STRIKE 42
ROCKIN' N' ROLLIN' UPSIDE DOWN
Back to the tour...
They arrived from Japan to Sydney at the end of January and on the 30th they did a Press Conference (see the full transcription). The same day they left for Auckland in Zew Zealand where they had to play on the 1st of February. The show in Auckland was great, they played really well and the crowd (8000 people) really reponded to the show in the best way, in fact Paul spoke a lot more than usual to the fans... The only bad thing about this show is that they couldn’t bring the full stage, so Gene couldn’t fly and Peter’s drums didn’t raise during Black Diamond, but one cool thing was that Ace started playing some “Fractured Mirror” notes during his solo, like sometimes he used to do during his solo career.
The song list for Australia was a little different and unique, cause Paul during his guitar solo played an acoustic version of “Shandi”, and it didn’t change for the whole tour except for the last show, in Melbourne. The songs were almost the same ones played in Europe, just performed in different order.
In Brisbane, the first Australian show, KISS spent a lot of time meeting the fans, which is extremely unusual for this tour as they are too busy with work, understandable considering the importance and the length of this tour which will last over one year with not much breaks in between...
So, the night before the Brisbane show Gene, Paul and Ace went to the anniversary party for Don and Judi Neibling (the couple that were married at the official convention in 1995). They stayed for a couple of hours with only about 15 people there. Moreover for the first time (considering the 25 shows I’ve seen so far between USA, Europe and Australia) they finally showed up at the after show, without the make-up signing autographs and hering comments of the show... Peter didn’t show up, and in general in this tour he’s always been hiding away from everybody... maybe to rest more in the hotel room, as drumming is the most tiring job on stage. Paul and Ace later went to a disco to celebrate the beginning of the tour but fans just surrounded all the time giving them no rest, but of course it was exciting to see them in public.
During the soundcheck they played “Sweet Home Alabama”, “2,000 Man”, “Shandi” and “Love Gun”. But this was the only show where I could see the soundcheck as KISS tried to keep the backstage area as clear as possible, in other words... they kickd me out! No fans or local crew were allowed backstage during the soundcheck cause they don’t like to see pictures of the band rehearsing without the make-up... Other rumors says that sometimes they were playng riffs of the new studio songs, so obviously no one could hear that...
The show in Brisbane on the 3rd of February wasn’t too good, cause the Brisbane crowd (14,000 people) is usually kind of relaxed and when the crowd don’t get too crazy, also KISS gets less motivation. During “100,000 Years” they couldn’t control the flames much, so they stayed up even when they were supposed to go down... Peter must have loved it, considering that it was also summer in Australia. In “Black Diamond” they couldn’t use the cherry-pickers cause the ones they rented broke down... bad luck. The confetti also had some problems cause they fell down before the due time.
In Sydney KISS played two shows on the 5th and 6th of February (15,000 people each night) and this time the audience was going crazy. The first night things went basically alright except for a couple of things... Paul guitar wasn’t in tune before “Watchin’ You”, so Paul through it to his tech and gave him a killing look... also Gene had some problems with his microphone stand cause it was too loose and another killer look went to the other tech... then Gene mixed some verse in “I Was Made...” and once again the confetti went down at the wrong time... along with the confetti this time KISS also had balloons with the KISS logo... they didn’t have this before, and they only had them in Sydney, so I guess the ones who got them at the show might have a unique piece of memorabilia... Besides these little things the show was great... Peter Criss was really kicking the drums in this tour... he definately played better than in Usa and Europe... Ace was always perfect with his solos, in fact I’ve heard that he likes to watch tapes of this tour in his hotel room and play along them to try and improove his solos... Paul and Gene were perfect showmen as always, recapturing the make-up characters moves and attitudes.
Attending the show were Soundgarden, and Jimmy Barnes (a famous australian singer) with his kids.
In the audience there were also a lot of people from different australian cities flying around to see most of the tour, as they’ve been waiting 17 years to live the magic of the make-up again, and there were a lot of aged people who saw them then...
The newspapers everyday had something about KISS, even a few days before and after the shows. It’s always nice to catch the attention of the major media, cause everybody you meet talks about them even if they don’t like them or know them well.
The second night things went much worse and the crowd wasn’t as much roudy.
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