Summer '11 Show 12: 7/13/11 - Bush Kill, PA

Post by **Admin** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:45 pm

Discussions, reviews, live-updates, meet-ups, etc!

Details:
July 13 – Mountain Laurel PAC, Bush Kill (Tamiment), PA
Promoter: Live Nation
Opening act(s): Bad City
Reported attendance: ? / 10,000

SETLIST

http://kissfaq.com/tourdates/2011/071311.html

Notes:

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:06 pm

I'll be there. Is anyone else going? I'll try to give live set list updates, although I could probably post the setlist right now.

scotty971 · Post by **scotty971** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:05 am

I will be there with you Sunday Driver.

BDeav323 · Post by **BDeav323** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:31 am

I'm making the 2 hour drive from Jersey. I'm expecting the same basic setlist. I'm also expecting to have a GREAT TIME!!!

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:48 am

This should be interesting. This is the first concert at this venue in several years. It's kind of a grand re-opening. Hopefully there aren't too many hiccups with the staff. The venue has been practically begging people to buy tickets over the past few days, so I'm not really sure what kind of attendance to expect. This place is in the middle of nowhere and at least an hour from any city (Allentown & Scranton). It will be a two hour drive for me from Reading. It's probably closer to 3 hours from Philly and New York.

Muroh · Post by **Muroh** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:31 am

Coming there from Wilkes-Barre, probably about an hour or so away. Looking forward to seeing what this place looks like and hopefully they are able to bring more shows in. Saw KISS in Hershey and Scranton last year and am not expecting much different tonight. It should still be a great show.

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:44 am

Muroh wrote:Coming there from Wilkes-Barre, probably about an hour or so away. Looking forward to seeing what this place looks like and hopefully they are able to bring more shows in. Saw KISS in Hershey and Scranton last year and am not expecting much different tonight. It should still be a great show.

Obviously. But enjoy the show anyway.

BTW, I like your avatar. The wires holding Gene are absolutely NOT obvious.

But otherwise, it's a nice photograph.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:09 pm

At the venue. Bad City just took the stage. They suck a lot. Looks like a pretty decent crowd. Not nearly sold out, but not half empty, either. Shitty cell phone reception so there won't be many updates. Doesnt look like Paul is going to fly and Gene isn't either.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:32 pm

Bad City mercifully on their last song. I guess The Envy is next. That was the worst Kiss opening band I've seen since King Kobra. It's actually getting kind of cold here tonight. The people in shorts are not going to be very happy in another hour.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:48 pm

Maybe we aren't getting The Envy. Looks like the stage is set for Kiss.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:51 pm

Playing Cinnamon Girl on the PA system. Why not just play Hotter Than Hell?

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:00 pm

Kiss is on. Modern Day Delilah

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:10 pm

Cold Gin
Let Go Rock And Roll

Paul sounds a little rough but not terrible.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:20 pm

Big time fuck up. Paul just started playing the beginning to lmgrar again instead of Firehouse. Everything back on track now. Firehouse.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:32 pm

Say Yeah
Deuce
Do You Love Me

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:41 pm

Dr Love
Shock Me.....sat down for the first time all night. At least let him sing When Lightning Strikes. This is just downright insulting.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:50 pm

I was just about to say something nice about the guitar and drum solo, but Tommy just fired rockets out of his guitar to Beethoven's 5th, so fuck it.
Guitar/Drum solo.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:58 pm

I Love It Loud
Love Gun

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:32 pm

Gene solo with spotlight and bell, but no flying
God Of Thunder
Black Diamond
Detroit Rock City
Beth
Lick It Up

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:07 pm

Shout it out loud
Rock and roll all nite

Full review coming in a couple of hours

dute · Post by **dute** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:37 pm

sunday driver wrote:Big time fuck up. Paul just started playing the beginning to lmgrar again instead of Firehouse. Everything back on track now. Firehouse.

Whoops.

Look forward to your full review.

Austin Allison · Post by **Austin Allison** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:32 pm

Thanks for the updates, it means a lot even if they are playing the same set every night.

sunday driver · Post by **sunday driver** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:40 pm

