KISS in Windsor...The SHOW!

So I just got back from seeing KISS with my best friend, Holly at the Coliseum inside Caesar's Palace Casino-Windsor. In one word...awesome! From the opening of Deuce to the closing of Detroit Rock City (thank God no Shandi) it was a rock'n'roll clinic.

Before I begin, I must speak on the whole "it's not really KISS without Ace Frehley and Peter Criss," stuff. Look, I agree that Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer perhaps should have donned new make-up and created new "characters," but it was a great show regardless. It had all the same elements that has made the KISS Army grow in the millions world-wide. Paul Stanley did his dancing around, Gene Simmons did his fire-breathing and blood-spitting, Thayer had a great solo (with rockets out of his guitar and all) and Singer impressed me with his 5-minute drum solo during 100,000 Years. So screw all that! It was unforgettable, at least to me.

We got there with about half an hour to go (we thought we were in danger of being tardy, but alas, like most concerts, it started a bit late) So we sat down, looked around and took in the ambiance of the 5,000-seat auditorium. It was the first time I had been to this venue and it was impressive. It was not very big, but just enough to be intimate. It was only then that I realized I hadn't gotten my souvenir shirt yet. I hummed and I hawed about whether I would have enough time to grab one before the show started. I decided that I had to go for it. I was hoping that the line would not be too bad and that it wouldn't prevent me from missing the start of the show. You can't miss that! It's one of the best parts. Well, it was all wicked, so that's neither here nor there.

Anyways, I got to the line and thankfully there weren't that many people there. I found the smallest gathering I could, which was about four or five people ahead of me. I saw what I wanted, the black tee that had the four band members on it with the KISS logo in silver at the top, "ALIVE 35" across the bottom with the true claim of "living legends...1973-2009," underneath that and the tour dates on the back. Before that though, I had to endure a couple ahead of me that simply couldn't make up their minds about what they wanted. I was getting more and more impatient at these two as they looked at item after item. "Oh, I don't like that one," "That's too expensive," "Does this come in another colour?" I mean just get something already!! Like I said, I had my mind made up before I even got there. You would think they could have done the same. I could see by the look on the merch guy's face that he was growing impatient as well. To add to my growing frustration was the fact that the woman spent the next three minutes looking for her money (after whining about the price, of course) I mean, what did they expect? It's a concert, of course things were going to be expensive! After those headache enablers left, I told the guy what I wanted (with *ahem*money in hand) got my $40.00 shirt and headed back to my seat.

On stage, they had the big curtain with the band logo on it. It was then that I thought I should get a picture of it. So, I take out my camera, got set to take my first picture of the evening, pressed the shutter button and...it shut off with the message across my view-finder, "change batteries." Yeah. Can you believe it? I go to a concert of my all-time favourite band, the band I grew up with and hadn't seen in over 12 years and the batteries in my camera die before I can even take my first picture. You could say I was a more than a little upset. I cursed my bad luck, as well as my own stupidity for not checking such a thing ahead of time. So no pictures of the night I had been waiting for the past six months (that was until we ran into a friend of ours after the show who took over 100 of his own that I "borrowed" off of his Facebook page and downloaded onto my own computer for printing later (whew!) You can see I reproduced a few of them here.

About 10 minutes later the lights finally dimmed, the crowed roared and a voice came over the house P.A. that millions of KISS fans long to hear:
"All right (insert name of city here) You wanted the best, you got the best. The hottest band in the world...KIIISSSSS!! And with that the curtain dropped, the pyro exploded and the boys slowly came down on their elevated platform to the opening salvo of "Deuce" (which I called, by the way. It's usually either Deuce, Let Me Go Rock'n'Roll or I believe Detroit Rock City)

Holly isn't the biggest KISS fan in the world (I was thinking originally, she better become one quick for a $138 ticket! But I brought her free of charge because she has done many, many things for me) and she sat the entire show ("I like being able to sit down and still see," she said) but she seemed to dig it. I stood for the greater majority singing to every song and enjoying every second of it. At least she didn't do this...

