KISSology
Review
15/12/2007
By Richard Jones
I
have been a KISS fan for the past 27 years of my life. I first found
KISS while at high school when my friend Chris Parry brought the Lick it
Up album into school. As soon as I saw and heard it I was hooked. As you
can guess I missed the band’s most famous era and the make-up.
So, what this DVD does is exactly what it says on the box. Kissology
gives you the bands early history through video footage and if like me
you missed out on the early years this DVD is a must.
OK, first of all I have to warn you before we get started. Firstly, this
DVD (as far as I’m aware) is STILL unavailable in
Europe
. I was lucky, my brother went to
New York
for his birthday and as soon as I knew he was going, I gave my list of
Kiss stuff I wanted. Kissology was one of the items on the list.
(Here’s an interesting note – Kiss stuff is hard to find in
New York
. As hard as it is to believe, my brother struggles to find t-shirts,
and general Kiss merchandise. Maybe the Kiss machine is slowing down in
it’s own backyard?). This DVD is a region 1 DVD and unless you have a
multi-region DVD player or can hack your DVD player (as I have had to do
to play it) then I’m afraid you will have problems getting the thing
to work.
Secondly, some of the footage contain on the 2 discs is not great. I
read a lot of reviews from people complaining that the quality of some
of the concert footage was poor, but if you think about it, some of the
stuff is over thirty years old and was recorded on video tape so no
matter how good the technology is, if the master is slightly degraded
then that’s what you get. If
you expect some of the quality to be below your usual standard then
you’ll have no problems with it.
Now, onto the actual content. The 2 DVDs span the years 1974 – 1977.
Kiss have got shed loads of footage and have put the best bits together
into this compilation which comprises concert footage, documentaries and
TV interviews
Disc 1 starts with Acrobat, a song which never made it to press. The
quality is rather poor and the sound had to be taken from an audio
recording and matched up with the video. It works well and this song is
rare.
Next we have Kiss’ first TV
performance. ABC’s In Concert has Kiss performing three songs, Nothin
to Lose, Firehouse and Black Diamond. They actually recorded 4 songs
with Deuce being the other but the song was never broadcast and the
material was lost.
The Mike Douglas Show was a popular show in the early seventies and Kiss
appeared on it in 1974. Gene Simmons makes an appearance and has a
really different approach to interviews that he does now. He doesn’t
promote anything but comments on how appetising the audience is looking.
He gets laughs from his antics but you can tell that the people sitting
in the audience don’t really know what he’s about. They also perform
Firehouse live.
The first concert is at
San Francisco
’s Winterland. This concert is shot in black and white but the
performance is good and has all the usual songs and theatrics from a
Kiss concert. (Paul has his tattoo done the same day and as such
performs the whole concert bare-chested)
The Midnight Special TV appearance features She and Black Diamond. There
were other songs recorded but never aired. One is colour and strangely
the other was black and white.
Next are some Kiss promo clips. C’mon and Love Me and Rock and Roll
All nite are the songs featured and this was Kiss’s foray into music
video. The clips were used to promote the Alive album.
The documentary Cadillac is the story of how Kiss visited Cadillac
Michigan
after they helped the local football team turn their season around. The
documentary is voiced by the team coach and he describes how the band
stayed in the town for a couple of days, got the key to the town and
played a full concert in the local school hall. Cadillac held a Kiss
day, renaming street and members of the local community dressed in full
Kiss make-up including officials. Really interesting stuff.
Another concert closes the first disc. Cobo hall 1976. The Alive set.
The big songs are all on here, Deuce, Strutter, She, Parasite, Cold Gin,
Rock ‘n Roll All Nite and others. This is classic Kiss, the video’s
a bit dark but it’s really good quality. Watch out for Gene’s hair
catching fire during Firehouse and listen as he forgets the words to Let
Me Go Rock ‘n Roll. Classic stuff.
Disc 2 begins with a british
documentary So It Goes which features the late Antony Wilson and
catalogued Kiss’ first visit to these shores in 1976. Next is the
famous Paul Lynde Halloween Special from 1976. The band are interviewed
and then perform and mime to King of the Nightime World. The interview
feature the witch from The Wizard of Oz.
Budokan Hall is a concert video and
it’s most strange as you realise the audience are just sitting there
while the band go through all the moves. They just sit there, no emotion
although I catch glimpse of one guy moving his head. It’s really
weird. The quality is good and the show is from the Rock and Roll Over
tour.
Another TV appearance from Kiss in the Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.
Three songs including Hard Luck Woman, Love’Em And Leave ‘Em and I
want You. It was recorded at
Camp
Curtis
during tour rehersals in 1976.
The final part of the DVD is a
concert from The Summit, Houston 1977. This has the best quality video
and features all the songs from the Rock and Roll Over tour. Classics
include
Detroit
Rock
City
, Shout it Out Loud, Beth and Black Diamond. In all 17 Kiss classics.
So, there you have it. The Packaging is very good quality with colour
photos in the foldout case. There’s also a 16 page full colour booklet
which has comments from the band regarding the various pieces on the
DVD. As far as DVD extras, there’s commentaries from Paul and Gene but
that’s it. No sign of Ace or Peter which is sad but not surprising.
As soon as I get to know someone who is going to the good ‘ol
USA
, I’ll put my order for Kissology 2 in. Get it and rock and roll all
nite.
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