Crazy, Crazy Nights: The Best KISS Live Performances

In terms of sheer spectacle, few bands can hold a candle to KISS. Renowned for its extravagant light shows, revolutionary use of pyrotechnics, and mounds of makeup, the band has taken showmanship in rock ‘n’ roll to a whole new level and it’s paid enormous dividends. The legendary New York quartet’s tours have regularly ranked among rock’s highest-grossing draws for the best part of five decades.

Yet, for all the pizzazz, it’s important to remember KISS initially achieved success through grit and graft. The band’s first-ever live show, at a club called Popcorn in Queens, New York, on January 30, 1973, attracted an audience of less than 10 people and KISS took some hard knocks before fame and fortune came their way. However, they’ve gone on to enjoy stratospheric levels of success and they’re going out in a blaze of glory, with their gargantuan final “End Of The Road” world tour stretching across four years. Indeed, as they prepare to take their final curtain at New York’s Madison Square Garden, this is the perfect time to revisit some of KISS’ best live shows.

Listen to the best of live KISS now.

EARLY LEGEND-BUILDING TRIUMPHS

Cobo Arena, Detroit, May 16, 1975

KISS’ initial five-song demo tape with producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin) eventually landed the band a deal with Neil Bogart’s Casablanca imprint, but success initially remained elusive. The band’s initial albums, KISS and Hotter Than Hell, barely scraped the Top 100 of the Billboard 200 and its underrated third, Dressed To Kill, also initially sold slowly.

On the plus side, KISS’ live reputation was in the ascendency. The band’s outrageous, heavily made-up image and over-the-top live performances began to attract mainstream attention, with Gene Simmons and company appearing live on NBC TV’s Midnight Special on April 1, 1975.

Even so, Casablanca was close to bankruptcy when KISS kicked off its four-night stand at Detroit’s Cobo Arena on May 16. Yet the adversity translated into some utterly transcendent rock ‘n’ roll music, much of which was captured for the band’s make-or-break double live album, Alive! First released in September 1975, Alive! rewarded KISS with its first U.S. Top 10 success and effectively saved the band’s career. The record has since become one of rock’s landmark live albums, attracting praise from rock fans of all persuasions. In 1992, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil told Guitar World “Alive! was the first album I ever bought. And I wasn’t alone: you can hear KISS’ influence all over metal and punk.”

Cadillac High School, Cadillac, Michigan, October 9, 1975

In 1974, the Cadillac Vikings had inexplicably lost the first two games of the season. The previous year, they’d gone undefeated. Seeking to change things up, the football team’s coaches tried playing music before practices and games to hype the team up. On the Cadillac KISStory website, Coach Jim Neff takes up the story: “I chose a new and outrageous band – KISS. They were wild, bold, and loud. It was a match that was meant to be. The 1974 team won its final seven games with KISS as an inspiration. The band heard about what we were doing and instantly adopted the Vikings as their team. Then, in October 1975, the unbelievable happened – KISS came to Cadillac High School and played a homecoming concert in the high school gym.” Music aside, it’s hard not to love the pictures that emerged from this event.

KISS GOES GLOBAL

Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, April 2, 1977

Cementing the band’s post-Alive! popularity with platinum-selling studio sets Destroyer and Rock And Roll Over, KISS arrived in Japan for the first time in March 1977 on their “Sneak Attack” tour. By this time mingling with rock’s elite, KISS touched down in Tokyo on a Pan Am flight christened the “KISS Clipper,” with the name painted on the side of the Boeing 747. But even this grand entrance didn’t prepare them for the level of fandom they would encounter. The group performed nine concerts in all, including several nights at Tokyo’s world-famous Nippon Budokan.

Playing to approximately 22,000 fans in all, KISS performed two legendary Budokan shows on April 2, a matinee at 3 PM and a second show at 7 PM local time, with television station NHK filming both for domestic broadcast. Eddie Kramer also recorded the shows for an aborted Japanese live album, though the audio was later used for the TV broadcasts on NHK’s “Young Music Special,” while spectacular video footage from the two shows was later released as part of the KISStory Vol. 1 DVD package. The footage also suggests that KISS mania was rife in Japan and the box office receipts later proved it, as KISS’ tour of Japan broke attendance records previously held by The Beatles.

Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland, Ohio, January 8, 1978

KISS had already played Richfield Coliseum in September 1976, but the band returned to Cleveland as conquering heroes in January 1978 on the “Alive II” tour, promoting the best-selling live album of the same name. The group came with an even bigger live show than usual, stuffed with pyrotechnics, fire, smoke bombs, and platform risers.

However, while KISS may have seemed invincible, the weather had other ideas, unleashing a snowstorm with a blizzard that would easily have dissuaded lesser bands. KISS, though, refused to bow to the elements. The weather led to the band arriving late, and some of the stage effects were rendered useless, but still, fans packed the venue.

Ken Sharp, co-author of KISS: Behind The Mask, recalled, “It was the height of KISS mania. It was something that lived up to the greatest spectacle, almost like a Broadway show in terms of the choreography and the various things that were done. There’s a DNA that exists in pretty much every rock show today where you can point the dial back to KISS.”

KISS – and its loyal KISS army of fans – undoubtedly triumphed against the elements at Richfield Coliseum, yet the event still could have ended in tragedy after the show finished, when fans were scrambling to find a way out and found many of their cars buried under snow in the parking lot. Some were even forced to spend the night at the venue along with their heroes.

“They didn’t have enough trucks to clear things because they were busy in the city,” Gene Simmons recalled in an interview with Cleveland.com. “We slept in the arena, but we made sure tons of food came in, pizza, all kinds of stuff for the folks who were trapped.”

Perth Entertainment Centre, Perth, Australia, November 8, 1980

KISS finally made their Australian debut in 1980, and it was a set of show for the ages. With the lead single “Shandi” from the Unmasked album going Top 5 in the country, KISS – now with Eric Carr on drums – received a welcome akin to Beatlemania when the Australian leg of the “Unmasked” tour opened in Perth early in November 1980.

“When people were saying you’re as big as The Beatles were, that’s kind of hard to comprehend until you get off a plane and there’s thousands at the airport and thousands more camping outside, so you couldn’t leave the hotels,” Paul Stanley recalled in KISS’ “End Of The Road” tour program in 2019. “We were the front headline of the papers for virtually three or four weeks. It reached a point where I was asking that we not have any more parties because literally every night the promoter threw a party for us.”

Maracana Stadium, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, June 18, 1983

After the disco and power pop experiments of Dynasty and Unmasked, KISS returned to its hard rock roots for 1982’s Creatures Of The Night. As part of the tour for the album, the band embarked on a huge 50-date North American tour across the winter of 1982-83. The band’s first three shows in South America – all in Brazil – were tacked onto the end and KISS again experienced a whole new level of fandom when they performed shows in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Sao Paolo in June 1983. At the biggest, the Maracana Stadium in Rio, KISS – now with guitarist Vinnie Vincent replacing Ace Frehley – performed a rapturously-received 14-song set concluding with the inevitable “Rock And Roll All Nite” to an audience of around 137,000 fans. A truly epic denouement to the tour, these pioneering Brazilian shows were also significant as they became KISS’ final dates where the band performed in their trademark makeup until 1996.

BEHIND THE MASKS: THE POST-MAKEUP YEARS

Cobo Arena, Detroit, December 8, 1984

It should be unsurprising to see a show from the group’s first tour without makeup on this list. But this tour – and the album Animalize – was full of firsts. Animalize was the first (and only) studio album to feature guitarist Mark St. John; the up-and-coming Bon Jovi supported KISS in Europe and played its first U.K. gigs in the process, and new lead guitarist Bruce Kulick joined KISS full-time during the U.S. leg. Kulick actually deputized for St. John (who was dogged by an arthritic condition) during the European leg, but then joined full-time after KISS felt he was a better fit for the band than St. John.