Without going into detail about every tune (with a couple of exceptions) and how they totally rocked, here is the set list (not necessarily in this order-but pretty close)

Deuce
Strutter
Got To Choose (never heard this one live)
Hotter Than Hell
Nothin' To Lose
C'Mon And Love Me
Parasite
She (Tommy's Solo)
100,000 Years (Eric's Drum Solo)
Cold Gin
Let Me Go Rock 'N' Roll
Black Diamond
Rock And Roll All Nite

This is where you can always tell who the first-time concert-goers are, because they leave before the encore. There's always an encore people! Well, unless of course you live in Springfield and you go to see Spinal Tap.

Encore:

Shout It Out Loud

Lick It Up (the 7-minute version due to Stanley's crowd-rousing) and I didn't expect this song, although for some reason I did expect Heaven's on Fire)

I Love It Loud

I Was Made For Lovin' You (before they played it, Stanley said, "Some people didn't like this song when it first came out because you can dance to it. I don't care I like it" I agree. Although it is rather disco-ish, I still like it)

Love Gun

Detroit Rock CityUsually this is where I would say "All in all, a pretty good show." No. It was great from start to finish. Definitely worth the price of admission. I would probably even pay more next time. Speaking of next time the boys said their first album in 12 years is due out in October and they'll be touring for that, too. Unfortunately, it won't be here, it will probably be over the bridge in Detroit. Yep, a whole 10 minutes away. What a hassle. That means I'll have to shell out about $150 bucks per ticket in American dollars. Yikes! But like I said, it'll be worth it.

Awesome show, awesome band.

KISS RULES, baby!!

Spits Win Cup

The Windsor Spitfires, my adopted city's OHL team are the 2009 Memorial Cup champions. It was a tough road and at times it didn't seem to be in the cards for the Spits. They lost their first two games of the tournament, to the Rimouski Oceanic 3-2 in overtime and to the Drummondville Voltirgeurs 5-4, respectively.

This shouldn't have been. The Spitfires were the best team in the country all season long and although they were facing Canada's other two champions from the WHL (Kelowna Rockets) and QMJHL (Voltigeurs) plus the automatically qualifying host team (Rimouski)
They should have won their first two out of three games and received a bye into the championship final.

In fact it took them to win the final game of the round-robin and earn a birth into the tie-breaker qualifier game to even have a shot at the semi-final game. But reality settled in, as well as the Spits themselves and all ended up well. They beat the host Oceanic in the tie-breaker, 6-4 thanks to Dale Mitchell's natural hat trick.

So now the Spits were in the tournament semi-final against the Voltigeurs. The Spitfires blew an early 2-0 lead, but won 3-2 in overtime thanks to Adam Henrique's goal of destiny, as I'd like to think of it. This made the Spits omly the second team ever to play in the Memorial Cup final after playing in the tie-breaker game.

In the championship final, the Spitfires cruised to a 4-1 win after scoring on their first three shots. This was the Spitfires first Memorial Cup championship and well-earned one after a thrilling 2009 season.

The last time the Spitfires were in the Memorial Cup tournament was in 1988 when they swept every round of the OHL playoffs, as well as the round-robin portion of the Memorial Cup, only to lose 7-6 in the championship game to the Medicine Hat Tigers. In other words they lost just one game in the entire playoffs, including the Memorial Cup tournament and still had to go home as finalists and not champions. If you ask me, they should have simply been handed the cup after the round-robin concluded that year. The better team most definitely did not win.

But, that has been rectified (21 years later) and the Windsor Spitfires are OHL and Memorial Cup champions and this time the better team did win. It was scary at first, but the job got done.
Way to go Spits!

The entire breakdown of the OHL, WHL and QMJHL playoff brackets, the memorial Cup tourny as well as game results can be found here.

Spits One Win Away from National Championship

After dispensing the Drummondville Voltigeurs 3-2 in overtime in the tie-breaker game (after dropping their first two games of the tournament) thanks to Adam Henrique's overtime goal in the Memorial Cup Semi Final game, the Windsor Spitfires are just one win away from clinching the Memorial Cup. Canada's junior hockey Holy Grail. The game takes place tomorrow, Sunday, May 24.

Just one more win. Will the ghosts of 1988 finally be excorcised? A whole city is hoping that's the case.

