Tag: Deuce

Kiss – ‘Flaming Years: Toronto, Canada, September 6, 1976’ (1994) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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We are now to a set of shows that were all done within a month of each other. These three disc 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.

We are going in chronological order for these three shows, so last time we did ‘Unnecessary Evil: Anaheim Stadium August 20, 1976’. Then it was ‘The Spirit of ’76: Richfield Coliseum, September 3, 1976’. We are now to the final of the 3 shows from the Destroyer Tour. This one is called ‘Flaming Years’ and it was recorded on September 6, 1976 in Toronto Canada at Varsity Stadium. This bootleg was released in 1994 by Backstage and it was released in Italy. The CD was purchased on March 27, 1995 as the receipt was still in the CD and John paid $29.25 for it which I imagine that was a lot back in the day.

Like the Cleveland show, this is another soundboard recording, but the sound is little more clear as it seems to breathe a little better. Paul is still as loud, but the crowd is very faint. There are some interesting moments here as “Rock and Roll All Nite” does cutout midway through and goes right into “Deuce” which is already in-progress. And during the intro to “Black Diamond,” Ace Frehley is apparently calling someone an “asshole.”  I wonder what that was about.

The show stsarts with the annoucer screamning “Alright Toronto, You Wanted the Best and You Got the Best…KISS”. This was louder then when the band actually starts playing “Detroit Rock City”. Paul’s vocals are quite loud in the mix so you hear all his flaws (which aren’t many at this time in their career. Everything else isn’t quite as loud as Paul, but it is clear. Peter is keeping great time, Ace’s is playing is outstanding and the bass is laying the groove. A great performance. It is definitely a soundboard recording. It ends with a car crash as it should be and then it is “King of the Night Time World”. Gene roars in the backing vocals on the Chorus and Paul is still really loud and Ace is still killing it, so is Peter.

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Kiss – ‘The Spirit of ’76: Richfield Coliseum, September 3, 1976’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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We are now to a set of shows that were all done within a month of each other. These three disc 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.

We are going in chronological order for these three shows, so last time we did ‘Unnecessary Evil: Anaheim Stadium August 20, 1976’. Now, it is time for ‘The Spirit of ’76: Richfield Coliseum, September 3, 1976’. This bootleg was released in 2011 on a label called Strutter Productions and is listed as For Promotional Use Only Not For Sale…yeah…bootleg!! As far as setlist go, Kiss doesn’t deviate at all from the prior show.

The show says it was in Cleveland, Ohio, but it was actually Richfield, a suburb of Cleveland and throughout Paul says Cleveland. The opening act was Artful Dodger and I have no information on Crowd size or box office take like I did for the last one. It is a soundboard recording and is said to be one of the best recordings of the tour with the exception of some mix level adjustments early on and a cut short on ‘Rock And Roll All Nite’, but this mix fixes the cut short although the remainder of the song sounds different. Crowd noise is minimal and all you hear are the boys doing what they do best!!

The show starts off with some noodling around on the instruments, a pause and then we get the classic “You Wanted the Best and You Got ‘Em…”. This was louder then when the band actually starts playing. Lots of explosions can be heard at the start of “Detroit Rock City”. Paul’s vocals are quite loud in the mix compared to the mix of the last album we discussed, so you hear all his flaws (which aren’t many at this time in their career. Suddenly the drums get higher in the mix, then down a little as I am guessing they are still noodling around. Ace’s guitar sounds very distant during the solo and the bass is about the same. Outside of all that, a great performance. Definitely a soundboard recording.

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Kiss – ‘Unnecessary Evil: Anaheim Stadium August 20, 1976’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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We are now to a set of shows that were all done within a month of each other. These three disc 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.

We are going in chronological order for these three shows, so first up is ‘Unnecessary Evil: Anaheim Stadium August 20, 1976’. The release was on Deep Records and was released in 1992 and is obviously another Bootleg. This is actually the 50th Kiss Bootleg Post I’ve done which is crazy to think about. And I still have several more to do. The show we have here is from the Destroyer Tour and saw the band come to Anaheim, California with an impressive line-up for this show. It had Montrose, Ted Nugent as well as Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band all on the bill. There were around 43,000 people at the show and it gross was $437,653 which in today’s dollars would be equivalent to around $2.5 million today. That is crazy to think.

This particular show I read is a soundboard recording, but maybe it is the age, but doesn’t sound that clear for a soundboard. But it doesn’t sound that bad either for an audience recording. You can hear the crowd really well, but the band is a little soft and distant sounding. Although, I can hear everything fairly clear. The show was pretty much an all day festival and reports show the band sold $36,000 in merchandise on that day. There were two massive video screens, one on each side of the stage as well as Eddie Kramer was brought in to record the show. I don’t believe that show has been released yet officially. Maybe that would be a great release for the 50th Anniversary of the album.

The show starts out with a warning from the announcer for everyone to back up as the crowd was pushing the stage. Safety is important. The fans start chanting “We Want Kiss” and with a fade out and fade in, the band was introduced by each name and there was no “You Wanted the Best” intro. As the are coming down the stage, it is known that Gene falls down, but he gets right back up. Since this is a CD, you don’t actually see that happen, just know it does. They open with “Detroit Rock City”. It is heavy, fast paced and over before you know, but not before the car crashes and they go right into “King of the Night Time World”. A song they should’ve played more in the later years. Theses songs follow each other on ‘Destroyer’ and so they should live as well. It is a messy transition with the crowd noise and such, but once it gets going, it rocks.

