Sonic
Boom Over Europe
Birmingham/Wembley
May 2010
Review and pics by Paul Finn
Well,
who really thought after Download in 2008 that KISS would actually come
back and do a UK tour? Certainly not me that's for sure but they did and
they've delivered 110% yet again. Unfortunately I only made it to 2 of
the shows, Birmingham & the final UK show at Wembley, but from all
accounts with the exception of a small turnout in Liverpool the entire
UK leg of was a great success. The set list has
been kept the same throughout the UK shows, although rumors are that it
may be experimented with slightly as the tour moves through Europe.
Right at the start before you hear
"All right [insert name here]..." we're now treated to parts
of the MDD video (with the band larger than life walking around a city)
followed by pre-recorded footage of them walking to the stage with Doc,
brilliant touch. Modern Day Delilah is the new opener and sees that
curtain drop and the band rise up over the drums and hit the stage, this
is just phenomenal and sets expectations high. Personally I'd still like
to hear Deuce as the opener with MDD pushed further in, but I've
spoken to a lot of people about this and it looks like I'm in the
minority.
Paul's vocal chords have been a point of
discussion ever since the 2008 tour, this tour will hopefully put those
discussions to rest... At Birmingham he sounded great, a little strained
at times but no real problems, however during the Wembley show his voice
was faultless, I hope this is a good indication of what the rest of
Europe are about to experience. Incidentally it was nice to hear Paul
pronounce Birmingham right throughout that show, "Birming-um"!!
Cold Gin, Let Me Go Rock & Roll and
Firehouse all followed next, some nice warm ups before the song that
really started the show for me - Say Yeah. I love this song and the
reaction it got from the crowd was fantastic, from here on the band goes
into overdrive with both Deuce, Crazy Crazy Nights and Calling Dr Love.
Crazy Crazy Nights was played on this tour for the first time in about
20 years (or as Paul said "last heard on Top Of The Pops"!),
there were mixed reactions about this as it's one of those love/hate
tracks, however it works, it's been given the KISS 2010 make over,
sounds great and gets the crowd jumping. It makes perfect sense to
include it when you consider how many new fans KISS have picked up since
the last tour and who all know this one.
Shock Me was next up with Tommy on lead
vocals, the song sounds great but I'd really like to have heard When
Lightning Strikes instead of an Ace song. The effects are in full flow
towards the end of the song when the drum & guitar solos make an
appearance. Eric & Tommy have worked very hard to produce a joint
effort here with lots of sibling rivalry. Tommy fires rockets from his
guitar, and goes up on one of the risers. Not to be outdone Eric's drums
rise up with a jet of co2 while he crosses his arms, shakes his head at
Tommy and fires.... a bazooka!! Brilliant stuff, cheesy but very
entertaining.
One thing that really stood out on the
tour was the lighting, it was amazing and made taking a bad photo almost
impossible. Just check out the photos I've taken of Gene breathing fire
& Tommy's solo - a lot of care and thought has gone into this and
apparently Gene had a close hand in the design. Along with this the
entire stage design is very well thought out, what first looks like a
stack of amps are actually monitors that are put to good use throughout
the show from enhancing the pyro effects to displaying rotating cubes of
album covers. The logo is now situated behind the band at stage level
and rises up once the platform that brings the band to the stage is put
back.
Next the third and final song from Sonic
Boom, this time Gene's turn with I'm An Animal. At Birmingham he made a
few mistakes on this one, but Wembley was better. It does sound good but
from what I've heard this is one of the potential songs to be dropped
for the rest of the tour. Next a song that Paul
claims has been sung on every tour... 100,000 Years. Luckily this time
it doesn't quite last as long as it's title, but not my favourite KISS
song so a potential piss break here!
Gene flying to the lighting rig is back
again, this time to I Love It Loud. It would have been nice to see God
Of Thunder make a come back but this one still works well, complete with
blood drooling from Genes mouth. Love Gun was next up, but no pulley to
get Paul into audience this time (but the revolving stage is still there
so no need to panic). The main set was finished off with Eric's
brilliant rendition of Black Diamond ("Gene's got me under his
thumb") and Detroit Rock City. At the start of Black Diamond Paul
has dropped the intro to Stairway To Heaven and replaced it with Whole
Lotta Love, again proving that he's no push over when it comes to
playing guitar, after hearing this it'd be fantastic to hear them do a
cover at some point.
As you can see no real surprises in the
setlist, not too different from the last tour or indeed the Islington
show, but the band are sounding so tight this time round you can
definitely forgive them. After the customary bow, Paul made a comment
about not liking bands who come on & off several times with an
encore, so this will be the longest encore ever! He also said that the
band will be back again, yes I know he says this every tour but it gives
us all that little bit of hope that they will be back here again one day
- and lets face it baring a 10 year gap from 1998-2008 he hasn't been
wrong.
The first of the five songs included in
the encore were Lick It Up (with The Who's Wont Get Fooled Again in the
solo which sadly isn't played anymore before the show starts), Shout It
Out Loud and I Was Made For Lovin You. It was during I Was Made that
Paul made his way to the stage in the middle of the arena, a nice touch
this time around is that the stage now revolves.
The penultimate song is one I've waited
almost 20 years to hear live as it was the song that got me into this
band in the first place - God Gave Rock & Roll To You II. This
sounded awesome on both the shows I went to, in particular Gene proving
that he can still hit those high notes in the harmony towards the end.
One very nice touch in this song are the pictures of Eric Carr that were
displayed on the monitors very touching. Rock & Roll All Nite ends
the show complete with ticker-tape, pyro, risers... the works. Yes this
has been played every show since the make-up went back on in 1996 but it
is the only way to end a KISS show.
I was lucky enough to go backstage at the
Wembley show, the guys were in a fantastic mood, Gene was particularly
impressed with a "cute kid" he'd just met, turns out he was
talking about Liam Gallagher and Nicole Appleton's second son, Gene,
named after the man himself. Eric made some comments about KISSin' UK
which was great to hear, while Paul crouched down and signed my leather
jacket for me (never to be worn again..?!). Brian May was also hanging
around back stage, apparently he too enjoyed the show (along with Jimmy
Page the night before!). I met several fans who were doing the meet
& greet, it's no secret that these aren't exactly cheap but everyone
I spoke had a great time and were treated very well by the band.
I really don't know how to finish off
this review without saying if you haven't yet caught this tour (and it's
not too late) then go see it, it is incredible. There's an empty feeling
that fills you when you see your last show of a KISS tour, this is
definitely no exception...
Some Aussie fans at the bar at the Ibis
Modern Day Delilah
Cold Gin
Let Me Go Rock And Roll
Firehouse
Say Yeah
Deuce
Crazy Crazy Nights
Calling Dr Love
Shock Me
Tommy/Eric solo
I'm An Animal
100,000 Years
Gene solo
I Love It Loud
Love Gun
Black Diamond
Detroit Rock City
Lick It Up
Shout It Out Loud
I Was Made For Lovin' You
God Gave Rock And Roll To You II
Rock And Roll All Nite
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