- July 28, 2000 - Shoreline Amphitheater - Mt. View, CA
- July 30, 2000 - Chronicle Pavilion - Concord, CA
KISS resorts to giving away thousands of free tickets at certain venues to fill seats - and egos
"You wanted the best? We couldn't find them, so here's KISS!"
- Ah, the glory days. How nice it must have been to command the world of rock and roll only to have it end with barely sold concerts that end up giving away thousands of free tickets per performance just to fill seats and egos.
- It's the continuing saga of KISS' Farewell, Farewell, Farewell, Oh Enough Already Tour, where we hear of a band that goes on and on in self-glory. All this while attempting to run themselves into the ground so hard that literally no one will be able to squeeze another dime out of the fans. You can thank Gene Simmons' all-knowing business ethics for that concept. Be sure to stay tuned for the upcoming KISS Las Vegas Review where four elderly men will play bombastic tunes - though not the most technically proficiently written - ending with them all dying on the toilet - just as Elvis, the King himself, did - only with less fanfare.
- Well, unlike my previous review of their dismally contrite Oakland, CA, show, this one actually has some good points to it. Depending on the night and how you read this.
 To start with, KISS is now relegated to actually lying to their fans. You heard that right. KISS is horribly embellishing the truth in order to make the audience feel as though they really are a part of history. The sad fact is this: KISS is not selling anywhere near the amount that they tell their audience at the shows. Even Gene Simmons stated on a radio interview that they have "... done all that they could do. What more can we do?" They have gone as far as to advertise that this is the "biggest show ever" (no way!) and that it will be just as big as the Love Gun Tour (again, no way!) with more pyro than ever (absolutely not!). The shows are decent at best with barely any pyro compared to some other concerts in recent history, and certainly much less than KISS was used to working with. (During a past tour, Paul Stanley actually asked the audience to please not leave by promising that there would be pyros at the end of the show. Sad.) For that matter, I would say that the KISS pyro show was the equivalent of four roadies standing behind the stage lighting their farts. The lights were OK, but nothing to write home about. Blinking KISS logo? Great. Expected. Steps and fire? Expected, nothing new. Confetti? Ho-hum. All in all, it was an exercise in "been there, done that", only in much smaller scale. It really is interesting how the band expected to surprise and tantalize with a show that is completely expected.
- The show at the Shoreline was again a complete poop-fest of the elder statesmen of rock trying to make fans believe that they are getting a piece of 1977 once again. Well, sorry to say even though so many buy into it, this is not your grandfather's KISS. This KISS is equal to Michael Bolton in energetic excitement. Definition: Older, not wiser while putting on faux emotion-filled songs that the fans buy as genuine while the performers are most likely thinking "God, I hope that the hotel has a nice bed tonight so I can lay down and count my money."
- From KISSing to raping the fans -
- KISS was charging upwards to $77.00 per ticket (not including service charges). (I guess that price was to make audiences believe that they were somehow "reliving" 1977 all over again).
- How dismal is the fact that a 20,000 seat amphitheater only sold 3,000 tickets and then comped over 11,000 FREE tickets to urge people to come out to the show. These are actual numbers. KISS was an expensive endeavor to have. The Concord show as well, a 12,000+ seat venue, only sold 6,000 tickets. Does "overkill" come to mind? (Interestingly enough, The Gorge in Washington state would not even allow ticket count information to be released. That makes one wonder.)
 Backstage at the Mt. View show, Ace Frehley was supposedly looking pretty darn soused and barely able to stand, worrying staff that he may not make it on stage for the show. Worse yet for fans is the constant media feed that Ace is on the straight and narrow. It must not matter now that this is the last time that Gene will ever have to work with him again.
- There were many missed and mis-hit notes played that night by Ace which culminated in an amusing display when he slipped up onstage and smacked into his microphone at the beginning of "Shock Me". To mention his "singing" could only serve to ire the dedicated fans who can see no wrong with the "man who influenced so many". Unlike the Oakland show though, this time his terrible axe-manship during his solo was saved by an overuse of echo effects and white noise which inevitably ended up by making a wall of... you know, noise. And, oh yeah, he shot stuff at fiery balloons. Ooh! Aah!
- Paul, Gene and Peter did perform tightly. I will give them that, albeit that Peter looks pretty damn tired and lazy in his playing. (Try lifting the sticks a bit higher so that gravity will make them hit the drums.) There were some off background vocals and "Cold Gin" didn't especially come off as well as it did in Concord. I have to mention once more that the flash pots were incredibly weak and should not have even been mentioned by the band.
- During "God Of Thunder" Gene did his usual blood and gore thing that was cute and scary at the same time. I do suppose that would be something fascinating to those first-time KISS attendees. All in all, the Shoreline show was very contrite and rushed.
- The Chronicle Pavilion show at Concord was surprisingly better. I really expected to be bored at the show and am happy to say that I actually enjoyed it. The playing on all ends was much better and tighter - well, OK, yes Ace did foul up leads in some songs again. This time other songs than the previous show.
- "Cold Gin", "100,000 Years", "Black Diamond" and "Calling Dr. Love" all shone as well as they did in the past. The only problem with the show is that, again, it is an older KISS that just doesn't have "it" like they used to. But, for the older songs, this show was worth seeing.
- During "Do You Love Me", there was a nifty little bio footage playing as the band basically performed background music. Nice, but better for video fodder. After listening to Paul Stanley's ongoing commentaries about how poorly other bands perform or don't deserve audiences' respect, I have to agree with a comment that Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen said - "Anybody who has to say how cool they are, probably aren't." That was the impression that I got. Paul was so desperate to maintain the wool over the audience's eyes that he had to keep reminding them how totally cool this show was (as he does every night).
- Paul had made a comment, "This will be a night that you won't forget." Unfortunately, knowing how desperate they appear these days and realizing that they should have done this years ago and hung it up, Paul is right. What a sad memory to keep after I grew up totally loving the band when I was younger. Oh well.
- It's almost over now, folks. KISS will soon find other ways to collect tax and empty your wallets into their bank accounts now that they won't be touring anymore.
- Oh wait, that's right! They WILL be touring again with the (catch this) SECOND leg of the Farewell Tour in which they will reportedly be performing more obscure material. When does it end? When? When?
- Remember, even The Who only does one Final Farewell Tour per decade these days.
- "You wanted the best? You got saggy man-breasts instead."
- Written by and all Photos © 2000 Philip Anderson / Photos © 2000 Phil Anderson / Tara Hauff
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