KISS – Forum Copenhagen 2008

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For some nine years, since the tour for their last new album Psycho Circus, US rock institution KISS have been frustrating European fans by consistently touring in the US, Australia and Japan but avoiding Europe. Finally, on the tour to celebrate their 35th anniversary, a reasonably extensive European tour brings them to several festivals and headlining arena shows.

Although KISS have brought a special guest band to open their shows on previous tours, because several of their stops on this tour were festival headlining slots, they were using different bands in different cities for the arena shows. For Copenhagen the disappointingly emo From First To Last were suitably ignored by most ticket holders.

Generally speaking, when you go to a KISS show, even if you’ve never been to one before, you pretty much know what you’re going to get if you’ve seen any live video footage of them from near enough any of the years they’ve worn the make-up and stage costumes they’re famous for. If you’ve seen any complete concerts on DVD (and with the releases of the Rock The Nation Live DVD and three Kissology DVD box sets in recent years, there’s plenty of shows to been seen) you almost know what they’re going to say, when they’re going to say it, and where they’ll be standing when they do.

A KISS show is more than a concert, it’s a performance in the truest sense, featuring a band playing their songs under pre-planned terms. Some would argue this isn’t a real concert and lacks some sort of integrity because of it, but they’ve never made any pretense to contrary. KISS have unashamedly been about their over-the-top stage show and heavy use of pyro for years and don’t pretend to be anything else. You know what you’re going to get, and if that’s what you want, you aren’t going to be disappointed.

Given the celebratory nature of this tour KISS decided to play the entire Alive! album for the main part of their set. Originally released in 1975 it was the lynchpin of their ’70s heyday and is often hailed as one of the most definitive hard rock live albums of all time. When it was recorded they had released just three albums, so fans of the oldest KISS material were the most satisfied with the set, which proves how important those early albums were as several of these songs remained in the live set for most of their career.

Following the usual “Alright Copenhagen! You wanted the best, well you go the best…” intro the band descended from the lighting rig on a platform as an enormous black curtain with a silver ‘KISS’ logo fell and they played the opening riff to Deuce with their trademark illuminated logo flashing at the back of the stage. A typically bombastic start to proceedings and while not every song played had its share of flames and explosions, there was a good amount of it throughout the show.

There were no new stage tricks in the show compared to tours over the last ten years or so, but having been away for so long most people really didn’t mind as they’d either never seen them do it all before, or haven’t seen them do it for a number of years. All present and correct were Gene Simmons’ blood-spitting and flying during his bass ‘solo’ before singing I Love It Loud from the top of the lighting rig, Paul Stanley’s zip-line to a tiny stage in the middle of the audience for Love Gun and Tommy Thayer’s firework-shooting guitar during his solo. But even then, as well rehearsed as KISS’ shows are, it was surprising to many that some mistakes were made, mostly by Gene Simmons who forgot the opening couple of lines on more than one occasion, most noteably to Let Me Go Rock ‘n’ Roll.

The six song encore gave them a chance to play a few classic songs from slightly later in their career, although four of these were still from the ’70s. Two of KISS’ most successful albums came after Alive! (and were covered in a live setting on Alive! II), in the shape of Destroyer and Love Gun. This of course meant that several songs from these albums which normally are ever-present in KISS’ live sets had to be left out of the main part of the show. Shout It Out Loud and Detroit Rock City from Destroyer and the title track from Love Gun got to appear in the encore, which meant a lot of fans missed God of Thunder, but with only an encore in which to cover a selection from the other 32 years of their career there were always going to be some major songs missed out.

Lick It Up, from 1983′s album of the same name was the most recent song to be played, which means it’s going to be even longer before KISS fans in Europe get to hear the likes of Unholy (1992), Heaven’s On Fire (1984) and Crazy Crazy Nights (1987) again. Paul Stanley, teasingly, did at one point say “See you again next year”, so perhaps there’s a slim chance they will tour Europe again and play a more career-spanning set. Nevertheless, barely a fan in the building left disappointed by the show and the opportunity to buy a live double CD of the show from UK concert recording company Concert Live afterwards certainly attracted plenty of interest.

“ typically bombastic ”

Setlist: Deuce / Strutter / Got To Choose / Hotter Than Hell / Firehouse / Nothin’ To Lose / C’Mon And Love Me / Parasite / She / Tommy Thayer solo / Watchin’ You / Rock Bottom / 100,000 Years > Drums > 100,000 Years / Cold Gin / Let Me Go Rock And Roll / Black Diamond / Rock And Roll All Nite // Shout It Out Loud / Lick It Up / Gene Simmons solo / I Love It Loud / I Was Made For Lovin’ You / Love Gun / Detroit Rock City

Photo(s): Renato Viliegas

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Hard Rock, KISS