KISS – Alive 35: Live at Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon SK, Nov 10 2009(Concert Online)
I would buy any “instant live” type CD by Kiss — that’s a given. The sheer quantity available means I will never own a complete collection of them. What I chose to do was buy a handful, selectively. I was most interested in Canadian shows, and of course concerts where new songs from Sonic Boom were performed.
Kiss’ concert in Saskatoon on November 10 2009 fit the bill perfectly.* Something about Paul Stanley shouting, “SASKATOON!” The new songs performed that night were “Modern Day Delilah” and “Say Yeah”, both personal favourites. As a bonus to me, there’s also a version of “Shock Me” with Tommy Thayer singing. Some Kiss fans have taken exception to Tommy singing this song in addition to wearing Ace’s costume. I’m not going to get into that. All I will say on the matter is that I would rather hear “Shock Me” live than not.
The concert opens with four 1974 Kiss classics in a row: “Deuce”, “Strutter”, “Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Hotter Than Hell”. “Let Me Go” seems to fall apart, giving the show a raucous flavour. It doesn’t get any more retro than that. That’s four of my favourite Kiss songs in a row; four songs I never tire of. Paul’s voice is sore, cracking in several places. The job still gets done with the backing vocals of Eric Singer, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer. Eric definitely pulls a lot of weight vocally. As much as I wanted to hear new songs, “Say Yeah” suffers a bit vocally.
Highlight: Undoubtedly, a 16 minute version of “100,000 Years”. Eric Singer does his drum thing, and then Paul and Tommy both pick up their guitars and do a call-and-response jam, throwing in a few Zeppelin licks. You don’t think of Kiss as the kind of band that executes 16 minute extended jams, but it works in a primitive, primordial way.
Paul Stanley’s stage raps are absolutely classic. Paul knows Canada. He knows that all he has to do is say “Montreal” and he gets the crowd going. Just before “Rock all Roll all Nite”, Paul informs the crowd that Shannon Tweed is in the house! The fellow Canadian is greeted warmly by the people of Saskatoon. However my favourite rap is this:
“There’s so much trouble in the world. If you came here tonight to hear some band tell you how to end global warming…if you came here tonight to hear some band tell you how to end world hunger…you are in the wrooong place tonight! I’ll tell you something, we all came here tonight to escape from the world! Tomorrow morning when we get up it’ll be just as screwed up as it is today. We might as well have a little fun! And you know if somebody says to you…’You outta be a little more socially conscious, you outta be doing what you can to help save the world.’ You say to them, ‘Listen to me. Tonight’s my night off and I wanna Rock and Roll all Nite and party every day!'”
Hard to argue with that, Paul!
4/5 stars
*I still want a CD from a European show where they performed “I’m An Animal”, however.
Today on 107.5 Dave FM, near the start of the Craig Fee Show, I heard those opening chords to “Detroit Rock City”. Then, I heard Craig say, “No, no, no. I will not play this band today.” He then cut directly into “A Lil’ Ain’t Enough” by David Lee Roth.
There are Kiss boycotts happening right now on radio stations all over the world.
Gene Simmons is not a stupid man. Nor, do I believe, is he a bad man. The work he has done for veterans and other causes has been admirable. He’s also known for opening his big yap and spouting his personal politics to anyone who will listen. When Gene said this, I simply could not believe it:
“Drug addicts and alcoholics are always, ‘The world is a harsh place.’ My mother was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. I don’t want to hear f**k all about ‘the world as a harsh place.’ She gets up every day, smells the roses and loves life. And for a putz, 20-year-old kid to say, ‘I’m depressed, I live in Seattle.’ F**k you, then kill yourself.
“I never understand, because I always call them on their bluff. I’m the guy who says ‘Jump!’ when there’s a guy on top of a building who says, ‘That’s it, I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to jump.’ Are you kidding? Why are you announcing it? Shut the f**k up, have some dignity and jump! You’ve got the crowd.”
Hot on the heels of the suicide of the much-beloved Robin Williams, Simmons’ carelessness was shocking to me. Nikki Sixx called him out on it, and said, “What if somebody heard those words and did kill themselves, Gene?”
