In my top 10 worst bands I've ever seen.[/QUOTE] Top ten LOUDEST I've ever seen. Even Motörhead couldn't beat them.
I saw the 96 reunion tour - first and only time I've seen them - loved it but... it seemed to me that Ace and Peter were already at that point noticeably lagging behind Gene and Paul, particularly Peter. He just seemed to have very little fire in the engine room. Tepid is the word that comes to mind when I think of him hitting the drums. Ace seemed a bit listless but not as much as Peter. I was fairly amazed at Paul. If I was new to the band and someone told me, that guy with the star on his eye is 29, I would've believed it. Dude was all over the place. And Gene was solid. The show overall was a ton of fun - MSG, so... kind of a hometown vibe to it. I had okay seats - they were comp tix pretty close to the stage but first level up way off to the side, Gene's side.
First time I sat in a swing with my arm around a girl was that night. Age 11. Like it was yesterday...
Having my first listen to the Unplugged set. I ripped 'Comin' Home' a new one reviewing HTH but, damn, this version sounds great!
KISS MY BUTT I haven't played this album in quite a while nor do I plan to for this thread. I have listened through everything else we have covered but I gotta skip this. It's super disappointing knowing what could've been. Madonna, NIN, White Zombie, etc. Instead we have a bunch of 90's bands that people care little about nowadays as well as some disappointing veteran contributions. When I saw Stevie Wonder with Lenny Kravitz (who was in his prime at this point) listed for Deuce I was like "holy crap this is going to be awesome" and it was not at all. Props for Mighty Mighty Mighty Bosstones for their version of Detroit Rock City. There is a rare 45 single of that too. That really was the only contribution where it exceeded my expectations. Of course Anthrax did great with She as that was expected. Garth's Hard Luck Woman is in his wheel house so that worked out well too. The rest is just...ehhh no thanks. This CD just collects a lot of dust on the shelf. The only good thing is there was a bunch of tribute albums that decade and there was a lot of metal ones that would do straight ahead versions of whatever song they were covering and his tribute album steered away from that mostly for better or worse doing their own take on Kiss ongs. UNPLUGGED I have sung many praises of this album while talking about the individual songs. Aside from "Every Time I Puke On You" I think it's a perfect album. It shows Kiss as musicians and how great these songs are stripped down to the bare basics. It's an important album in the catalog and an essential one. It was a really cool time being a Kiss fan at this point because as soon as word got out that the Unplugged reunion happened it was pretty much a given that the reunion was going happen. I know there was a few months of will they or won't they but the fans knew (at least I knew) it was going to happen. This was right around the time AOL was hitting big and kissasylum.com was up or was it kissotaku.com? Anyways there were a couple people in attendance there that they broke the news that the reunion happened that night over the new WWW. PS- They moved forward with COS BTW as the material was already written and they were contractually obligated to record it so they were moving forward with that record no matter what. The name for it was even picked way beforehand.
I listened to the HD Tracks version of it last night. Unlike a lot of other KISS albums we've been looking at recently, this is an album that I've gone back to now and then. When I ranked all of KISS' studio albums in a KissFAQ poll several years ago, I had COS ranked 3rd. Before I listened to it last night, I was wondering if I'd still rank it that highly now. And the answer is, yes, I still would. I think it's an amazing album, with some grown-up lyrics for a change. And it's apparent when you listen to it closely that it's an album they put an awful lot of work into. On many of the tracks, they were using the studio to enhance the experience in some interesting ways. I would highly encourage any of our participants here to listen to these songs on headphones, if possible. There's some interesting stuff going on on many of these tracks!
I love the fact that you have a warm and fuzzy memory of that night, and I have a painful one! A day or two after this aired, I had relatives tell me that they saw KISS on TV on this special, and when I realized what I had missed, I was devastated! And you and I are the same age!!
I'm borderline shocked that you rank it that high. Not shocked in a what are you crazy kind of way but more wow, a serious KISS fan like you puts it in the top 3! It's surprising to me because - to me - COS is the ONE KISS album that is really unlike all the others pretty much across the board. I haven't spent a lot of time with it - dismissed it upon release and have listened a few times in the last month or two - but it seems to me very much a unique moment in KISS history.
??? Why would a label help underwrite recording sessions, only to then shelve the album? And the only reason it got released later was because it was being so heavily bootlegged, they figured they may as well see some $ from it, as it was already paid for. If everyone had "known" the reunion was going down, there's no way the band or the label throws away that money. It was only toward the end of the recording sessions that the reunion was a go. And the name was not picked ahead of time.
Good songs? Check. Good lyrics? Double check! Good performances, musically? Check. Creativity exhibited in the studio, with unusual attention to detail for KISS? Check. It's just a flat-out great album. It being labelled "grunge" is incredibly simplistic, and wrong (in my opinion, of course). It's an album I've gone back to over the years, moreso than many of their albums. And it still impresses me each time I listen to it.
