Tag: God of Thunder

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 – ‘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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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 – ‘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 – ‘The Lost Alive II Album’ – 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 is yet another live show from 1977 and I know I said I needed to pick one from a different year as I’ve done a lot from 1977, but I couldn’t pass this one up. This is another from Budokan in 1977 and was a finished mix that was supposed to be used for their Alive II album, but it was scrapped. A year later, we actually got ‘Alive II’ and it was not as quite as live as this one is. This version is more raw and rough around the edges unlike ‘Alive II’ that came out. And for that, it might be a better version, for the most part.

This version of the Bootleg I believe is a self-made CD. The reason I say that is because the pictures seem to be photocopies of another picture as they aren’t as crisp and clear. The CD cover art looks homemade and well, the back cover of the insert is simply a white page with the statement printed on it that reads “From The Collection of John Humphrey”. All that leads me to believe he had the digital version of this and decided to put it on CD. So, I guess this is a bootlegged bootleg…which is cool. To top it off, we get the studio songs that are on Side 4 of ‘Alive II’, but these are different mixes and alternate versions. Lastly, there are 4 demo songs from Gene’s solo album. That is also really cool. Now, how does all this sound?

I’ll be honest. It sounds amazing. The mix is sensational, the crowd noise is pumped in and it feels exciting and electric. The songs are edited together that make you feel this is one cohesive show…and that is how it should be. They open with “Detroit Rock City” and the energy is dripping from the speakers. Paul goes into “Take Me” and he has the crowd in the palm of his hand. The guitars are brutal and the drums are powerful. Gene meets you in the “Ladies Room” next and damn does it feel like the crowd is going nuts.

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Kiss – Madison Square Garden 1977 (2016) – 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 the bootleg is a live show from Madison Square Garden recorded on February 18, 1977. This was a historical show for the band as it was their first time playing this arena. It is also known for that great photo of the band members in full make-up and outfits surrounded by their parents and even has Bill Aucoin in the picture (see above). The set we have here was released in 2016 by Eat A Peach! and of course it is unofficial or it wouldn’t be in my bootleg series.

Included is a little 4 page booklet and even an inner sleeve like an album sleeve with some information on the show. Lastly, the CD is a cool picture disc with the I Love NY on it and the band’s faces in the heart (or the love part). This show is a soundboard recording, but it isn’t the best one I’ve heard. The sound is weak, almost hollow at times and there is a lot of tape wobble at certain parts too. However, it is a full show and even comes with 2 bonus tracks which we will discuss.

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Kiss – ‘Live in Maryland 1977’ – 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 next bootleg up is ‘Live in Maryland 1977’. This was was recorded at the Capital Centre in Largo, MD way back on December 20, 1977 for the Kiss Alive II Tour. According to various spots on the internet, this show was actually recorded on video with expectations to be used for the American Music Awards show, but I don’t think were ever used. You do get those show in an edited format as the bonus disc on Kissology Vol. 1 from the Wal-Mart edition sold. This recording we have here on CD is that version as it is not a full show.

What does that mean of the sound, well, if you’ve seen the video, you know it sounds fantastic. The quality is great as it was taken from the DVD, I’m sure. Happy to have that show, even if edited, on CD. This particular disc was released in 2014 and is in a digipak. The pictures used on the back cover and inside are pretty grainy and are probably copies of a copy. It is only 1 CD and a soundboard recording.

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Kiss – ‘Snake Attack Budokan: Last Show Japan Tour 1977’ – 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.

A month ago, we did a review of ‘Kabuki Beasts: Kyoto 1977’ and it was recorded Saturday, March 26, 1977 at Kyoto Kaikan Dai Ichi Hall in Kyoto, Japan. This is another Japanese show from that tour. In fact, it is the Last Show of the 1977 Japanese Tour and it was April 4, 1977 at Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. It is called ‘Snake Attack Budokan: Last Show Japan Tour 1977’. There were only 150 of these made and sold so good luck trying to find one and if you do, I hope your wallet is full. Mine is #62.

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