Today Gene offered up an apology of sorts.
“To the extent my comments reported by the media speak of depression, I was wrong and in the spur of the moment made remarks that in hindsight were made without regard for those who truly suffer the struggles of depression…I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments. I recognize that depression is very serious and very sad when it happens to anyone, especially loved ones. I deeply support and am empathetic to anyone suffering from any disease, especially depression.”
I have been a member of the Kiss Army since 1985. I have always loved their music, and always will. I realized a long time ago, probably since the mid-90’s, that Gene Simmons is an asshole. He even named his solo album Asshole. We all know that Gene spouts crap about anything and everything, as is his right. Just like it’s my right to call him out on it.
Gene, to this day depression comes with a huge stigma. Some don’t recognize it as an illness. Some think “just cheer up,” is the solution. Sadly, some in the medical field don’t even understand depression, the pain it can cause (both emotional and physical) and how it can devastate a life. I hope that you learned a valuable lesson from this Gene. I hope you choose to learn more about depression and mental illness. After all, next it could be your son Nick, or your daughter Sophie, who fall ill with an awful mental illness that people don’t fully understand. It can happen to anyone regardless of who they are, or how hard they work, or how much success they have. I hope, Gene, that you will treat everyone who suffers from these terrible illnesses with the same compassion that I expect you would treat Nick and Sophie with.
I still love Kiss. But Gene, you named that solo album correctly, because you’ve acted like a total asshole.
Alright people. I got a question for everybody here (and I didn’t forget about you people upstairs neither, woah yeah!). How many of you people believe in rock and roll?
If you believe in rock and roll, like you say you believe in rock-and-ro-oh-oll, then you know that 2014 is the 40th anniversary of the very first Kiss album. Gene Simmons believes in rock and roll. So does Universal music. They believe in rock and roll’s ability to fill their pockets again and again. As fans, we have learned to accept this. You don’t have to buy every re-package and reissue that comes out; we all choose which releases to buy based on our wants and budgets.
Unreleased music is a top priority for me, so seeing Kiss 40 coming out with a number of unreleased tracks, I was excited about this release. I bought the Japanese edition from the folks over at CD Japan, for the Japanese exclusive bonus track. I’ll talk about that track in a bit, for now I want to express how happy I am with Kiss 40, as a compilation aimed at fans both new and old.
Sets like this are tricky. You have to include familiar versions of familiar hits for the people buying their first Kiss CD. You have to include value to the cantankerous old fan, and present the old songs in novel ways. What Kiss and Universal chose to do was include one song from every Kiss album, including every live album. Sprinkled into that are the unreleased songs.
High points:
I love that they used the Paul Stanley version of “God of Thunder”, the fast one. Marko Fox has been using that as his theme song on his show for a while, and I’ve really grown to love this version. All four solo albums have a song included. (I would have preferred a harder song from Paul’s album, but “Hold Me, Touch Me” was the single after all.) Killers is represented, via “Down on Your Knees”. Not a bad song. I’m glad to have the radio edit of “Jungle”, finally. I never had that before, and “Jungle” probably wouldn’t be on the album if it wasn’t edited down from its full seven minutes. (Although not stated, “Psycho-Circus” is also edited to remove the “circus” intro.)
Low points:
The goal of including Kiss songs from every album also means that you have to hear “Let’s Put the X in Sex”. Although this would have been a great place to use a rarer remixed version, it’s just the same one from Smashes, Thrashes & Hits. Another total miss that is here is the dreadful “Nothing Can Keep Me From You”, from the Detroit Rock City soundtrack. Whyyyyy.
Nitty gritty details:
The first rarity is a 1977 Gene Simmons demo called “Reputation”. You can hear that aspects of this song later made it into other Gene Simmons compositions such as “Radioactive”. This is one of those song titles I’d read about for years, but have never heard until now. Cool. While the song is definitely a demo, and not quite as good as most finished Kiss songs, it does boast a cool dual guitar solo and rocking piano a-la “Christine Sixteen”.
