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KISS (Was: Local 506 Saturday 9/28)
On 1 Oct 1996, Chris Calloway wrote, in regards to the concert experience
of my young life, KISS:
> man, if you posers could just fly through the air while spittin blood and
> yr gtrs on fire, you might just be worth as much as a melvins ticket.
well, chris, i wouldn't call it "spittin". the blood, more accurately,
dripped and oozed down gene's chin, his stupendously agile tongue wagging
away. slime-green light swirling with white smoke wrapped around his
body. black leather wings, and the evilest eyes i've ever seen.
WOOSH! up through the air, to the rafters!! posturing and gesturing
even more wildly from 4 stories up. playing a bloody guitar while ace
and paul posture only slightly less hugely from their pneumatic pedastals
the extreme right and left of the stage.
one band, occupying at least 18 square miles of noise.
i swear.
awesome.
and when ace, the one with long(est) hair an no personality, performed
the obligatory guitar solo, he embellished it quite nicely with exploding
fireworks, fired from the body of his axe. BOOM! toward the audience on
the left! BOOM! toward the audience on the right!!
guitars on fire!
> video has now become the arena experience.
true.
it's hard to remember to watch what's going on on stage when the action
is re-broadcast to monitors over the audience that make everything look 5
times larger-than-life. almost like paying $45 to watch MTV.
but it made the BLOOD REALLY REALLY BIG!
> there was a dispute concerning just how much was choreographed.
ok, fess us, y'all... how many of you were there, too? we need your vote!
1) chris and i agree that most of paul stanley's monologues were
well-rehearsed (in order to create a sincere feel of spontinatey)...
things like, "OK GREENSBORO! i say this in ALL SINCERITY... you guys
have made us feel REALLY REALLY GREAT up here, and i want to tell you
that if ANY OTHER BAND EVER COMES TO TOWN, and you don't think their
worth THE HARD-EARNED MONEY you paid to see them, JUST CALL US UP, AND
WE'LL COME BACK!!"
check one: choreographed___ not choreographed___
2) chris and i disagree that the audience shots on the big monitors were
choreographed. lots of crazy crowd shots, lots of people with
KISS-painted faces, white on black, star over the eye and whatnot. there
was a darling little girl in the front row, being held by her parents,
who had a paul stanley face painted on. darling, in a metal kind of way.
anyway, after the close of KISS' second encore (a "beth/i wanna rock and
roll all night" medley thing") ["detroit rock city" being the first
encore], after this second encore, paul stanley smashes all to hell his
guitar (though not the one that lit up or the one that caught on fire or
the sparkly one), he smashed it all to hell, and handed it to the little
girl in the first row, with a rose that had been tossed up on stage
earlier in the evening.
check one: choreographed___ not choreographed___
not that it matters, really.
they put on a fucking good show that blew my mind in two. never been a
KISS fan, and probably never will be, but that was one of the best
concert experiences i'll ever see.
and the brief appearace of pee-paw and grampa bampa dressed up like KISS
certainly added to my enjoyment, too.
rawk,
c
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== christa wessel < > rist@acpub.duke.edu < > http://www.duke.edu/~rist ==
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