Tuesday, August 28, 2007

KISS-KISSOLOGY vol.2

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2007
VH1 Classics

This DVD set represents the career of KISS from 1978 until 1991. The set contains three discs plus a fourth bonus DVD. However there are three different bonus DVD's so you would have to buy the sets at different places to ensure getting all three of the bonus DVDs. The first three discs contains two whole concerts, parts of concerts, TV appearances, the European version of the film KISS meets the phantom of the park, interviews and a few videos. The first of the two whole concerts is from Australia in 1980. The quality is a little fuzzy, but it's a solid show overall with a wild crowd and a decent performance. Ace seems a little tired, but the rest of the band makes up for it. The second whole concert was surprisingly the one I preferred. It's from Detroit and was filmed in 1990 which means it was "The Hot in the shade" tour. Not my favorite album by a long shot, but they put on a very entertaining show. Not the high energy of the mid-1970's, but an enjoyable performance for certain. I think Bruce was so solid that it allowed Gene and Paul to roam the stage more. Of course this also allowed Paul to do some stage moves that are completely ridiculous. Some of the language is cut, but overall the sound and picture quality is fairly high. There is an eight song performance from 1983 in Maracana Stadium in Brazil. The quality is fuzzy on these tracks and Paul and Gene are having to shout the words because the crowd is just enormous. There are five songs live at the Spectrum in Philadelphia from the Crazy Nights tour. The quality on these clips is very good and it's a shame we didn't get the whole concert. That's probably the biggest highlights of the set. My bonus disc was nine songs from a 1988 show in Tokyo. While good, it's not the whole show (I assume) and it would have been nice to have the complete show. The quality on some of the clips like the two tracks from Belgium in 1983 are rough, but most of the clips on the set are of decent or better quality. What's here is good, but there is a big gap with nothing representing Animalize or Asylum. I would gladly have traded the European version of KISS meets the phantom of the park and some of the partial concerts in exchange for the whole Animalize Live Uncensored concert that I saw on VHS a few times so many years ago. Overall most of the material is good and there is a lot of it. Whether you want it or not probably depends on how much you think of this period of the band's career.

11 Comments:

Blogger aXe mAn said...

It sounds like a great set! I think I'll pick this one up.

6:40 PM  
Blogger Mike said...

I saw them on the "Hot in the Shade" tour and I agree that they had great energy on stage.

6:04 AM  
Blogger Aunt Jackie said...

Of course I am all over this, Kiss is my first love ;)

6:08 AM  
Blogger captain corky said...

Kiss is one of my all time favorite bands too, but the last time I saw them they flashed a 1 900 number call Kiss now commercial at there concert and I don't think I'll ever spend another dime on them. How cheap.

6:24 AM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

axe man-Hope you enjoy it.

Mike-They were very tight on the dvd.

Aunt Jackie-That seems to be true for many people. Although AC/DC has always been that band for me.

Captain Corky-Gene Simmons will slap a KISS logo and a price tag on anything he can.

8:01 AM  
Blogger MrRyanO said...

Sounds like a good set. I remember that Animalize on VHS! I must have watched that a million times! That would be great to see again.

Isn't that just like KISS to make 3 versions of the same set. Don't they have enough cash yet??? It's this mentality that has turned me off towards KISS...and I used to be a die hard fan!

9:09 AM  
Blogger DPTH International said...

I did enjoy the Kiss meets the phantom of the Park, but not enough to buy the set. I'll have to see if I can rent it to show my wife.

The concert footage sounds fun, but I don't think I'd watch it enough.

9:23 AM  
Blogger Hard Rock Hideout said...

I bought this, and still haven't been able to go through the whole set to give it a proper review. I have enjoyed what I have seen so far though.

I bought mine from Best Buy, and it came with a 4th DVD Live at the Ritz.

Kind of a nice Bonus to have!

Rob Rockitt
Hard Rock Hideout

10:09 AM  
Blogger Strutter71 said...

I also bought mine at Best Buy and got the Ritz bonus disc. Not the best quality, but I thought it was cool to see the footage of them at a rare club show. I also noticed the big jump over Animalize and Asylum, but I think they probably decided to not include it because it has been covered before. Most of the old VHS stuff from the late 80s/early 90s has been released on DVD, so it's nice that they're putting stuff on these KISSology sets that hasn't been done already.

8:21 PM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

rockdog-I remember really liking the Animalize video too.

dpth-KISS meets the phantom of the park is like cheesey late 1970's tv. It's like a plot from the Wonder Woman or the Incredible Hulk tv shows only with KISS as the heroes.

HRH-I skipped around, but eventually saw it all.

strutter-I just feel like it could have used another whole concert in there.

4:02 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

i have the best buy version. I really wanted the budokan show but i don't know where to get it. Either way the discs really need the animalize and asylum stuff desperately. The overdubbed solo music in Kiss meets the Phantom was overkill. I think the film was fine and cheesy good the way it was. I wasn't too impressed with this set because I already had most of the footage on bootleg.

9:16 AM  

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