On the second CD are the rare live tracks. In addition to live songs sampled from You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!!, Alive IV: Kiss Symphony and The Millenium Concert, there are rare ones here from Instant Live CDs. Instant Live CDs are live albums you buy at the concert, immediately after the concert — a souvenir of the show you just saw. Extras are then sold online. I have a handful myself, but nobody has all of them (at least, nobody I know of!). “Deuce”, “Cold Gin”, and “Crazy Crazy Nights” are all from these Instant Live albums. “Crazy Crazy Nights” is the one I was most interested in. Live performances of that song are scarce in my collection. It is from the Sonic Boom tour, and it’s pretty solid. The song is played in a lower key to accommodate Paul, who does pretty good anyway. Eric and Tommy help him out on the chorus. Thayer simplifies the original Kulick solo, adapting it to his style and keeping the key hooks intact. The result is a tasty guitar solo which is a cross of both players.
Finally, those lucky lucky fans in Japan got a brand new live song: “Hell or Hallelujah” recorded at Budokan. Although the song itself smokes, Paul’s voice is really sore on this one. (Both the intro and outro, which could have been neatly edited out, are really harsh.) The song includes the line, “No lies, no fakin’,” and that is totally appropriate, because this sounds 100% live and untouched. Gotta give ’em credit for not trying to fix Paul’s voice in the mix.
Notable omissions:
“Love Gun”, “Creatures of the Night”, “Hotter than Hell”, “I Stole Your Love”, “Rocket Ride”, “Sure Know Something”, “Hide Your Heart”, “Domino”.
The verdict:
Buy this CD. The concept of “one track per album” creates some interesting listening results. The ratio of rarities to hits keeps it fresh all the way through. And if you’re a Kiss fan absolutely get the Japanese version. Just go to CD Japan and order it.
4/5 stars
Disc One
‘Nothin To Lose’
‘Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll’
‘C’mon and Love Me’
‘Rock And Roll All Nite’ (Live)
‘God Of Thunder’ (Demo)
‘Beth’
‘Hard Luck Woman’
‘Reputation’ (Demo) – Previously Unreleased
‘Christine Sixteen’
‘Shout It Out Loud’ (Live)
‘Strutter ‘78′
‘You Matter To Me’ (Peter Criss)
‘Radioactive’ (Gene Simmons)
‘New York Groove’ (Ace Frehley)
‘Hold Me, Touch Me’ (Paul Stanley)
‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ (Single Edit)
‘Shandi’
‘A World Without Heroes’
‘I Love It Loud’
‘Down On Your Knees’
‘Lick It Up’
‘Heaven’s On Fire’
Disc Two
‘Tears Are Falling’
‘Reason To Live’
‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’
‘Forever’ (Remix)
‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II’
‘Unholy’ (Live)
‘Do You Love Me?’ (MTV Unplugged)
‘Room Service’ (Live)
‘Jungle’ (Radio Edit)
‘Psycho Circus’
‘Nothing Can Keep Me From You’ (Detroit Rock City soundtrack)
VAN HALEN (Not Van Hagar!) Part 1: The Early Years
Time for the newest series of reviews at mikeladano.com! I hinted at this one a while ago. It’s time to take an in-depth look at all the classic VAN HALEN albums, with David Lee Roth. We’ll go from the very beginning to 1984. But don’t fear – I’ve already reviewed most of the Van Hagar discography. See below for a list of other Van Halen reviews.
Van Halen: unquestionably one of the most influential hard rock bands of all time. By the mid-1980’s, every band had to have a “hot shot gun slinger” guitar player; such was the impact of Eddie’s innovative fretwork. David Lee Roth set the frontman bar extraordinarily high. Where Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant and Freddie Mercury had mastered the art of driving a crowd wild, David Lee Roth took it airborne.
Van Halen formed in 1972, and released their debut album in 1978. Originally known as Genesis and then Mammoth, the original lineup featured Eddie and Alex Van Halen, plus bassist Mark Stone. By 1974 they had replaced Stone with Michael Anthony, and added the flamboyant frontman Roth. This legendary lineup would go on to record several landmark demos, many of which would be re-recorded later. Some songs appeared on the first few Van Halen records. Some wouldn’t appear on album until 1984 and A Different Kind of Truth (2012).