Shortly after Kulick joined full-time, MTV filmed and recorded KISS’ triumphant show at its old stamping ground, Detroit’s Cobo Arena, and as the subsequent Animalize Live Uncensored video footage reveals, Bruce Kulick was indeed a good fit for the band. In the tour program, Gene Simmons confirmed, “the band are alive and well and playing better than we ever have.”

The Marquee, London, U.K, August 16, 1988

With 1987’s Crazy Nights doing good business, KISS were again set to embark on a major world tour with the European leg including a huge festival appearance at the annual “Monsters Of Rock” Festival (now Download) at Castle Donington in the U.K, alongside Guns N’ Roses, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, and Iron Maiden.

“Monsters Of Rock” provided a highly enticing bill for heavy rock fans, but hardcore KISS supporters really wanted in at the band’s secret warm-up show at London’s Marquee Club. Having housed legendary early shows by legendary acts such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, The Marquee had a capacity of around only 500 people, but it was still the place every band wanted to play in London. At the time of KISS’ “secret” soiree, the club had moved to a new base in Charing Cross Road from its previous home in Wardour Street and those who made it to this now legendary show had to keep their ear to the ground.

One lucky fan who attended recalled The Marquee gig to be almost the holy grail of KISS shows. Writing anonymously on the Kissin UK fan site, he wrote, “This show was the hardest rockin’, most sweaty KISS show I have ever been to. I queued from 6.30 am having been tipped off there may be a secret KISS show. There were five of us down from Nottingham and there was surprisingly nobody queuing so we thought we’d find somewhere to eat as we thought we’d been had and [KISS] weren’t playing. But, as we started walking, a familiar jet black Trans-Am truck passed us and pulled up outside the Marquee. It was happening after all.”

Madison Square Garden, New York City, November 9, 1990

Homecoming shows were always emotional affairs for KISS, but – with hindsight – their show at Madison Square Garden in November 1990 was especially poignant as it became the band’s final appearance with drummer Eric Carr, who died of cancer the following year.

Another humungous undertaking in support of KISS’ Hot In The Shade album, the band’s World Tour of the same name featured a whopping 123 shows, though it concentrated solely on the U.S. and Canada. Once again, KISS spared no expense with a light show featuring lasers and an enormous Sphinx-style prop (dubbed “Leon”) forming the central part of their stage set. At the end of each performance, Leon would disappear and KISS’ lighted band logo would roll up from the bottom of the stage during the closing “Detroit Rock City.”

Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, January 30, 1995

KISS played alongside Slayer and Black Sabbath on 1994’s “Monster Of Rock” tour, after which they toured Japan under their own steam, discovering their long-term popularity in the region remained intact. Keen to present something truly spectacular, the band pulled out all the stops, with their stage show featuring fireworks, lasers, strippers (!), and even the return of “Leon,” the giant Sphinx from 1990’s “Hot In The Shade” tour. What made this leg of the tour even special was the group’s philanthropic efforts, which saw the establishment of “KISS Save The City Fund,” to raise money for the survivors of the then-recent Great Hanshin earthquake, close to the Japanese city of Kobe which killed over 6,000 people.

KISS AND MAKEUP: THE CLASSIC LINEUP REUNITES

Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Michigan, June 28, 1996

Proving that rock fans should never say never, the seemingly impossible came to pass in 1996, when KISS’ classic lineup of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss put on their makeup and Love Gun-era stage costumes and set foot onstage for the first time since the “Dynasty” tour of 1979.

It’s fair to say the reunited band’s first show together at the Tiger Stadium in Detroit was one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most hotly-anticipated events of the year, and KISS didn’t disappoint. Performing to a sold-out crowd of over 40,000 people, the iconic New York quartet performed a rapturously-received set which also saw the return of vintage KISS stunts, including Simmons’ blood-spitting and fire-breathing, Frehley’s smoking and shooting guitar, pyrotechnics and platform risers. Indeed, the Tiger Stadium triumph set the tone for the whole of the “Alive World Reunion Tour” which eventually lasted for over 12 months and took in 192 shows, with Paul Stanley later saying, “At that time, it was the ultimate KISS show in the sense that we looked at the show, which we thought was our best, and said, ‘Top this.’”

