Salutations™!!
Today is the 27th anniversary of KISS Alive III. Does this “live” album give me the same feelings that Alive! and Alive II gave me? Well, yes, actually. But, in a totally different way. As I’ve said before, I didn’t get to see any concerts until 1990 (right before my 20th birthday) and it was KISS on the Hot in the Shade tour. That was Eric Carr’s last tour.
For the Revenge album that came out in 1992 (its anniversary is tomorrow), KISS came to Charlotte and Fayettville in NC for that tour, but I missed both of those. So, my friend Fred “Seven” Goza and I drove to Greenville, SC to see them on “Election Day” in 1992. That day Bill Clinton beat Bush I. I had joined a band called The Blue the week before this, Fred was in that band.
Fred and I rode down without buying any tickets ahead of time. We got to the Greenville Memorial Auditorium, which was actually kind of small with only a 7500 person capacity, stood in a long line to get to the ticket counter, wondering if we’d even be able to get tix, and then when we got there, got two GA (that’s general admission) tix for the floor for $10. Heck, the fees for tix today is twice that.
Trixter and Jackyl were the openers. It was the only night for the whole tour that Jackyl was the second band. Two nights later, in Atlanta, Great White joined Trixter as the openers. Three nights prior it was Faster Pussycat and Trixter. I would have much rather seen either Faster Pussycat or Great White than Jackyl. I have never been a fan of them or Jesse James DuPree. Oddly enough, I had to sit through JJD when he opened for Queensryche in Raleigh several years later. Anywhat! I was bored with Jackyl. Trixter was pretty good, though. And, oddly enough (again) with that, two members of Trixter is now in a non-makeup KISS Kover band in which I played their “debut” song in Friday’s video. Heck even before all of that Danger Danger was the opener in the second part of the tour. I loved them on the first show I saw KISS. I’d have dug seeing them.
KISS came on and rocked the house. Alive III was recorded Black Friday weekend in Cleveland, Detroit and Indianapolis. Just a few weeks after I saw them. I kind of wished they would have done what they did with the first two live albums and only had the songs in which fit the era they were in. But, I get why they didn’t. They had to have stuff to appease the “purists.” I think these are very good performances, overdubbed or not. On that, to my knowledge, the only song we know wasn’t “live” was “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” which, like “Hard Luck Woman” and “Tomorrow and Tonight” were recorded during soundcheck with crowd noise laid on top. I don’t care, it still rocked.
Do I think it is as good as the first two? Maybe. Did it have the same energy? Certainly not as raw as the first and not at their height like II, but its own groove. Do I think I am in the majority? Nope. But, remember, my KISS tastes are weird compared to most others’. Anywhat, this is the song I chose for today. It is one of my favorite post-Alive II songs from one of my favorite post-Alive II albums. This is from one of those recorded shows, although I don’t think this is the version (unedited) that ended up on Alive III. Enjoy!
Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!
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“I am the incubus. I lay the egg in you. The worm that burrows through your brain. But you are the beast that calls me by my name. You send your children to war to serve bastards and whores. So now you know, you created me on the day that you were born.” – “Unholy” (Simmons/Vincent)