Retroview- Queensryche/ Kiss @ Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI on December 8, 1984

Retroview- Queensryche/ Kiss @ Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI on December 8, 1984

This is something that I have toyed with doing for a while now. Retro reviews of shows that I went to in the past...and what better place to start than the very beginning? My first concert, age 11. No, I have no idea why my Mom thought that letting me go to a concert with my older brother and his burnout friends was a good idea. Notice how the ticket says Cobo Theatre rather than Arena? That is because they used to do what were called “half set-ups” for bands that couldn't fill out 12,000 seats. By the time the show came around our seats, which were supposed to be the first section in lower bowl, were actually three sections back from the stage. That was because Cobo didn't allow the half set up to sell out, they just kept adding more seats as they sold, from the middle to the front. The place was pretty close to being sold out as a full size arena. Cobo Arena is gone, knocked down within the past few years in order to expand convention center space at Cobo Hall.

Little did I know at the time, but this show was taped for a MTV special and was later released as the Animalize Live Uncensored home video, which I have on VHS somewhere. It is pretty cool that my very first concert was documented so well for posterity. What was amazing to me as an 11 year old was Kiss hamming it up big time for the camera when I watched it years later as an adult.

Back in 1984 the smell of cigarette smoke, pot, and beer was like incense for the concertgoing set, a matter of fact of the experience. Going to concerts in today's politically correct world makes it feels like something is missing...namely the contact buzz that was free with every ticket purchase. This ticket cost a whopping $12.00, or $27.42 in today's dollars. Makes those arena concert ticket prices of today seem a bit inflated, eh?

I did buy a shirt at the show, which I think cost $14 at that time but can't remember for sure. This was a weird one, a sort of elbow length football sleeve cut. I haven't seen another one of these at the concerts that I went to over the years. Most of them were the ones with the same design but short white sleeves. I still own the shirt to this day. 

The opening band was some nobody named Queensryche. They of course went on to become a fairly popular band toward the end of the decade, but this was their first major tour. Then Kiss came on and blew my 11 year old mind. I don't remember much about the show other than that I loved it. The live Rock and Roll experience was my first step into a much larger world. I could not believe how loud it was. I had never heard music that loud in my entire life. I remember the lighting truss coming down to the stage and the band (minus Eric Carr) going up to the top of the building playing Black Diamond.

Setlist:

Detroit Rock City

Cold Gin

Creatures Of The Night

Fits Like A Glove

Heaven's On Fire

Thrills In The Night

Guitar solo

Under The Gun

War Machine

Drum solo

Young And Wasted

Bass solo

I Love It Loud

I Still Love You

Love Gun

Lick It Up

Black Diamond

encore

Rock And Roll All Nite

The beginning...

Review- Kiss/ Love Gun Deluxe Edition

Kiss/ Love Gun Deluxe Edition (Casablanca/ Mercury/ Universal, 2014; original album released 1977)

Kiss...oh how this band has bled me dry over the course of my life. This marks the eighth time that I have owned this album. My first copy on LP was a gift on my fourth birthday in 1977 (Mom, what were you thinking, putting me on this path which has led to my eternal damnation?), then a Columbia House cassette copy with a sticker label, late '70s (my Mom may have forgot to return the card on time?), eight track cartridge purchased in the '90s, a cassette copy purchased in 1987, original CD purchased in early '90s, Japanese remastered CD in LP-style card sleeve circa 1996/97, US remastered CD in 1997, and now this 2 disc Deluxe Edition. Yes, I love Kiss. Yes, I obviously hate my money, which is a prerequisite of being a member of the Kiss Army, you know. All children in the late '70s were indoctrinated by Kiss and Star Wars. So severe was the cultural penetration that it swallowed us all whole, and to this day Star Wars and Kiss remain beloved symbols of our childhood.

The main album is, of course, absolutely brilliant. While many of the OG members of the Kiss Army went AWOL during this era there were so many new fans that it would be several years before the fallout would become apparent. I know someone who saw them at Cobo Arena on the Alive! Tour in January of 1976 and he said that this was the album where he bailed. Fuck that Christine Sixteen shit. Girly music, he says. Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, man. So spoke someone who was there at the time. I Stole Your Love, Tomorrow And Tonight, and Plaster Caster are among the greatest songs ever written. I just wish that the CD label was a replica of the original vinyl label. The reremastering doesn't sound too different from the 1997 remastering, maybe a little flatter on the EQs but nothing too noticeable. If you were not happy with the remastering before you won't be now.

Disc Two is the real draw, as we get three unreleased songs from the Love Gun sessions. Much Too Soon, a sort of Stonesy throwaway; Reputation, which would go on to become Radioactive on Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album; I Know Who You Are, which would become Living In Sin, also later found on Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album. The other demos are interesting but not essential. The Gene Simmons Radio Interview from Montreal 1977 shows that Gene Simmons has been laying his line of bull on folks for a long, long time. Love Gun (Teaching Demo) shows the inner workings of Paul's mind as he wrote the song. It is obviously sourced from a cassette but that is part of the charm, like he is sitting in a hotel room calling out chords and notes as he maps out the song in his head. Fascinating.

