This week on the collection, we are going to show of the new Kiss ‘Off the Soundboard’ release we have on both vinyl and CD. The show is from San Antonio, TX recorded on December 3, 1985 and is the first ‘Off the Soundboard’ release to feature Bruce Kulick on guitar. The tour was for ‘Asylum’ which is one of the tours I saw and I actually saw the show later that month in 1985 in Atlanta. We will talk the packaging, the crappy things Kiss Online store do and talk the show itself.
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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.
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 ‘Detroit 1984’ and it was recorded at Cabo Hall in Detroit, Michigan on December 12, 1984. If you are die hard Kiss fan you know why this date is important. This show was recorded on video and released as the first concert video Kiss had ever released and it was called ‘Animalize Live Uncensored’. I had this on VHS and I remember it vividly although I did watch it again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. It came out on April 19, 1985 and I was so excited when this came out mainly because I saw this tour. My second Kiss show ever and now I was getting a video from that tour, how cool was that.
The show had a varied setlist with some old and some new. They kick off and end with some classic Kiss songs, but everything else in the middle was all 80’s from ‘Creatures of the Night’ (4 songs) to ‘Lick It Up’ (2 Songs) to ‘Animalize’ (3 Songs). For me, this is where I wanted them to spend their time as I was discovering Kiss on my own with these albums so I wanted these songs and I got my money worth with it.
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 one in the collection I bought is ‘Live in Australia 1980’. It isn’t really a live show per se. It is actually a Australian documentary show that talks about Kiss and interspersed between the narrator, we get live songs and tidbits from band members, Doc Mchee and even their road manager. It sounds like the show was recorded on VHS and they transferred it to be put on CD (more on that later). You get about 11 live songs from their tour in Australia that hit Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane I believe. Most songs I’ve read come from Sydney, but I hear the announcer and Paul calling out Adelaide I believe.
As I said, it is a documentary type show as there is a narrator and the dialogue written is quite comical at times. The narrator delivers it so seriously, but it is so cheesy and at times so inaccurate. Quite enjoyable for the humor of it that wasn’t intentional. It all kicks off with a TV promo that has each member introducing themselves and then Ace introducing the band’s new drummer Eric Carr. The band gets introduced and they go in to “Detroit Rock City” but it is not listed on the track listing. That song is usually a great song to kick off the show, but because this recorded on tape, the tape was rather warped or whatever because we get a lot of tape drag and Ace’s playing sounds simply atrocious. Luckily, this is the only song that is that way.
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 one in the series is ‘Kabuki Beasts: Kyoto 1977’. It is a full show on 1 CD that was recorded Saturday, March 26, 1977 at Kyoto Kaikan Dai Ichi Hall in Kyoto, Japan. This was only their third show ever in Japan at this point. It is an audience recording and it sounds amazing considering that fact. There are a few rough patches where the sound is not crystal clear for either a vocal or a guitar part, but overall this is a superb recording. It is raw, untouched and pure Kiss at their prime. And as an added bonus, it even includes a little poster.
It is hard to believe they fit a full show on 1 CD, but they did. It has the introduction, the solos, Paul’s talks to the crowd and even ends with the crowd cheering for them to come back for another encore after doing 3 songs already. There is an energy with the band that is electric, the crowd is just as enthusiastic and you can feel it in the performances. Being 1977, this is classic Kiss and nothing more. This has one killer track after another. They kick it off with “Detroit Rock City” and straight in to “Take Me” which is one I never get to hear enough live. Gene rocks out to “Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll” and then he tears it up in the “Ladies Room”. It is all loud and sensational.
Paul’s crowd interactions are all stellar, we don’t have those uncomfortable intros he did from the 80’s as those were cringeworthy. Let’s talk a little about the band’s playing. Well, they can play at this point and hadn’t lost anything. Peter’s drums are killer and he is pounding away. Ace’s playing is sloppy, but not in a bad way. It is the good way we like hearing him play. You get the freaking loud siren in “Firehouse” and with “I Want You” and “Makin’ Love” it nothing but crowd pleasing rock & roll. One of the few times the vocals weren’t as loud and clear was on “Makin’ Love”, but I didn’t care. The ‘Alive II’ version is better.