KISS in Windsor

So, about 10 years ago, when I moved from Winnipeg, MB to Windsor, ON, I never thought I'd be able to attend another concert of my all-time favorite band, KISS. (If you had to read that to know their history-SHAME ON YOU! And I hope you checked out every single link) That is of course, unless I was willing to go over the Ambassador Bridge, and catch them in Detroit. Well, that opportunity had never arisen until now and it's right here in town.
Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and the boys will be putting on a show July 11 for their KISS ALIVE 35 World Tour-in full make-up and pyro and everything, awesome!
But the difference being, this time they'll be right here in Windsor. I won't even have to leave town, not even over to Detroit. Unfortunately, I couldn't avoid the scammers at TicketMaster.

Although the ticket prices were pretty steep ($276 CDN for two, after fees and taxes) and they were without a doubt the most I have ever paid for any type of event (except for WrestleMania 23 in Detroit where I paid $250 American-and that was just for one ticket) I wasn't about to let this opportunity pass me by. I think this is the one true case where money was not an issue. It's not that money was no object, mind you, but definitely not an issue this time. I HAVE to be there.

I first got a taste of the "hottest band in the world" when I was about seven or eight when one day just hanging around in my basement, I found someones 45 rpm single of Rock'n'Roll All Nite. So naturally, being a kid, of course I'm was going to take liberties with someone else's property. I gave it a spin and instantly fell in love with these weird guys with the make-up, but that guy with the tongue kinda freaked me out.

I would use a tennis racket, or my brother's T-square right off his drafting table down the hall, and air-guitar to every KISS tune I had. Seduced by the power of The Demon, TheStarchild, Space Ace and The Cat perhaps. My concerts rocked!

One night I saw them on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special, that was on Oct. 29, 1976. I only know that date now because of my recent purchase of the KISSOLOGY DVD set, which is totally awesome! (I still have to pick up volumes two and three) But I remember watching that Lynde special. But that had to be the moment that I first saw them appear other than on posters, album covers or magazines (not that I could read them.)
Ah, television.

My envelopment to KISS must have really transpired when I found Destroyer at a neighborhood yard sale (yeah, I know, why anyone would "throw out" a KISS album is waaaay beyond me, too) not to long afterward. Then it was Love Gun and Dressed to Kill at my local Sam the Record Man. I got Rock'n'Roll Over, ALIVE! and Hotter Than Hell for the next couple of Christmases. Of course my mother fell for that old Knights In Satan's Service bit, but that didn't last long and she just let me enjoy them, God bless her.

Years later, I got Dynasty, Creatures of the Night, Lick It Up and Asylum for Christmas. Animalize, Double Platinum, ALIVE II and Crazy Nights came indiscriminately in between this and that. And of course, there was ALIVE III, Unplugged, Revenge, Psycho Circus and several compilation albums much later on, such as the aforementioned Double Platinum plus You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best and Smashes, Thrashes and Hits (I simply taped that one off of a buddy of mine mainly for the Eric Carr version of "Beth.") Kiss Symphony: Alive IV just isn't my cup of tea. However, I may still get the DVD. Ah, what the heck, maybe actually watching them perform with a symphony would be better than just listening to it.

I would love to get a copy of Jigoku-Retsuden, a Japanese-only compilation release, if just for the cover-art alone. Of course I must purchase the new, upcoming studio album (more on that later) To be honest, I never have heard one track from Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (Again, some fan, huh?) And come Hell or high water, I am going to pick up their latest LIVE release, Alive 35. It's a compilation of the songs that are on the tour that I'm going to in July. They were recorded on the European leg of the tour. By the way, the title doesn't represent how may "Alive" albums they've released, it represents their 35 years in existence, silly.

Remember these were all vinyl LPs, except for Lick It Up, Asylum and Alive III; they were bought in the cassette format (and Smashes, Thrashes and Hits was, as mentioned recorded onto a blank cassette tape) Unplugged, Revenge and You Wanted the Best were the first KISS releases that were purchased on CD. If I try real hard, I can probably tell you exactly which one came first and probably even from what store. To this day , even though I am a loyal and true KISS Army soldier, I refuse to buy Unmasked and Music from The Elder. I think the KISS Army consensus world-wide is those two albums, unfortunately, blow dog. And for some reason,
I never did pick up the solo albums, wherein each member (Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter) recorded an album without any of the other members. Each album represented half an album of a five album commitment. Of course, Ace's sold the most. If I did any up (and I'm sure I'll cave) I'd probably only get Ace's. I've heard the others and except for a couple of exceptions, I just don't think they cut it.