I get what you're saying, and I respect you opinion, but I disagree. I think the non-makeup version of Kiss had run its course by the mid 90's. Gene and Paul were in their mid 40's at this point. How many bands of that vintage have avoided becoming nostalgia acts? Not many. It was going to happen regardless of the reunion - just look at how many vintage songs were in the set list by 1994. That's what nostalgia bands do. They play mostly older material, with a few new songs thrown in. "Status quo" Kiss was facing a future of diminishing returns. Revenge already showed record sales were down, despite the positive fan response. The band's days as an arena headlining act looked to be over. If the reunion didn't happen, and they released COS, there is no doubt in my mind it would have been a commercial disaster. The album is far more polarizing than Revenge, and Revenge's sales were disappointing. I actually think things worked out for the best. Personally, I am glad the reunion happened while Paul was still in good voice, and could still work the stage with more energy than most men half his age. The other guys looked great too. I think Ace did a really good job, and Peter did well too - I feel his supposed shortcomings were exaggerated by some. In the end, they pulled it off. I'm not sure that would have been the case if the reunion started later on. The timing was perfect.
Toby Wright was pegged to produce before Unplugged happened so there was already plans in the works to move forward with the album not knowing how and if the reunion would turn out. Paul talks in his bio about them all knowing in the studio what was going down but they decided to finish the album as the reunion was not set contract wise yet as legal stuff was getting worked out at that point. I am wrong about the title. That came after. Gene had a cover planned for the next album. A black figure strangling himself that never happened. I got the title and cover mixed up.
Unplugged Everyone that's sung it's praises has said everything I wanted to say. I love this album, their second best live album next to Alive! It's honest, they're playing with fire in their bellies, it's a ton of fun. I also have the "full show" which I listen to a lot as well. The songs played that night that didn't end up on the album are: Hard Luck Woman (Paul on vocals, it's fantastic), Heaven's On Fire, Spit, C'mon and Love Me, Redneck God of Thunder and a brief interlude of Louie, Louie. Hard Luck Woman should've made the album, absolutely. Some thoughts on the songs: I never liked Comin' Home before hearing this version, now I love it. This was the biggest eye-opener for me on this set. It's interesting that they repeat so many songs from Kiss My Ass on here. I'm sure they were trying to piggyback off that release. Do You Love Me is a great version. I wish Domino wasn't on here, actually I wish that neither of the Revenge songs were on here. Should've replaced Every Time I Look at You with Hard Luck Woman. At least the unplugged version of it is better than the Revenge version, I'll give it that. On Domino it's interesting that Gene doesn't sing "got me by the balls", but he feels perfectly fine using "bitch" instead of "girl" later in the song. Sure Know Something is a great surprise. I think bringing it out for Unplugged showed that KISS weren't the least bit ashamed of it. They were actually proud of it and it sounds fantastic. I'm probably not the only one that reassessed SKS after this album. Eric really makes himself known vocally on this one. He sounds great. Same for Got to Choose, which was a bonus track in some countries I think. A World Without Heroes is simply gorgeous. Such a perfect version of this. Rock Bottom was an inspired choice. That intro just screams out to be played on Unplugged and it totally delivers. See You Tonight sounds amazing. Vocally they just nail it. Ace on 2000 Man is awesome. That swagger is there in full force. Attitude to burn. We finally get a proper version of Beth without all the orchestral BS. This is the way it should sound. It's beautiful and Peter sounds great, full of emotion. Nothin' To Lose - wonderful having all 6 of them just slay this tune. RARAN - I love that they have everyone in the original group sing a verse. That's the way it should be done. The song sounds great. Peter's line, "The party's just begun so let me in" just breaks my heart though. Maybe he just messed up the line every time on each of the four takes they did of this, or maybe he just got the words wrong, but I don't think so. He sings it like he's on the outside and that makes me sad. You're part of the family, Peter. You're already "in".
Alive III was a huge disappointment for me. I don't think it captured their live energy, was a predictable (safe) set and just had no spark. Alive! and Alive II were monsters, slap you in the face rock n roll, this one just didn't happen. On a side note, just found this on Youtube and thought I'd share. I love Ace, The Pistols and Steve Jones and enjoyed this:
Yes 'See You Tonite' does sound amazing and I remember that sticking out when I first saw the show. I was really struck by what a good song it was. I hadn't heard it in years at that point. Also whoever did the original sound mixing on that Unplugged did a great job. The acoustic guitars sound tremendous. Even just watching it on youtube it sounds great. But I guess that show always sounded really good.
I saw the reunion tour in Seattle. It was late in the tour. In fact looking at the dates now I'm reminded it actually the very last US date. I remember thinking the whole time 'is this good? would I like this without the nostalgia factor?' and I guess I sort of decided I would like it anyway. But who knows. If I was even thinking like that at all though I guess it means I wasn't blown away. On the other hand it could just mean I'm so neurotic I can't even relax and get in the moment at a rock concert. Which is true. I get it from my mother.
Curveboy, I'm kinda in the middle. In the 90s, I thought it was amazing, and really fell into the sounds of the day. I revisited in recently and felt the grunge rip-off, but further listenings have gotten me back to my original feelings. Should be a good time on the thread
UNPLUGGED Easily one of my favorite albums of the 90s. Many like myself who worshiped Kiss as kids, then left them behind for the new sounds of the 90s, but this came around and rejuvenated the old spirit of the band. The album has so much relevancy. It also makes you realize how great so many of these songs are apart from production and stage theatrics. I still love the setlist featured on the record and the risks they took using more obscure material for the MTV show. And of course, the massive reunion that followed.
I saw a J. Mascis solo show once, and I can absolutely attest to that. I don't know if he was louder than Motorhead, but there certainly were an equal amount of people wincing in pain, no question. You can picture me having a sagely smile while wearing earplugs at both shows, I'm sure.
