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Re: KISS (Was: Local 506 Saturday 9/28)



I missed Kiss!

Man, I really wanted to go but had other commitments and no babysitter. I did have 
the fortune of seeing them in 1976 in G' boro and again on New Year's Eve 1977-78 
also in Greensboro. The '76 show cost $5.50 and I bought a big ole honkin' 
luminescent KISS belt buckle. I had to watch the whole show without my shirt 
exposing my hairless, doughy-fat 14 yr old torso because a tripping and drunk 
redneck decided to hurl cheap redwine all over my polyester shirt. My older brother 
made me leave before the big smash 'em up encore of Black Diamond. I had to beg 
my mom to let me go to the 1977 show because of the hurl incident even though 
there were no problems at the Nugent and Zeppelin show I had already been to at 
that point. Until I dedicated my life to punk rock, Kiss really frightened my parents.

Kiss did put on a great show but by the time of the 1977 show their fan base was 
largely nine year old kids with their moms in tow. Alive II was the last Kiss Record I ever 
bought. Just a year and a half before it was mostly scummy looking freaks, GI's up 
from Fayetteville, and other very scary folks who probably lived in trailers and drove El 
Caminos.

Someone said without the New York Dolls there would be no Kiss. Maybe, but I think 
they started up about the same time. Certainly Wicked Lester (pre Kiss band) 
predates the Dolls by a couple of years. I think that if you cross Japanese Noh theater 
and Humble Pie you get Kiss.

The best monster rock coliseum show I saw was, without a shred of doubt, Queen.
Zeppelin was damn fine too but Page was in the deepest stage of his little "habit" 
making his guitar playing a bit fractured.

The worst is a toss-up between Boston, Nugent, and Judas Priest (whom I drunkenly 
met in a London hotel bar some years later and informed them of this).

mike 


i miss the frisbees, beach balls, flash pots, and ripple wine

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