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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 – ‘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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Kiss – ‘Choppers ‘N Chicks’ (2016) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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Kiss is one of those bands that there are hundreds upon hundreds of bootlegs. Each time I go to Repo Records for Record Store Day, I always seem to find bootlegs. It has been Kiss and Van Halen almost every time. This time it was more Kiss. I discovered three bootlegs at Repo Records and since I didn’t have two of them, I bought both. First up was ‘The Rock ‘N Roots of Kiss’ which we covered last week. This time around it is ‘Choppers ‘N Chicks’ from 2016 which is a Rock And Roll Tour Rehearsal from Camp Curtis Guild Armory in Reading, Massachusetts on November 15, 1976. A very famous bootleg that has been going around for years.

An interesting note of fact, that during the rehearsal, the band was filmed lip-syncing three songs that would be used on the Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. Those songs were “Hard Luck Woman”, “I Want You” and “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em”. I believe this is an audience style recording from a tape deck and not a soundboard recording. There were several songs they rehearsed that I don’t believe were played very often on this tour, so it is cool to still have those. “Hard Luck Woman” is one of those songs.

The package we get here is pretty basic. The album jacket is almost rubbery in texture and sadly, I didn’t notice there is a blowout at the top. I can’t take it back and exchange for another one as there isn’t one. The record sleeve is nice and solid with better quality than the jacket. The picture on the front is Gene on his Chopper and on the back is a full band picture with a Chick. The sleeve has another Gene on his chopper picture and then the reverse has the track listing with individual photos of the band, each on their own bike. The vinyl is a splatter that is a rather dull reddish, brownish, orangish color. Not that pretty. The label is white and blank. But how does the music sound?

SIDE 1:

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Kiss – ‘Live Vol. 1: Detroit, Michigan April 7, 1974 – 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 go back to 1974. April 7, 1974 to be exact. This bootleg is from their Detroit, Michigan show that was recorded at the Michigan Palace. The release is called Live Vol. 1 and is out of Australia from a label called Joker. It is Unauthorized as it says in rather large print on the front cover. This is real early in their career and is from The First Kiss Tour!! This was for the Radio Station WABX-FM Kite-In and Balloon Fly show and if I’m not mistaken, there was another up and coming band called Aerosmith on the same bill along with Michael Finnelly and The Mojo Boogie Band. As far as the track listing, there is an error…well, not an error but more of an omission. On the same track as “Cold Gin” is the song “100,000 Years” which is not listed. So that was a plus.

The sound is not that great. Very muddy and sounds like a recording of a recording of a tape. The volume starts off low and suddenly you can hear it getting louder as someone was turning it up. The band is introduced as “the most unusual band” which is totally awesome and so true for the time. Kiss opens with “Deuce” and like I said, the sound is bad. The volume goes up and down and not a good recording at all. But this is hungry, early Kiss and you can hear how good they still sound. A rocking opening song and Gene’s scream during Ace’s solo towards the end was awesome!!

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Kiss – Electric Magic: Live East Lansing, MI October 21, 1974 – 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.

The bootleg we have for you this time around is called ‘Electric Magic’ and it was recorded live from The Brewery in East Lansing, Michigan on October 21, 1974 about a week before ‘Hotter Than Hell’ was released. This particular one is a soundboard recording which means the sound is pretty good. A little more focused on the instruments as they are louder than the vocals. Also, it means the crowd noise is pretty limited as they weren’t mic’d up. This one is from Godfatherecords and is on a tri-fold cardboard sleeve. It was released on May 15, 2008 so it isn’t that old. But the show is.

The show opens with a classic opening line of “Put Your Two Lips Together and KISS” screamed from the announcer. The opening riff comes on and you know it is “Deuce”. A killer opening track and to be followed by “Strutter” is a brutal opening. Before the song starts, you hear a lot of noodling around on the instruments and it is a pretty long pause before the song kicks in. The bass is real heavy on this one, but it is still killer. Paul announces the next song is off their new album that will be out this week and it is “Got to Choose”. One of the coolest songs on that album and cool they heard it before the album dropped.

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Kiss – ‘Wicked Lester’ – 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 somethings.

Now, to the review…We all know Kiss was started by Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley.  But did you know about the band prior to Kiss?  It all started with Gene (Chaim Witz) and Paul (Stanley Eisen) in a band called Rainbow with Gene’s friend Stephen Coronel.  Paul was the third member and then they brought in a drummer named Joe Davidson. This band didn’t last long at all and hell, the drummer even a shorter time as he was quickly replaced with Tony Zarella.  They only played one show before they had to drop the name Rainbow because that name was already being used by some other band (and no, not the Richie Blackmore band).

And that is how Wicked Lester was born.  After only a couple shows as Wicked Lester, they were approached by a label and were given the chance to record some demos. After listening to those demos, the label decided that Stephen was not good enough and had to be fired. And since Gene and Paul the upstanding citizens they are, they fired Stephen.  I guess you do whatever it takes to make it in this business.  Ron Leejack was then brought in for guitar duties and it was time to record the album.

Now the album would take about a year to complete and upon receiving the album and hearing it, the label were not quite thrilled with it…okay, they hated it.  Hated it so much, they shelved it and it was never released.  Well, never in a full, pure album form.  It has been leaked out as a bootleg and that is what we have here. This particular release has a total of 9 demos of Wicked Lester and it also has the 5 demos done by Eddie Kramer before Kiss did their first album. Lastly, it claims to have 5 songs from Live at the Academy of Music in New York from 12/31/73, but this is not true from what I researched. It is actually 5 songs from the Long Beach recording on 5/31/74.

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