Review by Dale Jr.
Photos by Micah Gummel
Show Photos HERE
It may have been an irregularly cool night for New Hampshire in early August, but under the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook on Wednesday, it was “hotter than hell” as the hottest band in the world, Kiss, took the stage for the first time at the venue. The die hard Kiss Army came out in droves, and they came from all walks of life, as the Pavilion was packed; many with shirts from older tours, quite a few with face paint, and even a couple of guys in full costume.
As the fans started to file in, we were shown a video of the guys getting ready to take the stage, and then right after, a giant curtain with the Kiss logo came down to hide the stage. The band received their now famous introduction and the band opened with “Psycho Circus”. The curtain came down to reveal the band in all its glory, including having drummer, Eric Singer, high above the stage with his whole drum kit on a scissor lift. The band did not hesitate when it came to putting on a show with their pyrotechnics, as “Psycho Circus” and “Shout It Out Loud” both had explosive finishes. The band then went into some older tracks from the 70s & 80s, and then they then busted out a track from their new album “Monster” called “Hell or Hallelujah”. It was somewhere around this time, the exact time I can’t remember, but the video went out in the entire Pavilion for quite some time. After the band played “War Machine”, Gene Simmons came out and breathed fire, which led into the opening of “Heaven’s on Fire”. The band continued playing hits all over their 40 year history, like “Calling Dr. Love” and then they played “Say Yeah” from “Sonic Boom”.
The audience got treated to some great guitar and drum solos from Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, respectively, in which during Thayer’s solo, the traditional bazooka off of the guitar trick was done, shooting fireworks high above the stage. Gene then came out for his bass solo, where he also performed the crowd favorite of spitting blood. After the solos, the band just played classic song after classic song. When it came time for “Love Gun”, Paul Stanley, who had been entertaining the crowd all night with his performance and in between songs, zipped lined out to the small circular stage out in the middle of the fans. The stage slowly spun around so Paul could see everybody during the song.
The crowd had a great time all night, and it continued on as the show started to wind down with the hits “Detroit Rock City”, “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” and the finale, “Rock N’ Roll All Nite”, which closed the show with one hell of a pyrotechnics display.
I was just a tad bit disappointed that I didn’t hear songs like “Hotter Than Hell” and “Strutter”, but I can understand the band’s reluctance to play songs such as those as they’ve played them millions of times prior.
You can say lots of things about Kiss, both positive and negative, and most all of it has been said before, but one thing you can’t say about the band is that they don’t put on one hell of a show for their fans, because they do that each and every night for every member of the Kiss Army that shows up to one of their gigs. And whether you love them or hate them, you can’t deny the band’s staying power as they still tour 40 years later, are still a force in pop culture, still putting out new music, and still putting butts in seats.
KISS – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook, Gilford, NH
