Kiss in Concert - Greenville, SC

Okay. With my ears still ringing…I thought it was a good time–while things are still fresh in the ol’ brain–to give a little review of Kiss in concert. Some background first: I’ve never been to see Kiss before. In fact, before tonight, I never really thought too much of them. Didn’t have any of their albums. Nothing. It’s not that I thought they weren’t that great of a band or anything. It’s just…I don’t know, really. I guess I never got around to checking them out before. Okay…so on with the show!

First things first, though. Buckcherry was the opening band. I hadn’t even heard of them until tonight. They were a surprise as well. Didn’t know what to expect. But, I assumed, if they were opening for Kiss they’d have to be pretty decent. Luckily, they were more than decent, and actually rocked the joint. Too bad for them a lot of people didn’t show up until they were finishing their set. I think many of the older Kiss fans decided to forgo the opener. I mean, after all, they were there to see Kiss. Can’t blame them. But, Buckcherry rocked the place nonetheless. Moving on.

Kiss. They opened with Detroit Rock City, and from what I’ve been told by a long time Kiss fan, they’ve done so for pretty much every tour they’ve done in the past twenty years. Anyway. Good song. The highlights of the show, though, were when Gene Simmons took his ride up to the catwalk and jammed all the way up there. Wow! And I can’t forget about when Paul Stanley took the zip line down across the crowd. Insane! But, the best part, the part that got everyone going was Paul talking about all the shit going on in this world…

“If you came here for…then you’re in the wrong place.” The part between for and then isn’t important. lol I can’t recall all of what he said. Basically what he was saying is we all need an escape from this sometimes shitty world we live in. Can’t argue there. And the show was the place to escape to. Kiss then jammed into (I Want to) Rock and Roll All Nite. Oh yeah! Who doesn’t know that song? The place went crazy as soon as the first strings were strummed. It was…nearly a religious experience. Just awesome.

The best part of the show? The solid thirty or so minute encore. Damn that was intense! The show ended with bangs of pyro one after right after another. Wow! Speaking of pyro. I almost forgot. There was one heck of a drum solo by Eric Singer. But, the ultimate highlight was the guitar smashing solo. Each time the guitar hit the stage, pyro blasted. That was freaking awesome! Okay. So, obviously I liked the show. And I’m glad I went. Kiss rocked Greenville, SC tonight. So, there you go.

I did my share of shouting, head banging and throwing up the horns. I had a blast. One thing that did strike me, too, were all the various age groups there. There were ten-year-olds all the way up to 60-pluses. Glad to see it! Rock and roll will never die!