KISSOLOGY Part Three (1992-2000)

This third installment of DVDs named KISSology chronicles the years 1992 to 2000. My guess is that this will probably be the last of the KISSology series, unless they release one last one that chronicles all of the years with some cool footage that some fans feel were missing with the first three volumes.

This most recent installment of the KISSology series is the biggest of all of them. Volume three comes with four discs, plus a bonus DVD which gives you close to ten hours of KISS in one shot. Here are the contents for Vol. 3 -
Disc One – Three Hours

The Palace of Auburn Hills (Detroit, Michigan) November27th, 1992
Creatures of the Night
Deuce
I Just Wanna
Unholy
Parasite
Heaven’s On Fire
Domino
Watchin’ You
War Machine
Rock and Roll All Nite
Lick It Up
Take It Off
I Love It Loud
Detroit Rock City
God Gave Rock and Roll to You II
Love Gun
Star Spangled Banner

MTV Unplugged Behind the Scenes 1995
Documentary

MTV Unplugged, Sony Studios (New York, NY) August 9th, 1995
Comin’ Home
Plaster Caster
Goin’ Blind
Do You Love Me
Domino
Got To Choose
Sure Know Something
A World Without Heroes
Hard Luck Woman
Rock Bottom
See You Tonite
I Still Love You
Every Time I Look at You
Heaven’s On Fire
Spit
C’Mon and Love Me
God of Thunder
2,000 Man
Beth
Nothin’ to Lose
Rock and Roll All Nite

KISSology Volume 2 ended with the death of their second drummer Eric Carr, and what almost seems like the end of KISS. When you pop KISSology Volume 3 in your DVD player you witness that KISS has more life than ever in them even still. Disc one begins with the Eric Singer (their third drummer) phase in their career. KISS had reinvented themselves yet again with the release of Revenge. This first concert (from Detroit 1992) is the video version of their album KISS Alive III. With this new drummer on the stool, the band is hardly recognizable from the band just two short years ago. Eric Singer is a much more dynamic drummer than Eric Carr, and in this show he really shows off his chops. The audio is actually pretty good from this show, although the video often looks a bit too grainy most of the time, especially in the dark scenes. The show lasts just about eighty minutes.

I prefer the featurettes much more than the actual performances on any volume of the KISSology DVDs. Unfortunately, KISSology Vol. 3 only contains one documentary featurette. It is the KISS Unplugged: Behind the Scenes documentary. It’s hard to decide which version I like more, watching this documentary with or without the Commentary from Paul, Gene and Tommy Thayer. Alex Colletti (MTV Unplugged show producer) gives the narration for this featurette, and does a well enough job, but I think I like the commentary much more especially since it deals with the dirty secrets of the unprofessional/diva attitude of both Ace and Peter behind the scenes.

The Behind the Scenes section dissolves into the actual MTV Unplugged performance. The original Unplugged DVD came on the market and almost as quickly as it came, disappeared and became unavailable. KISS couldn’t come to an ultimate agreement with who gets what share of the money, KISS or MTV. After a few years went by, it became available again, but it didn’t contain the documentary the original had. Now here, we have a new and improved documentary and an extended Unplugged performance from KISS. The songs added here that were not officially available before are Hard Luck Woman, Heaven’s On Fire, Spit, Come On and Love Me and God of Thunder. My favorite song that they play is See You Tonite off of Gene’s solo album (one of my favorite KISS albums). Some other highlights are Got To Choose, Every Time I Look At You and Beth, while a song I’ll always skip is the all too self-indulgent I Still Love You.


Here are the contents for Vol. 3 -
Disc Two - Two Hours, Fifty-Seven Minutes

Tiger Stadium (Detroit, Michigan) June 28th, 1996
Deuce
King of the Night Time World
Do You Love Me
Calling Dr. Love
Cold Gin
Christine Sixteen
Love Gun
Shout It Loud
Watchin’ You
Firehouse
Strutter
Shock Me
Rock Bottom
God of Thunder
Let Me Go, Rock ‘N; Roll
100,000 Years
Rock and Roll All Nite

MTV VMA Performance (Brooklyn Bridge, NYC) September 4th, 1996
Rock and Roll All Nite
New York Groove
Deuce
Calling Dr. Love
Love Gun

Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles, California) October 31st, 1998
Part One
Psycho Circus
Shout It Loud
Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll
Shock Me
Do You Love Me
Calling Dr. Love
Firehouse
Cold Gin
Nothin’ To Lose
She
I Was Made For Lovin’ You



Disc Two opens up with the first major venue show of their reunion tour from Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The band were clad in their 1977/1978 costumes (which could be seen on the cover of their Love Gun and Alive II albums. KISS looked like they were back in their heyday, and they sounded like it too. The show was very energetic and they sounded better than ever. Of course, for me – the best part of this show is the Commentary from Paul Gene and Tommy Thayer. As I watch the concert it does become clear to me that KISS is Gene and Paul plus whoever else is in the band. It is definitely a huge event that the original lineup has come together again, but in reality, it really doesn’t matter who else is in KISS as long as Gene and Paul are up there singing their songs. I know that KISS fans would vehemently disagree, but it is the hard truth. The Tiger Stadium show lasts about ninety-five minutes.

