Wow -- look at all those people who couldn't care less about Paul's voice or who is wearing what makeup.
And the 26,000 the other night. And the 40,000 they drew in Australia and the 12-16k they drew in other shows there...and the shows they've done in North America and South America and those at Rock Am Ring...and the fans who listen to the new music.
In person the spider and the new crane thingies used by Gene and Tommy look awesome! Definitely the coolest stage set up they've had in years. The lights, the pyros, all top notch, A+.
Allthough I have to say I wish they would utilize the spider more, there were many songs during which it did nothing.
Another cool thing I noticed was that the spider actually has two glowing red eyes.
During Love Gun when Paul flew to the audience, the crew member on the podium had to literally catch him as he was coming in with such a high speed. For a second there I thought Paul was gonna crash right on to the mixing table.
Paul sounded decent, definitely not the worst we've heard from him, but he still struggles through some songs, some songs he almost talks through, some choruses he leaves completely to the rest of the band to sing. It's a bit awkward at times, but it is what it is.
The opening whoo-whoo-whoo of Heaven's on Fire he sang pretty much off mic, probably afraid that his voice might crack.
BTW, got to love that they took Eric's bazooka trick right from Lordi, whose original drummer used to do the exact same thing for years on their show.
Wow -- look at all those people who couldn't care less about Paul's voice or who is wearing what makeup.
its about the songs and having fun..
Yes it is. KISS® is much older, now, of course. But for those of us who've followed and enjoyed the band for so long, turning on them is like turning on a relative who has some issues because they've aged.....
Cool, they added the 80s ending to Black Diamond! Always my favorite way to end that song. Always had a Scottish feel to me, like the band Big Country. That was a nice touch.
The spider did one new thing comparing to Stockholm gig, it moved down during the breakdown on Lick It Up and Tommy and Paul played The Who-part inside the spider.
By the way, KISS was awesome in Helsinki, crowd went bananas during Heaven's On Fire etc... Almost sold out, near 12K. Paul's voice was pretty shot, but far better than on previous tours. Although he sounded decent in few songs and on key which is always nice...
I just arrived from Hard Rock Cafe, Helsinki, Finland were Gene was visiting. The place was so full and it was so damn warm inside there of course.. He arrived like 45 mins late and gave two his basses for charity and Hard Rock Cafe. He was funny guy and talked even about their plans for the stage show sometimes in the future, haha.
His leaving there caused a little mass hysteria outside at HRC because maybe 100 people or more wanted an autograph from him and the security guys were little overworked for some mins and they had to make room for Gene.
Here is a video of his leaving:
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It was a cool gig. I was at the Hard Rock Cafe the next day. Gene keeps talking about his height, and a lot of people say he's a very big man. "I'm six foot two" is one of his mantras. Tommy has said that they are both 6 ft 2 and a half. When I saw Gene at Hard Rock Cafe, I was surprised at how "short" he was. In centimetres I was 187,8 when my height was measured a few years ago. As far as I know my height is a little below six foor two. However, when Gene appeared, he looked a bit shorter than me. In fact most men there seemed to be at least as tall as Gene. So the guy's not a giant after all. Maybe he's just lost an inch over the years...