Famously, Van Halen hooked up with Gene Simmons to record a 10-song demo. Simmons wished the band to change their name to “Daddy Longlegs”, and we should be grateful that this never occurred. The Simmons partnership was shortlived. According to Simmons in a 1988 MuchMusic interview, record label heads thought David Lee Roth looked too much like Jim Dandy from Black Oak Arkansas. Simmons also claimed that labels “didn’t get” why there was no backing guitar when Eddie took a solo. Unable to land Van Halen a deal, Simmons tore up the contract he had with the band.
Other fruit from this period included three Kiss demos, still unreleased to this day. Eddie and Alex Van Halen played on Gene’s demos for “Have Love Will Travel” (aka “Got Love For Sale”), “Christine Sixteen”, and “Tunnel of Love”. These songs were demoed for Love Gun, but “Tunnel of Love” would not be released until Gene’s 1978 solo album, in re-recorded form. These songs are considered a holy grail for Van Halen and Kiss fans alike, and to my knowledge they have never been bootlegged.
One demo that has been heavily bootlegged are the 10 songs Van Halen recorded with Simmons in LA and New York, referred to as the “Zero” demo. It has never been officially released anywhere. Fans hope that one day it will be released in a Van Halen box set of some kind. In the meantime, we have low-quality bootlegs to study and enjoy.
Even then, Van Halen were writing monstrous riffs and hooky songs. The talent of Eddie Van Halen was already apparent, but the full thunderous pyrotechnic sounds of the debut album were not yet there. “On Fire”, for example, is 90% intact but the guitar solos are tentative and yet to achieve the heights on record.
“Let’s Get Rockin’” was re-written on A Different Kind of Truth as “Outta Space”. “She’s the Woman” was also partially re-written for that album. The riff from “Put Out the Lights” was re-used on “Beats Workin’”. “Big Trouble” became “Big River”, an amazing song. Interestingly, the intro to “Running With the Devil” was originally the outro to “House of Pain”, which preceded it!
Clearly, Van Halen were writing great material from the early days, since nearly every idea from this demo was used on an album, sooner or later. “Babe, Don’t Leave Me Alone” is the only song that I don’t recognize from an album, but that doesn’t make it a bad song. Perhaps Van Halen will finally finish it for the next album. “Woman in Love” barely resembles “Women in Love” from Van Halen II, only in superficial ways.
The Zero demo is one of those unreleased hard rock cornerstones. Like a fountain it never seems to stop giving. These songs were played live many times by the band before Simmons recorded them, and they are tight. Roth’s voice is high, youthful and powerful. If anything, the band sounded a little generic. It would take Ted Templeman and the debut record for Van Halen to find their own unique sonic niche.
KISS – Destroyer (Resurrected)(2012 Universal, replacement CD)
Good day, loyal LeBrain readers.
Back in 2012, Scott your Heavy Metal OverloRd informed me of a flaw in Kiss’ Destroyer (Resurrected) CD. As he noted then, on the song “Flaming Youth”, there seemed to be a skip or some music missing: “It’s only about 4 seconds in just before Paul sings ‘Whoa Yeah’. It’s like there’s a half beat missing or something.”
When I noticed what he was talking about, it did effect my enjoyment of the CD. Once you hear it, you cannot un-hear it. I haven’t played Resurrected much in the last year and a half. Even iTunes downloads were affected by the flaw.
Then, recently, Scott informed me that Universal were replacing defective CDs for those who bought them. I didn’t realize this, in fact I read nothing about it on the numerous rock sites I read daily. Scott found a contact email for a gentleman at Universal who was in charge of the replacement CDs. I contacted him, and he responded to me within 24 hours with instructions to provide a proof of purchase, which I also did. He then told me he would send out the replacement CD as soon as possible. No fuss, no muss!