I'm finally back from the middle of nowhere, so here goes the review. I will say that I'll give you my perspective on the show, and that may be different than someone else's perspective. I've seen the band almost 30 times over the past 25 years. That's certainly going to cause me to view the show differently than someone seeing Kiss for the first time. So I'll probably be called a basher and a sheep at the same time somehow for this review, but it will be an honest assessment of what I saw and heard. All comments and opinions are welcome. I can take it.
This was the first show in roughly 4 years for this venue and Kiss was their "grand re-opening". If the venue holds 10,000 people as is stated in Admins post at the beginning of this thread, then I would say there were probably 8,000 people there. The seats were just about completely full. The lawn was full, but not packed in the middle, but both ends of the lawn appeared to be very open. To me that seems like an impressive showing considering the location of the venue, the length of time since the last show there, and the very high cost of the tickets. $60 dollar face value for lawn seats seems completely out of bounds to me, but in fairness, they did drop the price to $39 per ticket, and for a week or so, they were offering 4 lawn seats for $100. The crowd was a pretty good mix of everything from old-timers to little kids. There were a lot of people wearing Kiss shirts, and a surprising amount of people in make-up.
The opening band was dreadful. I'm not going to waste any additional time talking about them. I thought The Envy was also going to play, but they didn't. It was Bad City followed by Kiss.
Kiss came on a little before 9 and opened with Modern Day Delilah as expected. There were no surprises in the setlist. Paul's voice was kind of a mixed bag tonight. He sounded a little rough, but good enough in some places like MDD. He sounded really good in some places like the intro to Black Diamond and almost all of Detroit Rock City. He also sounded horrible in some places like Lick It Up and especially Love Gun. I'm sure if someone recorded the show, his voice is going to sound far worse on the recording. It actually doesn't sound too bad at the show. The problem for me is that I've been to shows and listened to recordings of those shows, and his voice was flawless. Those days are over and they aren't coming back. That said, for newer or casual fans, that haven't followed Paul as closely over the years, his voice is still good enough.
They definitely had some glitches tonight. The biggest one was mentioned above. They had just finished LMGRAR and Paul did one of his divide the crowd and make each side cheer louder than the other bits. He did the "if everyone loosens up just a little bit" speech as the intro to Firehouse, but when he started the song on guitar, he was still playing LMGRAR. The band just kind of looked at each other not knowing what to do. Paul played it off like he meant to do it, played a couple of random chords, and then went into the correct song. Other than that, there were just a few pyro glitches that were very minor and had no impact on the show.
I thought Gene was on tonight. They had his bass very loud in the mix, and he was both playing and singing well. He more or less carries the show at this point, although he doesn't address the crowd at all. I think he could do a little more of that to save Paul's voice a little more.
Then there's Tommy and Eric. I watched through the years as Bruce absolutely butchered Ace's solos in concert. While that was annoying, it was a little easier to take because Bruce had his own style that came through on the albums. I may not have liked it, but I respected it. Tommy plays the Ace solos perfectly, but comes off as a complete imitation. That's why Shock Me annoyed me so much. He even tried to sing it like Ace. I was waiting for him to get to the microphone late, but he didn't quite take it that far. It's difficult to blame Tommy for all of this, however, because my guess is that Paul and Gene are behind it and Tommy has little choice in the matter. I was actually really impressed with the guitar/drum solo to a certain point. The first part of it actually had Tommy doing some original stuff that sounded really good. They need to let him do more of that. They need to let him play When Lightning Strikes instead of Shock Me.
I can't believe I'm actually going to say this, but for the first time, I don't have any desire for the original band to do another tour. I wouldn't mind a one off show somewhere if they ever get in the Hall Of Fame, but I think they would embarrass themselves on a full tour. That's not necessarily all Peter and Ace's fault. I think those guys can still play adequately enough to pull it off. What I don't think those two can do anymore is cover for Paul the way Tommy and Eric do. It was amazing to me to see and hear how much of the vocals those two handle and how much of Paul's decline they cover. I think going back to the original four would expose Paul to the point of it not being listenable. So as much as Eric and Tommy being in the band annoys me at times, I don't think the band could survive without them, or two other people equally as capable not only on their instruments, but also with the vocals.
Even after seeing them so many times over the past 25 years, I still had a great time seeing them again tonight. There's no other band I can go to see where I know I'm going to have that good of a time and know every note played and every word sung. As much as I can nitpick about the little things and complain that the setlist should be better, I could stand there every night and watch and listen to Rock And Roll All Nite being played with all of the confetti and pyro and 8,000 people singing along. There's nothing better than that, except maybe when you look around the crowd and you see little kids in make up who are probably seeing their first rock concert and loving every second of it. Or seeing their dad saying, "see, I told you this was going to be great". Or hearing people on the way out saying it was the best thing they've ever seen and they can't wait to see it again. For them, the little stuff, and even some of the bigger stuff that we complain about on here all the time doesn't make any difference. They're where I was 25 years ago when I saw them for the first time. I couldn't even tell you what may have gone wrong that night. I didn't know the difference, and I didn't care.

