Well, what can I say - Kiss rock big time (and Aerosmith weren't bad either). I'm so glad I took the plunge and traveled all the way to the US to see this show, although I nearly didn't make the final trip from Cincinnati out to the Riverbend Music Center - my cousin who was meant to be coming with me got in a car accident (everyone involved is thankfully OK) on his way home from work to pick me up before the show and I had to phone round for a taxi. As a result I didn't get out to Riverbend till about 20 minutes into Saliva's show (what I heard sounded fairly good), and I still had to pick up my ticket. This, plus a quick stop for some water, meant I only got to my seat as Kiss appeared on stage.

It was great show, but the main set list was shorter by one song than the 
first three shows:
Detroit Rock City
Deuce
Shout It Out Loud
Do You Love Me?
Let Me Go (Rock n Roll)
Firehouse
I Love It Loud
I Want You
God of Thunder
100,000 Years
Black Diamond
-encore
Beth
Love Gun
Rock n Roll All Night

The guys looked to be having a great time, although I think the 87 degree heat and high humidity was getting to Gene a bit cause he didn't seem to be stalking about the stage much. But in that heavy costume I don't blame him - it was certainly getting to me and all I was wearing was a T-shirt and trousers! He did breath fire at the end of Firehouse, and flew up onto his platform on the specially lowered lighting rig for God of Thunder so he can't have been suffering too badly.

Fun moments in the show
During Paul's first talk to the crowd Tommy interrupted him when he fiddled with the tuning of his guitar - live on the amps.
Paul tried to introduce I Want You as "This is off..." and then promptly forgot which album it was! His excuse was "You know, there's so damn many of them I can't remember!"
Gene surprised Peter with a big bear (or should that be demon?) hug after Beth which set the pair of them giggling as all four of them took their bows at the front of the stage.

The crowd seemed to be a good mix of Kiss and Aerosmith fans in the seating area of the auditorium, but I saw a lot of Kiss fans out in the general admission lawn area leave after Kiss when I headed out to the merchandise stalls. After paying for a really good ticket (right hand side of the stage, 12 rows from the front) I wasn't going to miss Aerosmith, plus I'm quite a fan of theirs, and made it back with moments to spare.

Aerosmith were good, but in my eyes you can't really follow RARAN with anything but the trip home! A lot of Kiss fans were really disappointed that Kiss are on first but I reckon the reason Aerosmith go on last is not just cause of their so called "MTV appeal" but the fact that as a bunch of recovering alcoholics they insist that no alcohol be sold once they get within a certain time of them going on stage. This certainly would not sit well with any Kiss fans waiting for Aerosmith to get off stage before Kiss come on, so I don't suppose they'll be changing the appearance order any time soon.

All in all I had an absolute blast of a time which could only have been better if I'd got there in time for the upgrade hand outs - the two Gold package members sitting either side of me got to go back stage as evidenced by their signed Tour Books, and I just can't help wondering if I'd been in 
my seat by the start of the show at 7pm if I might have been picked too! C'est la vie! As I told my cousin, at least I wasn't in the car with him when he had his accident otherwise I might not have made the show at all.