their voice yet as this is only rehearsals. They aren’t half-assing anything as Peter sounds on point, and Ace’s solo is full on like you’d expect.

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Kiss – ‘Watching Us’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.

This time around we have a cool bootleg that consists of a collection of performances Kiss did on various TV shows over the years. It is called ‘Watching Us’ and I am not sure what year this was released as it is not listed on the back cover nor does Discogs have it listed. It is 16 tracks covering appearances from 1974 up to 1986. The cover photo and a couple others were taken from a photoshoot on October 19, 1976. This was where they did a photoshoot for Creem magazine and they used polyurethane “fake” snow which is actually so toxic that it is no longer used. I am assuming the guys didn’t suffer any long-term effects from being exposed to it.

The disc starts off with ABC’s in Concert which aired on March 219, 1974. It kicks off with “Nothin’ to Lose and Peter on vocals. The quality is decent enough, a little hollow sounding like it was from a copy of a copy. The crowd sounds good and loud while the band is on fire as they are young and hungry. After that opening track, they go into the classic, “Firehouse”. Paul confidently and effortlessly delivers a stellar vocal. I like the long drawn out ending and the siren ringing loudly. After that, they go into one of my favorites, “Black Diamond”. This one sounds so good despite the quality of the recording. The band simply kills it. Peter’s vocals are spot on. He is so into it and gives it his all. Another great, long, drawn out, explosive ending. This was back when they were all the best they could be.

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Cheap Trick – ‘The Complete Epic Albums Collection’ (2022) – Box Set (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

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Back in 2013, Legacy, Epic Records and Sony released a CD box set that contained all albums in Epic Records from the band’s debut album all the way up to 1990’s album ‘Busted’. In 2022, the box set was reissued on Music on CD, Legacy, Epic & Sony and that is the box I have in my collection. You get 14 CDs in all including the full Budokan show on 2 CDs along with the E.P. ‘Found all the Parts’ that was only available on Vinyl and cassette until 2003 when there was a Japanese release on CD.

The albums from the debut up to ‘All Shook Up’ were original remastered and reissued back in 1998 with bonus tracks and that is what we have here with those albums. If what I am reading is correct, the remaining albums were remastered for this box set but there is a debate on whether or not that is true as the sound quality isn’t as great as the earlier albums. For me, it doesn’t bother me one way or the other as I’m not going to sit and listen to all 14 discs in a row where I would notice and differences. I am just happy to have all the albums on CD as I had them all on vinyl, so I needed the CDs.

For those of you that need to know this, Cheap Trick is from Rockford, Illinois and consists of Robin Zander on Vocals, Rick Nielsen on guitar, Bun E. Carlos on drums and there are two different people on bass. First is Tom Petersson from Discs 1 – 8 and then back again on 13-14 while Jon Brant is on Discs 9-12 as Tom left for a spell and thankfully returned. They have been labeled as the American Beatles which is high praise especially considering the band was heavily influenced by The Beatles.

The first half of their catalog is amazingly strong and they have one of the best live albums of all time with ‘At Budokan’. The last half of their catalog is a little weak at times, but still some great classics on each album. The band is still going strong today and still frequently releasing quality material that any band would be proud to call their own. They have not rested on their past and always strive to be better. This is a large taste of the band if you aren’t familiar and unless you buy the Vinyl, this CD set is pretty reasonable as I picked it up for around $45. Not bad for 14 CDs. Let’s take a look.

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