Things kick up a notch even more with “Cold Gin” as Gene tears it up vocally and Ace really shines. Ace impressions even more with his guitar solo. It is so Ace with tone and the shooting of the rockets from the guitar and all the explosions. Peter bangs it out for “Do You Love Me” as Paul struts through the vocals and then one of my favorite live songs is “Nothin’ to Lose” even if the start seems a little messed up. Peter sounds great when he does his part. Gene goes into a bass solo (if you can call it that as it is just noise to do the blood spitting) then in to “God Of Thunder” and he lets the Demon loose only to be pleasantly interrupted with a Peter drum solo only to come back with the finale of “God of Thunder”.
They wrap things up with “Rock And Roll All Nite” and although I am tired of this song, the energy throughout this show makes the song exciting again. And that is it as the crowd cheers louder and louder. The boys don’t disappoint and come back and do 3 encore songs including “Shout It Out Loud” followed by Peter doing “Beth” and the only one that sings it the way it should be sung. The end it all with another favorite of mine and that is “Black Diamond”. Damn, what a great show.
And that is it. For an audience recording, this disc is spectacular. Cranking it up as loud as you can stand only makes it better. Only a few rough patches, but they ain’t that rough and don’t detract from the listening experience. As I said before, the energy is electric both from the band and the crowd. Everyone is having a good time. Kiss were on fire that night and they seem to be really enjoying themselves still. It is a killer setlist, you get a cool poster and it all makes for a good time. As far as bootlegs go, they don’t sound much better than this one. My Overall Score is a 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars as I really enjoyed this one from beginning to end.
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.
As it says in the liner notes, Kiss has done numerous acoustic performances over the years on radio and TV (excluding MTV unplugged). This compilation takes those performances and puts them in one disc. It covers the time periods of 1990-1994 which makes most of it having Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick. But we do get Eric Carr and Ace Frehley tracks as well. The sound quality if actually pretty good and we get 12 fun and exciting tracks and wildly good time as it shows the humor of the guys as well as these are very loose and crazy performances.
The first track is from The Howard Stern show on February 25, 1993 and you can hear Howard and Robin joking it up with Paul and Gene. They play “Detroit Rock City” and Gene is a cut-up throughout the whole thing. I love it when he points out where all the explosions would be when they play it live. Paul sounds relaxed and vocally is on point. I love seeing the lighter side of the band.
On January 28, 2015, the Japanese Idol Band, Momoiro Clover Z, released their new single called Yume no Ukiyo ni Saite Mi Na” which translates to “Try to Bloom in a Dream about the Floating World“. Why would I be writing about a Japanese Ido band? Easily, they were able to get Kiss to take part in the song. The single is from Momoiro Clover Z’s album ‘Hakkin no Yoake’. The band even does a cover of the classic Kiss song “Rock And Roll All Nite”.
What is really cool about the single, is the artwork as it is simply stunning. “Floating World” which is part of the song’s title, is also a really cool style of Japanese Art. As you can see in the pictures, there are a lot of clouds and people floating in the air. It is very comic book style which suits Kiss perfectly. Being a Japanese release, you even get an insert in all Japanese writing and most of the writing on the cover is in Japanese. No Obi strip though. Still, cool packaging all around.
The CD single actually contains 4 tracks. The first track is the Momoiro Clover Z’s “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saite Mi Na”. The band is all women and the vocals are very high pitched and squeaky. The singing feels very cartoonish. Kiss does some of the backing vocals and they play all the instruments so that part is really cool. Musically, it is really cool, tribal drum sounds, a lot of electronic sounding elements and all around pretty great.
In 1997, Kiss was enjoying the renewed attention with the make-up back on and a reunion in full swing. Ace and Peter were back so they released a compilation around the world called ‘Greatest Kiss’ which was full of songs from the early years with the original four members. Strangely enough, the UK released another compilation in 1997 called ‘Greatest Hits’. It was a UK exclusive but why release it when they released the other compilation around the same time that was released all around Europe so easy to get. Made no sense to me.
Who knows why. What I do know is I finally have a copy of the release. It was from Polygram TV which was a division of Polygram records so a legit release. It had 20 songs like the ‘Greatest Kiss’ release; however there were a few songs that were different. This UK release actually had some songs from Kiss that did not have Ace and Peter with some of the 80’s tracks. There are no unreleased tracks or anything new, these are all album cuts so you already have these songs if you own all the albums.