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California, October 31, 1998

KISS had to go some ways to beat the success of the “Alive World Reunion Tour,” but they certainly gave it their best shot with the “Psycho Circus Tour” of 1998. The band was promoting their first studio album in nearly two decades, and the tour kicked off with a special Halloween show in Los Angeles, with The Smashing Pumpkins in support and simulcast on FM radio across the U.S. What made the tour (and show) so historic, though, was that it was the allegedly the first to ever incorporate 3D visuals into a stage show. (Concertgoers were encouraged to wear glasses during specific songs.)

It being Halloween, there were plenty of costumes in both the crowd and onstage. (Billy Corgan dressed up as a Beatle.) And, according to the LA Times, “At the end of the show, the quartet slipped away in a van while fans were cheering but got stuck in traffic on the way to their hotel.” Stanley said that the band got out of “the van to walk the rest of the way, still in make-up. ‘People were going, ‘Great costumes!’”

21ST CENTURY EXTRAVAGANZAS

Anhembi Convention Center, Sao Paolo, Brazil, April 26, 2015

After the twin peaks of the “Alive World Reunion” and “Psycho Circus” tours, KISS’ classic lineup took a final bow with its self-explanatory North American “Farewell Tour” running from March 2000 through April 2001. However, Peter Criss didn’t stay the course (he was replaced by a returning Eric Singer for the Japanese and Australian legs), while Ace Frehley made his final appearance as a full-time member of KISS at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Since then, KISS has settled into a lineup featuring original members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley augmented by Eric Singer and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer. Well-received albums such as Sonic Boom (2009) and Monster (2012) have added music of real value to the band’s already formidable catalog, while supporting tours “The Hottest Show On Earth” (2010-11) and the “Monster Tour” (2012-13) have revealed that KISS can still fill arenas in the 21st Century.

However, when KISS set out on its “40th Anniversary World Tour” – initially supported by Def Leppard – the air of anticipation surrounding the group recalled the buzz prior to the “Alive World Reunion” of 1996, and the band responded by playing some of the best shows of its long and labyrinthine career. On this tour, Paul Stanley believed KISS was “playing better than ever” as KISS touched down to receive the equivalent of royal welcomes in South American territories such as Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, in addition to returning to Brazil’s Sao Paolo to perform for an audience that topped well over 70,000 people.

The Royal Beach @ Atlantis The Palm, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 31, 2020

True to form, KISS will not be discreetly walking off into the sunset as their remarkable career finally draws to a close. Instead, the band has chosen to bow out with the monster “End Of The Road” tour – a whopping four-year extravaganza.

KISS’ now long-established foursome of Simmons, Stanley, Singer, and Thayer first embarked on the tour in Vancouver on January 31, 2019, though the dates have been extended partially due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Inevitably, the disruption forced some of KISS’ touring plans to change, but it also provoked one of the band’s most historic shows – a pay-per-view performance live-streamed New Year’s Eve show in Dubai which was filmed and directed by filmmaker Daniel Catullo (Rage Against The Machine, Creed, Mariah Carey) using over fifty 4K cameras with 360-degree views on a 250-foot stage.

Dubbed “KISS Goodbye To 2020,” the performance broke two Guinness World Records: one for the most flame projections launched simultaneously in a music concert (73 in total) and one for the highest flame projection in a music concert (35 meters). Director Catullo later told Music Mayhem that the event was “a highlight of my career,” while in an interview with The Oakland Press, Gene Simmons also admitted the Dubai show was a highlight of KISS’ incredible story. “The folks in Dubai, which is a fascinating place, suggested something crazy and said, ‘You can do anything you want here, no restrictions,’” he revealed. “And we said, ‘Wait a minute – you mean we can put on the biggest pyro show of all time, since Krakatoa and the Big Bang? They said ‘yeah,’ so there you are.”

Listen to the best of live KISS now.