KISSman24 · Post by **KISSman24** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:45 pm

The show was a good one. The Paul blunder before "Firehouse" wasn't massive, but he seemed initially stumped in how to go from the LMGRNR riff he started to play and move on to "Firehouse". Gene seemed like he wanted to turn it into "100,000 Years" or something. They sorted it out and Paul had a good laugh about it. I noticed that Paul was flinging A LOT of picks tonight compared to prior tours. There seemed to be a time when they were stingy about throwing picks, but he was flicking them everywhere tonight. IMO, Paul's voice was better tonight than it was during the 2009 and 2010 tours. Maybe it's just a matter of him having a better grasp of his limitations. Paul's banter between songs also seemed to be greatly reduced (which isn't really a bad thing). I know people complain about this stage being more scaled back from the prior tours' shows, but it's still a pretty nice producton nonetheless. I think the average casual fan would still walk away quite impressed with everything. It was GREAT to hear "God of Thunder" again as it's one of my very favorite songs. The highlight for me is "Shock Me" and the Tommy/Eric solo thingie. I have always enjoyed Tommy's version of the song, but the proceeding combo solo is especially awesome. Anyhoo... I would classify this as a solid show overall. I liked the 2010 show a bit better, but musically, these guys are as good as ever!

One thing is for sure -- the crowd was VERY back woodsey.

KISS Unmasked II · Post by **KISS Unmasked II** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:37 am

Even after seeing them so many times over the past 25 years, I still had a great time seeing them again tonight. There's no other band I can go to see where I know I'm going to have that good of a time and know every note played and every word sung. As much as I can nitpick about the little things and complain that the setlist should be better, I could stand there every night and watch and listen to Rock And Roll All Nite being played with all of the confetti and pyro and 8,000 people singing along. There's nothing better than that, except maybe when you look around the crowd and you see little kids in make up who are probably seeing their first rock concert and loving every second of it. Or seeing their dad saying, "see, I told you this was going to be great". Or hearing people on the way out saying it was the best thing they've ever seen and they can't wait to see it again. For them, the little stuff, and even some of the bigger stuff that we complain about on here all the time doesn't make any difference. They're where I was 25 years ago when I saw them for the first time. I couldn't even tell you what may have gone wrong that night. I didn't know the difference, and I didn't care.

At the risk of sounding a little lame I was actually quite moved by the above part of your review.
This is what KISS is all about for me. When you are at the show it doesn't matter if they are playing LICK IT UP for the 1,000th time or that Paul ain't as young as he used to be, it's a rock show like no other. Many other acts have bigger shows and are better musicians but nobody can match a KISS show. And there is nothing better than feeling the heat from Gene's firebreathing or standing with your fist in the air in the middle of a confetti storm. Nothing on earth can match it.

drgbootz · Post by **drgbootz** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:02 am

No offence to anyone from that area and we have a suburb called Innaloo here but Bush Kill??

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:06 am

No 100,000 Years again ? Seems like they've dropped it definitely, but since there's no song(s) to replace it, the show is shorter.

I have to agree that When Lightning Strikes should be played, it's an actual Tommy song and it's off Sonic Boom... I prefer Shock Me, but WLS could be an interesting addition.

And the LMGRNR instead of Firehouse thing was kinda funny.

dute · Post by **dute** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:11 am

sunday driver wrote: I thought Gene was on tonight. They had his bass very loud in the mix, and he was both playing and singing well. He more or less carries the show at this point, although he doesn't address the crowd at all. I think he could do a little more of that to save Paul's voice a little more.

Thanks for sharing your review! Glad you had a great time.

As for the above, even though some have seen Gene exposed in a myriad of ways (GSFJ, sex tape etc

) it would still kill any image of The Demon to have him chit-chatting to the crowd or introducing songs. It's just not his place.

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:16 am

dute wrote:
sunday driver wrote: I thought Gene was on tonight. They had his bass very loud in the mix, and he was both playing and singing well. He more or less carries the show at this point, although he doesn't address the crowd at all. I think he could do a little more of that to save Paul's voice a little more.

Thanks for sharing your review! Glad you had a great time.

As for the above, even though some have seen Gene exposed in a myriad of ways (GSFJ, sex tape etc ) it would still kill any image of The Demon to have him chit-chatting to the crowd or introducing songs. It's just not his place.

While I'm glad Gene is so good nowadays on stage and though he managed pretty well at the "trio show" in 2007 (judging by the bootleg), I agree that "The Demon" isn't supposed to be talkative, wouldn't fit his persona very well (and one could do without the "yeah"s during the bass solo too I think).

Post by **RisingForce** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:33 am

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:37 am

Paul doesn't sound that great and you can feel he's trying hard to hit the high notes even if he can't do it without it sounding horrible...
Meanwhile, the band as a whole sounds good and I like Eric's drum kit.

Post by **RisingForce** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:12 am

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:30 am

Nice rendition of God Of Thunder.

fiyrhousemike · Post by **fiyrhousemike** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:04 am

We heard the KISS soundcheck which started about 5:00. We parked right behind the middle of back lawn section and it was crystal clear. They did Detroit and then Cmon and Love Me. Paul didnt sound like he had any vocal issues. Cmon sounded great and would have gone over well had they thrown it into the setlist.

