Psycho Circus Tour Set List

Reviews of Boston Shows

Boston Reviews

AF Grant's Review
11/12/98 Fleet Center Boston, MA
The good news -Very tight, everyone in good voices and strong playing. Set was quite different from the Halloween show. Deuce was third song. Within was played earlier too but still produced the quietest response from the crowd.

The only surprise was Makin' Love - Paul said since this was opening night of tour they wanted to do something special that they haven't played in years. He said it was something of Love Gun - asked Ace to make sure - Ace had no idea and they played Makin Love - it was fantastic, but it's off Rock and Roll Over not Love Gun.

Other fun goofs -- nobody sang the opening line for Cold Gin - it was like Gene and Ace each thought the other would do it. Also I swear during 100,000 years I think Paul said Worcester then quickly restated Boston.

Up front some Kissette type girls went topless for 2nd half of show. Paul even laid down on his stomach and frenched the Paul girl. He made sure they got the smashed guitar.

Bad News - NO Psycho Circus acts, troops or stunts - just another bad opening band like the last tour. If there was a live 3D camera there they should return it and get there money back, only noticed 3D during pre-taped and animated segments - some parts real cool - others pretty flat.

AF

KISS 11/13/98 Boston Night 2

WOW - last night I was on the side of the stage and was very disappointed by the 3D. Tonight I was straight back from the stage and it was like an entirely different show. The 3D stuff was killer - still just pre taped stuff - but more clips were used tonight and it really jumped off the screen.

All the same songs were played just in a slightly different order. Makin Love was played again and Paul said regarding last night that he thought it was from Love Gun but had been corrected and it is off Rock And Roll Over. Last night nobody sang the opening line to Cold Gin. Tonight Gene got it right and Ace took 2nd Verse. Paul screwed up lyrics to Do You Love Me and just gave up after wrongly singing "you like the money honey that I make" for a second time - just shook his head and laughed. He did fly out to a small stage in the center of the floor both nights for Love Gun.

They still don't know what to do with Within. Tonight it was deeper in the set and ended with Peter's drum solo. God Of Thunder just ended and seemed strange. The regular set ended with RNRAN with the Black Diamond ending and guitar smashing. Encored with Beth, DRC and Black Diamond - then no curtain call at all.

Same Kissettes - topless again - were in dead center front row. See if this continues - maybe its a plant. They sold out of Boston custom shirts - still selling leftovers from LA. The 3D glasses were just plain white - no KISS logo or show date.

Everyone sounded great but I was disappointed that there were no new songs added for second night. Overall the show just didn't live up to the Reunion Tour or Gene's hype of Live 3D. It was fun but a bit of a disappointment.

KISS Still Puts On Crowd-Pleasing Show
From: Boston Globe
By Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff, 11/13/98
What did you do this summer when you went to see things blow up and go boom in ''Armageddon?'' You suspended your disbelief - a little more than usual considering the illogical plot but, hey, it was a popcorn movie, right? What do you do when you go see KISS?

I think you - and KISS - know the answer to that one. And you may shout it out loud if you want. You want to forget your lot in life and enjoy this KISS life. You want to scream along to Godzilla bass lines, air-raid guitar licks, and July Fourth indoor fireworks. You want to be part of the endless party. You want to see - feel - fire in a crowded theater.

KISS has always been a spectacular escape valve for mainstream rock fans who like it hard and melodic. It worked like this for KISS in the mid-to-late 1970s, the heyday. It works today because today looks and sounds a whole lot like the heyday. They lost two founding band members (drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley) and the makeup in the 1980s. The music took a dive as well, and KISS fell from the grace of the rock gods.

Singer-guitarist Paul Stanley and bassist-singer Gene Simmons got the once-substance-abusing-but-now-clean original guys back in 1996 and put the kabuki/horror make-up back on for a ''last'' tour ... that, lo and behold, began anew at the FleetCenter last night and continues tonight. Last night was sold out; a handful of tickets remains for tonight. Top seats are only $55, just 10 percent more than two years ago. Red Sox tickets went up over 30 percent over a comparable time, and KISS's players are both in shape and intact.