I received my replacement copy today. I was surprised to see that Universal sent me not just a CD (as sometimes is the case) but a sealed CD in jewel case. This replacement copy was obviously different as soon as I popped into my computer: the track time of “Flaming Youth” is 3:00 instead of 2:59…and the skip is gone!
I’m enjoying revisiting Destroyer (Resurrected). It is less glaringly different sounding now than it was a year and a half ago. I think I’m actually enjoying it more, for what it is. I’m also enjoying the booklet and liner notes (by Bob Ezrin) once again. Now that I finally have a copy without that annoying flaw, I think this will become the version of Destroyer that I listen to most. The reason is, after enjoying the original Destroyer for decades, this sounds fresh and surprising to my aged ears. When you listen to music that you know and love, you expect every note and every sound exactly as they always have been. When an album gets a subtle facelift like this, the songs continually surprise me. Every time I notice a difference, it forces me to pay attention. When it’s a bad remix, that’s annoying. When it’s a good remix, it’s enjoyable.
One final note: Universal sent me an American pressing, and it is very different looking than my old Canadian version! I don’t know if the design of the CD art was changed specifically for the “fixed” pressing, or if all American pressings have always looked like this. Where previously I had a silver CD with a Casablanca logo and designed to look like an old LP, this version has a black CD — both sides! The Casablanca logo is still there, but the design is otherwise different. Instead of silver artwork with faux-LP grooves, it’s a plain black disc. It’s uber-cool looking and I like it a lot.
You had to know Kiss were going to come out with another Greatest Hits set to celebrate their 40th anniversary. This is in addition to the massive, beautiful Kissteria vinyl box set. I’m looking forward to KISS 40, since it will include some live recordings previously only available on Kiss’ Instant Live discs. It will also include “Reputation”, an early Kiss demo previously unreleased.
In addition, the Japanese will get their own exclusive bonus track, so I have pre-ordered that version from the fine folks over at CDJapan. I have been a satisfied customer there since 2008.
Complete KISS 40 tracklist is below:
‘Nothin To Lose’
‘Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll’
‘C’mon and Love Me’
‘Rock And Roll All Nite’ (Live)
‘God Of Thunder’ (Demo)
‘Beth’
‘Hard Luck Woman’
‘Reputation’ (Demo) – Previously Unreleased
‘Christine Sixteen’
‘Shout It Out Loud’ (Live)
‘Strutter ‘78′
‘You Matter To Me’ (Peter Criss)
‘Radioactive’ (Gene Simmons)
‘New York Groove’ (Ace Frehley)
‘Hold Me, Touch Me’ (Paul Stanley)
‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ (Single Edit)
‘Shandi’
‘A World Without Heroes’
‘I Love It Loud’
‘Down On Your Knees’
‘Lick It Up’
‘Heaven’s On Fire’
‘Tears Are Falling’
‘Reason To Live’
‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’
‘Forever’ (Remix)
‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II’
‘Unholy’ (Live)
‘Do You Love Me?’ (MTV Unplugged)
‘Room Service’ (Live)
‘Jungle’ (Radio Edit)
‘Psycho Circus’
‘Nothing Can Keep Me From You’ (Detroit Rock City soundtrack)
I was a little surprised when I heard booing at Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer’s names. Not all fans are classy fans I guess, even if they had enough money to buy a ticket last night.
What I heard were four great speeches from four guys who absolutely, unarguably deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and as a lifelong Kiss fan I’m proud of my boys.
KISS – The Ritz On Fire (2013 Gold Fish, recorded 1988)
This is hard to get. I got mine via eBay; Scott the Scot found his locally. Fandom went into panic mode when all Amazon pre-orders were abruptly cancelled. We all figured that Kiss’ lawyers stopped its release. It had still made it to the manufacturing stage, and enough copies have surfaced on the market that it is already a collectible that can be afforded.
If you love that poorly documented period that is late 80’s Kiss, you will love The Ritz On Fire. August 12, 1988, The Ritz, New York City. A radio broadcast, from the Crazy Nights tour. It’s not live album quality, but it’s a radio broadcast and therefore listenable. There are issues on some songs, such as “Love Gun” where Paul’s voice is too low in the mix while the drums remain more than audible. It’s such a joy to have a live recording with Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick that fans will be happy to overlook such defects.