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:16 am

fiyrhousemike wrote:We heard the KISS soundcheck which started about 5:00. We parked right behind the middle of back lawn section and it was crystal clear. They did Detroit and then Cmon and Love Me. Paul didnt sound like he had any vocal issues. Cmon sounded great and would have gone over well had they thrown it into the setlist.

C'mon And Love Me would be a nice addition. Maybe instead of Lick It Up ?

Muroh · Post by **Muroh** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:03 am

Black_Diamond wrote:
Muroh wrote:Coming there from Wilkes-Barre, probably about an hour or so away. Looking forward to seeing what this place looks like and hopefully they are able to bring more shows in. Saw KISS in Hershey and Scranton last year and am not expecting much different tonight. It should still be a great show.
Obviously. But enjoy the show anyway.

BTW, I like your avatar. The wires holding Gene are absolutely NOT obvious. But otherwise, it's a nice photograph.

LOL thanks, I took that pic last year in Scranton.

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:50 am

Muroh wrote:
Black_Diamond wrote:
Muroh wrote:Coming there from Wilkes-Barre, probably about an hour or so away. Looking forward to seeing what this place looks like and hopefully they are able to bring more shows in. Saw KISS in Hershey and Scranton last year and am not expecting much different tonight. It should still be a great show.
Obviously. But enjoy the show anyway.

BTW, I like your avatar. The wires holding Gene are absolutely NOT obvious. But otherwise, it's a nice photograph.
LOL thanks, I took that pic last year in Scranton.

OK, well nice job then.

twdavis · Post by **twdavis** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:00 am

Anybody have a vid of the Firehouse, Let Me Go screwup?

BDeav323 · Post by **BDeav323** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:13 am

Great Review! I pretty much agree with everything. I also enjoy watching folks (mainly the kids) who are seeing the show for the first time. From my own perspective, as much as I'd like to see different songs played I still thoroughly enjoy the ones they do play even if I have heard them over and over again. I for one was not upset to not hear 100,000 years though. For the past couple of years I've thought it brought the show to a crashing halt. On the flip side I thought God Of Thunder sounded awesome and I didn't realize how much I missed seeing it in the show until last night.

fiyrhousemike · Post by **fiyrhousemike** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:49 am

[quote="Black_Diamond"][quote="fiyrhousemike"]We heard the KISS soundcheck which started about 5:00. We parked right behind the middle of back lawn section and it was crystal clear. They did Detroit and then Cmon and Love Me. Paul didnt sound like he had any vocal issues. Cmon sounded great and would have gone over well had they thrown it into the setlist.[/quote]

C'mon And Love Me would be a nice addition. Maybe instead of Lick It Up ?[/quote]

I still love Lick It Up, especially with The Who's "Wont Get Fooled Again" tossed into the middle like last night. My preference would be remove either Beth or Love Gun.

Ren5150 · Post by **Ren5150** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:10 am

Great show, #108 for me....HD video stills attached below. Show was filmed. Multiple cams......audio too....

Ren5150 · Post by **Ren5150** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:15 am

Evo999 · Post by **Evo999** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:47 am

Thanks for the great review. I felt the same way after Saturday's show in NL. Listening to all the people blown away by 1/2 a Kiss show was pretty cool.

We see so much of this stuff, we lost sight of what it is like for those seeing it for the first time.

No matter how much bigger other shows are, there is nothing like a Kiss show!

Black_Diamond · Post by **Black_Diamond** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:02 am

Ren: thanks a bunch for those pics, they are great.

dinsdale · Post by **dinsdale** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:19 am

ren! you got to many awesome filmed shows you need to share! PLEASE A 1000 Times PLEASE! i hope to see these pop up at a "stinky" site

Kee · Post by **Kee** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:35 pm

[quote="RisingForce"][/quote]

I may be weird, but to me he does this one pretty good. I mean, not compared to 10 years ago, but better than most nights. It seems to be day-to-day with Paul. Some nights he's totally off, some nights he seems to manage his voice better and sometimes it goes up and down during one show. Take MDD for example. At some shows he sounded awful and even let the others sing "loaded gun" etc. But now he does those parts again and he sounds pretty decent on MDD, as of recently. It's all very weird.

But, anyways, I thought his voice was pretty much crackless (haha, sounds funny) and wobbleless and sounded somewhat smooth here.

Ren5150 · Post by **Ren5150** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:37 pm

Any reason why I cannot add more photos here or the Manchester page? Links will not enable and yes I checked the IMG tags, they are correct....

Kee · Post by **Kee** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:44 pm

And why doesn't the clip of Love Gun show?

fiyrhousemike · Post by **fiyrhousemike** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:18 pm

[attachment=0]100_2021.JPG[/attachment]One of my favorite shots I took last night-