This tour is called ''Psycho Circus'' and the only hitch is that the explosively inclined circus troupe that was to open the show couldn't fit all its gear into the Fleet and was scrapped. (They may rejoin the tour if the logistics can be figured out.) As for KISS, well, there were plenty of loud noises, fireworks, and blinding lights, Criss's elevating drum riser (for a drum solo on a higher plane?), a fly-to-the-rafters Peter Pan-like by the blood-vomiting bat-lizard Simmons during ''God of Thunder,'' and a standup trapeze glide to the small soundboard stage during ''Love Gun'' for Stanley. Frehley's guitar ''smoked,'' ''shot'' sparks, and flew out of his hands into the sky - his playing was that hot! - and dangled in front of our eyes. This is because we had our special 3-D glasses, which lent the effect of the guitar floating just over us. Other things did this too: a skull, a KISS cube, Simmons's face and ever-flicking froglike tongue.

KISS is the McDonald's of rock - that is, the country's once-and-future top touring band - but serves it up like Burger King: your way. You wanted the old KISS klassics and you got 'em: ''Shout It Out Loud,'' ''Deuce,'' ''Firehouse,'' ''Cold Gin,'' ''100,000 Years,'' a set-closing, pyro-mad ''Detroit Rock City.'' (We left to meet deadline, missing, it appeared, ''Beth,'' ''Black Diamond'' and ''Rock and Roll All Nite.'') KISS tossed into a couple of new ones, the gloriously over-obvious ''Psycho Circus'' and the dark-shaded ''Within.''

The aforementioned fast-food reference isn't meant to be an elitist poke. I eat there and I bet you do, too. It's cuisine that translates on a mass level. KISS treats those precious few chords like special sauce. There was a delicious irony when Stanley advised fans not to drink and drive prior the old alkie anthem ''Cold Gin'' - ''It's cold gin time again/You know it always is ... The cheapest stuff is all I need.''

A KISS show is a tight show - they start on time, play two hours, and, like stage actors, hit their marks for the cameras and the crowd. They don't always hit the melody lines, but, hey, they come close enough for rock 'n' roll. Last night, the bass mix was too loud, and the overall sound just fair. But the vibe was totally rockin,' totally fun. The headache will disappear.

This story ran on page D10 of the Boston Globe on 11/13/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.

KISS Spectacle Thrills Boston Fans
From: Boston Herald
by Sarah Rodman 11/13/98 Kiss, Econoline Crush at the FleetCenter, Boston, last night. When they said rock 'n' roll all night, they weren't kidding. Putting most of their similarly aged peers to shame, the not-so-recently re-made-up men in Kiss played for over two hours last night at the FleetCenter, in the first of a two-night stand kicking off the veteran shlock-rock band's tour for their new album, "Psycho Circus." Last year's gimmick? Reunion with makeup. This year's gimmick? New material and a 3-D tour. Predictably, like "Psycho Circus," the 3-D elements of the show were fairly hokey, but there was plenty of spectacle to balance the goofiness of donning paper glasses to view a video of bassist Gene Simmons wagging his tongue. Proving that the 26-year-old New York quartet's sense of showmanship is not diminishing apace with their advancing ages, the show featured a plethora of pyros and sparklers for favorite chugging riff rockers like "Shout it Out Loud," "Calling Dr. Love" and "Detroit Rock City" which sounded surprisingly tighter than last year's reunion gigs. Lights, smoke, sirens and colorful licking flames accompanied "Firehouse." "God of Thunder" featured both Simmons' blood-drenched tongue routine on an overhead platform and a levitating drum riser for Peter Criss. Gifted axeman Ace Frehley did his trademark smoking guitar shtick. And clearly demonstrating that you can take the boy out of Queens but not the queen out of the boy, Paul Stanley worked his behind, his platform shoe-clad strut, his faux Southern shout and his shaggily coiffed mane like a true diva on songs like "King of the Night Time World" and the disco nugget "I Was Made For Lovin' You," before being flown into the center of the arena for his star turn. The hard but melodious industrial pop quintet Econoline Crush opened the show with a brave 30-minute set in the face of some fairly vocal and hostile Kiss army recruits, many made up like their favorite band member.

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