ROGERS ARENA, JULY 6, 2013
When going to see KISS live, it should be known you are not simply attending a live show, but rather you are getting an immersive experience. Upon entering Rogers Arena, one was greeted by throngs of fans, all dedicated “Knights In Satan’s Service.” Ages ranged from little kids, to teenagers with long ’70s hair, to the aging rockers holding on to that same hair. You would have been very hard-pressed to find someone not wearing a KISS T-shirt at the show.
That’s not all though. It seemed almost everywhere you turned, there would be a group of four friends dressed up as the members of KISS, and people were lining up to get their pictures taken with them. Keep in mind, the people dressing up were fans who paid to attend the show, and were not being paid to take pictures like a mascot at Disneyland. And the people lining up to get their pictures taken knew full well these people were not actually KISS. It was an insane level of fandom that is not commonplace nowadays and it was a wonder and delight to behold.
Then the show itself started. True to form, KISS still put on one of the most ridiculous, fun, and theatrical shows around. After the curtain dropped, the band descended from the rafters on a giant steel-truss spider. After dismounting the spider and kicking into opener “Psycho Circus,” the crowd was treated to a display of fireworks and then soon after, pyro. All of this was during the first song. Throughout the show there was more fireworks and pyro, Gene Simmons spat, blew, flew into the rafters with his infamous bat-winged costume, and breathed fire. Basically, everything you hoped to see at a KISS show and then some.
The ever enigmatic frontman Paul Stanley controlled the crowd like a master and had the already willing crowd screaming for more at every pause. Nothing made the crowd go crazier than when Stanley jumped on a moving platform that whisked him above the heads of those on the floor to a rotating stage in the centre of the arena to perform “Love Gun.” Throughout the show the band went through all of the KISS favourites, ending the main set with “Rock and Roll All Night” and with an encore consisting of “Detroit Rock City” and “I Was Made For Loving You.”
When a show is ending with confetti in the air, Paul Stanley smashing a guitar onstage, all while Gene Simmons and guitarist Tommy Thayer are on platforms hovering over the crowd, you cannot help but have the theatrics move you a bit. KISS put on a rock show like no other and if you were there, you felt it too.
By Joshua Erickson