My first exposure to them live was on March 9, 1985. It was for the Animalize tour and it was awesome! Not only was it my first KISS concert, but my first concert ever. My mother had gotten me the tickets for an early birthday gift. I went with my step-brother, who left me alone for most of the night to fend for myself against the unsavory types that frequent these types of shows. Okay, nothing happened, but still...

Most of the show was old stuff, so I was satisfied. They played cuts from... well, let's just say they played everything on Double Platinum, and of course "Heavens On Fire" from Animalize, as well as songs from Creatures of the Night, Dynasty and Lick It Up. Like I said, awesome. The line-up included Eric Carr (RIP) and Bruce Kulick (who did actually don the make-up himself for a very short time, adopting the persona of The Dog-a take, of course, on The Cat and a stretch to be sure) It was just three years (officially) after Ace's departure from the band. It also showcased Gene's wicked battle axe bass and Paul's mirror guitar. When the spotlight hit it, rays of light would go everywhere in every direction. Mint!
Gene did his blood-spitting and fire-breathing, of course.

The next time I saw them live was for the 1997 World Reunion Tour. I would finally get to see my heroes as they were to meant to be-Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter together again in full make-up and costumes. They played their classics, as well as some stuff from Psycho Circus. It was a big deal. I went to this one with my girlfriend of the time (she took me to Ozzy, so I paid for this)
It was pure adrenalin. She enjoyed it as well (as well she should have or I would have had to disown her) but I definitely was more appreciative of exactly what we were witnessing.

So you'd figure that once I saw the original, best line-up, I wouldn't, couldn't or shouldn't settle for anything or anybody less.But I think you'd be missing the point, this is a KISS concert, not a Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons concert. As both Gene and Paul have said multiple times in multiple interviews, KISS is an entity all it's own. They're not just a band, they're a brand (kings of merchandising) they're Americana, they're all things to all rockin' people. Now, having said that, would I support say, a "KISS II" with an all new line-up? Of course not. But since Simmons and Stanley are the founding members, and if they want to keep this going as long as they can, I'll be there and rock out as long as I can as well. And yes, it is for the money and a status check.

Now, I just saw an interview with Peter Criss in which he blasts the band for puting another man in the Catman's persona. I can't say I blame him, he is the Catman. The one and only Catman. Eric Singer is not the Catman and never will be. Nothing against Singer, he's a very good drummer and he's been a member of KISS since 1992, but both he and Tommy Thayer should have been designated with all new personas, just like Eric Carr did in 1981 when he joined the band. He didn't become a cheap ripoff of Criss (not that Singer and Thayer are) he was The Fox. I mean they couldn't have gotten worse than Vinnie Vincent's make-up. He was supposed to be an "Ankh Warrior," whatever that is. The boys actually had Vincent in Ace's make-up for a short time. Ace Frehley is not too happy with Gene Simmons nowadays either, but for an entirely different reason. By the way, here's a clip from May of last year on what Space Ace has been up to these days:

And I can't believe I almost didn't mention this, but I would be totally amiss if I didn't mention the one and only time KISS were featured in their own movie. In Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park aka Attack of the Phantoms (a 1978 CBS television production) The plot revolves around, according to the Internet Movie Database, "... rock band KISS and their efforts to thwart a diabolical plan by mad scientist Abner Devereaux." It is a baaad movie. The kind of movie that is so bad, you love the hell out of it and strangely find yourself watching it again. Of course, no one would ever admit to that. The members of the band hated the outcome so much in fact, that they didn't want anyone to even mention it in their presence. Much like George Lucas and the the whole STAR WARS Holiday Special (on NBC, also in 1978) there's a reason they don't like to discuss it. In Lucas's case, he would rather wish that it didn't exist at all. You can catch Phantom on YouTube in nine parts (although the opening credits are missing) or order it on DVD from Amazon, finally.

