spiritedjourneys: KISS Alive Nijmegen, Holland 2008

KISS!

KABOOM! Down drops the black KISS stage curtain with a fiery explosion! Gene, Paul, and Ace descend from the top of the stage riding the stage elevator, complete with smoke blasting from the bottom like a rocket. The crowd erupts

with a roar! Fans have journeyed a long way, myself included, to see the legends. I learn that KISS is re-creating the entire 1975 KISS ALIVE concert tonight! Wow!!! I’m freaking out! The band begins their rock ‘n roll assault with the crowd-pleasing song, Deuce! From then on, it’s one spectacular display after another. Paul Stanley is in perfect form, as are Gene, Ace, and Peter, ‘cept, Ace & Peter aren’t really Ace & Peter. They’re Tommy and Eric. But just the same, they’re wearing the same spaceman and cat costumes we’re all familiar with. They rock the park with a thunderous storm of classic KISS! What a display! What a sound! What a performance! Ace, a.k.a. Tommy, shoots rockets from the neck of his guitar during his solo. Gene becomes the Demon, spewing a blast of fire from his mouth. Paul, Starchild, jumps and struts his sex appeal all over the enormous stage.

And Peter (Eric) atop his drum riser like a cat on a perch, pounces and pummels us with skillful drumming. All are true rock stars. True artists. True performers. It’s magical to see these living legends perform – to take a trip in a time machine to 33 years prior – a totally different world. The majority of the dancing, singing, clapping fans at the spectacle remember that era and their involvement in it. They remember the joy of pulling that KISS ALIVE album out of the sleeve – the sound of the needle crackling into that first groove. Back then, I stared at the album art for hours, marveling at the costumed band on the cover. I used to save ketchup packets from the elementary school lunchroom to later perform my blood spitting rendition of a rockin’ Gene Simmons. My friends would cheer and laugh as the ketchup oozed down my chin on the school bus going home.

Yes. Here I am, standing in front of one of the greatest bands of all time. Legendary icons. Wow. It is an emotional experience; a wave of nostalgia swims over me. I flashback to a time when we are all true rebels, sneaking into our parents liqueur cabinets, or taking the first forbidden puff from a cigarette with our friends. I think about all the times I went bare-fisted knuckle to knuckle with the asshole kid across the street. I remember prying my eyes open on a Saturday night so that I could watch KISS at 1:00 a.m. on Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert. I remember waiting impatiently for the movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. Terrible as it may be, it starred The Demon, The Catman, The Spaceman, and Starchild. I thought it was unbelievably cool at the time. I had KISS bubblegum trading cards and would put stickers of them on my lunchbox back in 1975.

I was a KISS fan. I played their eight-tracks and albums over and over and over. Destroyer, Dressed to Kill, Hotter than Hell, even Dynasty I loved. Everybody thought KISS sold out with that one. I didn’t care. They were still KISS!
KISS ends the evening by unleashing a storm of fireworks, explosions, smoke, thunder, and lightning, all while a heavy downpour of confetti rains down from the stage.

We have all heard Rock ‘n Roll All Night a million times in our lives. It’s THE rock anthem. But to hear KISS play it live????!!!!!! Un-mind-blowing-ly-believable! KISS puts on a show like no other. And like all the rest of us,
they have survived through the years; suffered their hardships. Yet here we all are: A little older; hopefully a little wiser - responsible, tax-paying adults…most of us anyway. Yet, we still know what it’s like to rock! We love to rock! Rock ‘n Roll all night and party everyday!