Now, Wikipedia states that this was released on June 28, 1999, however, that is wrong…unless the date on the back cover of 1997 was a misprint or this was held for two years after printing them out. And another thing…if you aren’t sure what the track listing is, don’t you worry. It is printed a total of 4 times throughout the booklet. On the back cover, the back of the booklet and if you open the booklet it is there again in case you forgot. And if that wasn’t enough, it is also on the CD. Whew! I’m so happy they did it so many times because I’m sure I would’ve have forgotten. Also, inside is a chance to win a portable CD player. In 1997, that would’ve been really cool.
The music is the most important part anyway, so let’s get to it. “Here’s a little song for everybody other there”…The first track is “Crazy Crazy Nights” which was a big hit in the UK so understandable it was on here. The song was written by Paul Stanley and Adam Mitchell who Paul and Gene have both worked with quite a bit. It was a different opening track for the band as was really upbeat, kind of pop sounding yet anthemic at the same time. It wasn’t an out and out rocker like most of their albums. Paul didn’t sing so much as speak the verses and is overall it is quite cheesy. It is the only song that the band has played live after this tour. They picked it back up due to demand back in 2010 and started adding it to shows.
Universal Music is still the compilation king even in 2015. For almost 10 years, they have been spitting out Kiss compilations like they were going out of style. This time around they release a single disc compilation that was only available in Spain. It was titled ‘Lo Mejor…Kiss’. For you English speaking folks, that simply means ‘The Best of…Kiss’. It is only 14 tracks that covers the 70’s and a smidge in the 80’s as we do get 3 tracks from that era. You get a handful with Gene on vocals, a smattering of Paul and a sprinkle of Peter…but no Ace songs…boo!!! The cover of the album is pretty nice with an early photo of the band. I love how the cover looks like a magazine cover and I even like the font of the logo. There isn’t much to it as the album cover opens to reveal the track listing with a few credits, but no other pictures, no write-up, nothing. Pretty basic. Another cash grab. But being that is a Spanish release, the cool factor is pretty high for me to have it in the collection.
There isn’t much else I could find on it, so we might as well talk the music. The album kicks off with the song that started it all for the band. The start to superstardom was because of “Rock And Roll All Nite”. This is now their signature song and it is easy to see why. It is a pure rock anthem like no other. The ‘Alive!’ version is better though.
And then Paul shows off with a little “Oooh Oooh Oooh” that I’m not sure he could not hit today as it is so high, but it is a perfect way to kick off the song “Heaven’s On Fire” which is another Paul and Desmond song and the first single off ‘Animalize’ The song is another rocker and a very typical 80’s sounding song. It was all over MTV and helped propel the album to Platinum status. On radio, it didn’t fare as well not breaking the Top 40 and hanging around #49. The song is one of the few 80’s song to actually get occasionally played live after they went back to make-up which is cool. Now sadly, this was the only video that contains Mark as he was gone before anything else was done, but at least we have this to remember him by.
In my hunt for Kiss compilations, I came across this single disc cd from 2007 that was actually a promo CD of a larger collection that had 8 CDs, only one of which was Kiss. The info on it is as follows:
KISS/VARIOUS Horipro Music Publishing Collection (2007 US promotional only 120-track 8-CD album set issued by the music publishing arm of the Horipro Entertainment Group to illustrate the diversity of their song catalogue, comprising four various artist compilations of hit country songs and classic rock songs, individual discs dedicated to the ‘Emerald Forest’ subsidiary, Jerry Reed and REO Speedwagon, plus a 13-track Kiss collection exclusive to this set. Custom printed discs and full colour picture sleeves, housed in a card picture slipcase with 16-page booklet including artist biographies).
I do not have the whole set, but only the Kiss CD that I picked up on Discogs. I would love to grab the whole set one day, but for now, I’m happy with the Kiss CD at the very least…which is all I really wanted anyway. It is a simple collection with 13 tracks and the inside album sheet had the songs listed and where they wound up on the Billboard Charts and the year. However, not all the songs charted. A very simple set with nothing else included and heck, it didn’t even have the normal Kiss Logo. But it did have a great selection of tracks.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 