I've also read that the band is releasing a new studio album, slated for release in the summer. It would be their first studio album in 12 years. Waaaay overdue. But it would indeed be, you guessed it...awesome! On that, here is a juicy tidbit from Wikipedia. Informative site, but not the gospel. However, I have heard confirmation on it from both Gene and Paul in two separate interviews:

Late 2008 saw the band take another unexpected turn. Over ten years after their last studio album, and following years of denials about ever wanting to do a new album, Stanley and Simmons seemed to have changed their minds. In November 2008, Paul Stanley stated to rock photographer Ross Halfin that a new Kiss album is in the works, which Stanley would produce. Stanley also stated that the album would have a "real 70's Kiss sound" to it. On November 26 2008, Gene Simmons confirmed the information about a new Kiss album and said he expected it to be released in Summer 2009. On November 29, Paul Stanley confirmed to the official Kiss website that the band will be entering the studio soon, repeating the assertion that the new record will be modeled on the band's classic 1970s sound.Gene Simmons stated on the Kiss official website:

*Sorry about the white space. Since I lifted it from the Wikipedia site, for some reason, I can't close the gap.

"We've [also] been recording our first New Studio Album in 11 years!!!. Produced by Paul Stanley. And, having Paul simply decide things, works better. Democracy is highly overrated. Paul is kickin' ass. The material sounds great and Tommy and Eric are in great form. We have 4 tunes recorded. If you're a fan of our stuff from about 1977, you'll feel right at home. All of us have taken up the songwriting call to arms in the same spirit we once did -- without a care in the world and without outside writers. Nothing to prove to anyone. Just doing what comes naturally.

Ignoring fashions, trends and with a personal vow from all of us: no rapping. There are plenty of people out there doing this and they don't need four pale-faced guys pretending they're from the hood. Besides, I'm not sure how to correctly pronounce 'wassup."

Tommy is finishing his solo tune. Sounds great, I can tell you. And Eric is going to sing on the album. See you all there...Or maybe later!"


WOO-HOO!! And because I can't control my enthusiasm, here a re a few random videos, many of which, I have never seen:

"Goodbye Peter" "Goodbye Ace, Hello Vinnie" "Unmasking on MTV" Gene and Paul interview-Part 1: Gene and Paul interview-Part 2: Here's that Paul Lynde Halloween Special I was talking about (God bless YouTube): Here's Paul giving some a-hole "fan" the riot act. Hey, they get pissed off too. Geez, I hate to see their bad side: My God, do you remember these? Or even this commercial? A-W-E-S-O-M-E! MSG Interview with Gene and Paul on KISSOLOGY-Part 1 MSG Interview with Gene and Paul on KISSOLOGY-Part 2 BBC Gene and Paul interview- Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: KISS rules! That is all.

Macho Man Scares Make-A-Wish Kid?

I know this is from The Onion site, therefore not real. I fell for one of them last year, when, believe it or not, I didn't know of The Onion's practices, or even its existence. You may start chuckling now.
But even though this is satirical, it still breaks my heart to see the Macho Man in such a loony light.

But you must realize, Macho Madness will never die.

Chad Vader is Back!

The boys at Blame Society Productions, Aaron Yonda and Matt Slone, are back with Season 2 of Chad Vader. The hilarious tribute/spoof of the greatest cinematic villain of all time.

As before, I won't let you miss an episode, as I will be posting every one right here as soon as I can (or do)

Starting with Season 2, Episode 1: "The Takeover"



And Episode 2: Laser Trouble



And and an added Return of Chad special, here is Chad Vader and the Security Gate





Episode 3: Into the Basement

Vanity Fair Says Lucas is Dead Wrong

This little article by Vanity Fair's Julian Sancton caught my eye. And my ire at first, I must admit.

Maybe she's right, but I don't think she is. I believe Lucas will be right, if not on everything, within the next 20 years. Although I think both Lucas and Sancton miss the point of the movie experience altogether. I believe the big screen, great sound and the reaction of the entertained, appreciative audience is what keeps people going out to movies. I think it always has been. family night, first dates, insomniac hang-outs; these are ageless traditions.

And I think that with all his accomplishments, she can let the Howard the Duck thing go anytime.
Yeah it sucked, move on.