The three live tracks show just how “sweetened” Alive II is. We all know that Kiss did a lot of rerecording of that “live” album in the studio and that it is not at all indicative of the summer 1977 setlist. I wonder if they did any further tinkering with these here? My guess is probably. I would love to see a series of true live album from every tour released.

The packaging is one of those cardboard tri-fold digi-paks with two plastic hubs. There is a booklet with all kinds of cool pictures and notes, including the original cover pitch which was rejected. There is a magnet replica of the original popgun, which is cool. My only complaint is that the BANG is absent, whereas it is included in the booklet of the 1997 remaster.

So yeah Kiss, you got my money again. I can't wait to buy the entire catalog yet again in this deluxe format. Kill me now.

Junk Food For Thought rating- Main album: 6 out of 5. Disc Two- 4 out of 5. 

Review- KISS/ MONSTER

Kiss/ Monster (Universal, 2012)

Monster, Kiss' 20^th studio album*, is a complete and total jam. It sounds old school and authentic from top to bottom, from the songwriting to the singing to the production. This, kids, is what we call Rock and Roll. No loops. No samples. No Protools or autotune. Human beings playing instruments. No outside writers.

Every song is a winner, and it has those comfortable moments that will remind you why you fell in love with Kiss in the first place. Yes, it sucks that Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer wear Ace and Peter's make-up, but don't let that deter you from giving this album a spin. Tommy Thayer does the best Ace Frehley guitar solos since the band's '70s heyday. All four members co-write the songs, and all four take turns doing lead vocals. In other words, this is an authentic old school Kiss record.

For the first time since Unmasked, I missed buying a new Kiss album on the day of release. My life is now meaningless. I had thought that the originally announced October 16 release date still stood, not realizing that the album was bumped up a week. I didn't discover it until Wednesday the 10^th while shopping at Target with my daughter. I spotted it on the endcap and flipped. I couldn't believe that I missed it. I missed out on 24 hours of jamming this album. I broke tradition. And worst of all, I will likely be given a dishonorable discharge from the Kiss Army for deserting my post.

*Not counting live albums, the 1978 Kiss-branded solo albums, or any of the compilations or box sets, even those with previously unreleased material like Killers.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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Reviews: G.I. Joe Special Missions Vol. 1; H20; Kiss Kompendium

G.I. JOE SPECIAL MISSIONS VOL. 1 (IDW, 2010; softcover)

Collects G. I. Joe Special Missions Nos. 1-7 and material from G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero No. 50 (cover dates August, 1986- August, 1987)

This was the more realistic offshoot of G.I. Joe, devoid of the sillier aspects that had started creeping into the main series and TV shows at this time. The Joes combat terrorists and go on covert operations. There is more violence, and people actually get killed, unlike the main series where a vehicle can explode and the driver survived the wreckage unharmed. I am not criticizing that aspect of the comic or cartoon since they were intended for small children, just noting the more "adult" tone of this particular series.

Larry Hama's scripts are quite a bit different than on G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero. Herb Trimpe turns his typically fine artwork, which is marred here by IDW's lackluster restoration. There are pages that look fine, others where the lines look like one of the Joes used a bazooka to obliterate them. Some of the re-coloring has a gradient shading to it not found in the original issues, which is highly annoying to me.

H20 (Liquid/ Dynamite, 2010; softcover original graphic novel)

I saw an ad for this in the back of Untouchable Vol. 1 and decided to give it a go. The story deals with Earth in 2250, where after a decade of droughts and man's intervention, water becomes the world's most precious commodity. Wars are fought for it, etc. It's interesting and plausible, and makes for an entertaining read. I guess that's all that you can ask for when reading a comic book, right? I'm not exactly shouting from the rooftops for everyone to buy this, though.

The whole thing basically reads like a storyboard for a movie that I wouldn't spend $9.00 to watch. It's almost like the creators made this as an elaborate pitch to Hollywood so that they could option it for a movie.

KISS KOMPENDIUM (Harper Collins, 2009; Hardcover)

Collects Marvel Super Special Nos. 1, 5, Kissnation, Kiss: Psycho Circus Nos. 1-31, Kiss Nos. 1-13 and selections from Kisstory (cover dates September, 1977- September, 2003)

In the world of Kiss, bigger is always better. Going with that logic, the Kiss Kompendium is easily the best there is. This book is a monster, clocking in at 1,280 pages, being as tall as a DC Absolute Edition or EC Library Edition, with superb paper and sewn binding. If production values alone made a book great, then this would be the greatest book ever made. Unfortunately for Kiss, this is not the case. These are the worst comic books that I have read in a long time. 

There are moments where it's enjoyable (the dated but lovable Bronze Age goodness of the Marvel Super Specials, Clayton Crain's early artwork on the later issues of Kiss: Psycho Circus), but most of this book was such a chore to read. It took several months of on again, off again reading for me to make it to the end. I take no joy in writing this because I am a lifelong Kiss fan, but these comics are for masochists only. This book reprints all of the Marvel, Dark Horse, and Image Kiss comic books in one "handy" package.