It’s also cool to revisit some under-appreciated Kiss klassics: “Fits Like A Glove” from Lick It Up, “War Machine” from Creatures, and “Tears Are Falling” from Asylum are among the songs that are hard to find in live form. It’s also a pleasure to hear this lineup tackle Destroyer‘s “Shout It Out Loud” which was rarely performed back then.
MVP: No disprect to the late Eric Carr intended, but Bruce Kulick blows me away with his dexterity and diversity. His solos are highlights of every single song. He doesn’t emulate his predecessors, nor does he play inappropriately for the songs. Also worth mentioning is Paul Stanley. Once they get the vocal levels right, it’s a pleasure to hear Paul Stanley at his vocal peak singing live. The songs aren’t all downtuned like they are today, and some songs like “Crazy Crazy Nights” are really up there.
Eric Carr…he had his own style, and after hearing Eric Singer ably fill his shoes for so long now, we can be reminded how Eric Carr played them. He had his own signature drum rolls, and of course that unmistakable raspy voice on “Black Diamond”. Nobody was confusing Eric Carr with Peter Criss, on the drums or on the microphone; Eric’s rasp was completely different from Peter’s. He was almost a cross between Criss and Simmons.
Best of all, this is really live. We saw Kiss “singing” to backing tapes at Dodger Stadium on Saturday January 25 on national television. Meanwhile, Paul wasn’t actually singing anything at all. Not so on The Ritz On Fire. Yes, keyboardist Gary Corbett was backstage sweetening the sound and adding backing vocals, but they were live. The Ritz On Fire is all the stronger for it.
How I came to own this turd of a CD: I got this one used, from my old store’s web order service. It was like $9, free shipping if you spend $30, or whatever. So I picked a couple discs and added this one to my cart. Imagine my surprise when it arrived and I took the CD out of the case — somebody had written, in big black magic marker, “MARILLION SUCKS”, on the artwork under the clear CD tray! This was clearly an intended for me, my love of Marillion being well on record. I don’t know who wrote it on there, nobody would own up to defacing the Simmons CD! I brought it back to my buddy Joe who was a little surprised himself. It took a few months, but they finally got in a replacement copy later on.
Thing is, that first copy I got, I was so flabbergasted about the defaced artwork that I returned it before even playing it. If I had played it…I probably wouldn’t have replaced it with the same item. I think I would have picked something else.
This. Sucks!
There’s a reason Gene Simmons isn’t a standup comedian or a motivational speaker. It’s because he’s not very good. As a speaker, he’s a great bass player. Put it that way.
Recorded at two engagements and consisting of Simmons’ well-known philosophy of life, this is beyond tedious. If you want to hear Gene plug his merchandise, or tell you never to get married or trust a woman with your money, then go for it. Vulgar, unfunny, and dull, this is time you won’t get back. Another thing you won’t enjoy is that the CD is formatted with just one track, so it’s impossible to skip around. So even if there were the odd funny bit that he goes on about, I couldn’t skip to it in the car. Useless!
Besides, it’s just an audio of the DVD version — so while it sounds like there are visuals to go with what you’re hearing, there aren’t. Useless!
No stars, crappy careless release, for the Kiss fans who have to have everything (like Big Idiot Me) and nobody else. Take Gene’s own advice, and save your money.
0/5 stars
The final kicker — in 2011, Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed got (GASP) married!
KISS – Alive 35: Live at Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon SK, Nov 10 2009 (Concert Online)
The concert opens with four 1974 Kiss classics in a row: “Deuce”, “Strutter”, “Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Hotter Than Hell”. “Let Me Go” seems to fall apart, giving the show a raucous flavour. It doesn’t get any more retro than that. That’s four of my favourite Kiss songs in a row; four songs I never tire of. Paul’s voice is sore, cracking in several places. The job still gets done with the backing vocals of Eric Singer, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer. Eric definitely pulls a lot of weight vocally. As much as I wanted to hear new songs, “Say Yeah” suffers a bit vocally.
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