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KISS / Alice In Chains Concert 6-28-96

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What Is This?
I was asked by many about my musical influences when making stamps and asked to share some of the stories behind the concerts I have seen. I have been to 1200+ live concerts (all national touring bands/singers with albums, not local club bands or tribute/cover bands, have seen plenty of those too) and have saved every ticket stub and backstage pass (when I had one) and kept notes (like a journal) on every show I have ever seen. So from time to time I will scan in the ticket stub from a show I saw (going in no order, skipping around) and talk a little about the show and my opinion. All information property of dA--stamps/dA--bogeyman (me). This is entry#4.

The Concert:
KISS
Sponge / Alice In Chains (Two Opening Acts)
June 28, 1996
Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Michigan (USA)

Just So You Know:
This was the KISS reunion tour ("Alive/Worldwide Tour") and this was the opening night of the tour. This tour was the first time with all KISS original members in make-up (Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter) since 1979. This was a highly publicized concert and there was press from all over the world set up around Tiger Stadium to cover this event.

Personal:
My then girlfriend and Faith flew to Detroit for the weekend to specifically see this KISS concert. I have been a lifelong KISS fan and knew the opening night of the reunion tour would be "the spectacle" and made sure I was there and even snagged first row tickets for this event. There were many famous people sitting around Faith and I at this concert - right next to us was Sebastian Bach (lead singer of Skid Row), James Iha (guitarist for Smashing Pumpkins) and Alison Stewart (MTV News). Faith and I made small talk with Alison Stewart and I bought Sebastian Bach a beer. KISS fans ("KISS Army") came from all over the world for this show and I spoke with several at the concert and at the hotel, many wore KISS make-up and outfits, it was truly an amazing KISS weekend in 'Detroit Rock City'.

The Live Concert (Openers):
Sponge was the first to play and had lots of fans in the audience because they are from Detroit. I had one of their CD's ("Rotting Pinata") and they played many songs from that CD and some new tracks from a CD they were about to release ("Wax Ecstatic"). I thought they were good and very energetic and really enjoyed the tunes "Plowed" and "Molly" and both of those songs got a big response from the crowd. Alice In Chains played next and I had seen them like five years earlier open up for Van Halen. The Alice In Chains set was a little slow (like they played slower versions of their songs) and I was a little annoyed by that but they were still decent. They played for about 45-50 minutes and ended their set with "Man In The Box" which got a huge response from the audience.

The Live Concert (Headliner):
When the lights went out the crowd went crazy. Thousands of people rushed the stage and security was nowhere to be found, I had first row seats for the show so Faith and I stood and went forward to the stage immediately. "You wanted the best and you got the best, the hottest band in the world, KISS!" - And wit that the opening chords of "Deuce" was played and the stage exploded as KISS had arrived like rock deities to a sold out crowd of around 39,000-40,000. My fist was in the air as I watched every move every member of KISS made. After "Deuce" they went straight into "King of the Nighttime World" followed by "Do You Love Me?" - I was in heaven, I know every KISS song word for word (and so did most of the crowd LOL) and I was going hoarse from singing along loudly after about the first half hour of the concert. KISS played only songs from the 70's period (nothing from the 80's or 90's) and that was fine with the KISS Army crowd. Of course Gene Simmons breathed fire at the closing of "Firehouse" and spit up blood during his bass solo and the real treat of the night was Ace Frehley - he was just 'right on' with his guitar playing and singing on this night and "Shock Me" and "New York Groove" just rocked real hard (also loved Ace and Gene going back and forth on the vocals of "Cold Gin'). KISS played for a little over two hours and ended the show with a few encores, the last song played was "Rock And Roll All Nite" as a huge fireworks display went off and confetti was blown everywhere. During the concert I caught a few guitar pics from Gene (2), Ace (2) and Paul (5) and still have them in my concert scrapbook to this day.

Check out my 'Concert Memories' dA gallery for more of my concert musings da--stamps.deviantart.com/gall…
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