It's easy to take for granted that KISS is doing this amazing outdoor show underneath the Brooklyn Bridge on an amazing Summer night as they did at the MTV VMA show. The video here is probably the best out of all three volumes at this show. The band sound awesome (except for Ace Frehley's crappy guitar solos), the constant barrage of fireworks being shot into the sky for five straight minutes worked as the best colorful backdrop for KISS that maybe they ever had. They opened with Rock and Roll All Nite which was going to be aired on MTV. KISS then proceeded to do a mini-concert for the fans of four more songs, in total the show lasted about 21 minutes.

KISS had released their final studio album, Psycho Circus with the original band. They began the tour to support the album with Ace and Peter. It bothers me a bit that the Dodger Stadium concert is divided into two parts, the first half on the end of Disc 2, and the second half on Disc Three. It reminds me of what the old 8 track tape format must have been like back in the early 70s. The Psycho Circus tour was to be the first 3-D Rock Concert, but unfortunately viewing this at home, there's no way to appreciate the effect. The 1976 KISS look was resurrected for this year's new costumes in the same way that the reunion tour, KISS wore their 1977-1978 outfits.


Here are the contents for Vol. 2 -
Disc Three - Two Hours, Forty-Eight Minutes

Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles, California) October 31st, 1998
Part Two
Into the Void
Love Gun
Within’
100,000 Years
King of the Night Time World
God of Thunder
Deuce
Detroit Rock City
Beth
Black Diamond
Rock and Roll All Nite

“Detroit Rock City” Premiere Party (Los Angeles, California) August 9th, 1999
Detroit Rock City
Shout It Out Loud
Cold Gin
Rock and Roll All Nite

The Last KISS – Continental Airlines Arena (East Rutherford, New Jersey) June 27th, 2000
Detroit Rock City
Deuce
Shout It Out Loud
Firehouse
Heaven’s On Fire
Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll
Shock Me
Psycho Circus
God of Thunder
100,000 Years
Love Gun
Black Diamond
Beth
Rock and Roll All Nite


Disc Three opens up with the completion of the Dodger Stadium show. There's not much more to add here, yet I could list some of the highlights from this show's second part. Ace Frehley's Into the Void is included here, only one of many songs accepted by KISS for their Psycho Circus album. Unfortunatley, immediately following his song, he goes into his guitar solo. I have never seen anything quite so embarrassing; this is the worst thing I have ever heard. He just cannot seem to coordinate his left hand and his right hand and Ace can hardly get any clear notes out of his guitar. The only noises worse than Ace’s lousy solo were the cheers from the peanut gallery KISS fans in the audience who couldn't get enough. Within is another song from their last studio album Psycho Circus that was included in this concert. I like when these songs are performed because it's seldom that they make the set list. This second part of the show lasts about 70 minutes.

Representing the year 1999, they have included the bombastic LA premiere party for their new movie Detroit Rock City. The band rips quickly through four of their most recognizable songs from their early career. Despite a microphone mishap for Paul Stanley, the band performed without a hitch. Peter sounded great as always, and even Ace rose to the occasion. This unprecedented Hollywood Movie Premiere Party lasted just a bit over twenty minutes.

For KISS fans, this New Jersey show from 2000, named The Last KISS, looks very familiar. This show was a PPV event for select cable companies, and mostly because it was heavily bootlegged on eBay. The band only did a couple of handfuls of more shows that year with the original lineup before Peter left due to disagreements with his salary. For this show, Paul and Gene are in rare form - the energy from the two hasn't been apparent since maybe 1992 when they toured for Revenge. Peter Criss sounds terrific keep the beat constant and loud and the energy levels high. Ace looks a bit stiff, almost like a statue. More than anything, he seems unhappy and the only one not so happy to be there. The sound from this show is the best from this volume, it sounds like an actual KISS concert instead of the poor smudged carbon copies found on most of these shows. The show is bigger than ever before. Right after their introduction, KISS is lowered from the ceiling while playing Detroit Rock City. The background has TWO huge KISS logos behind them, and there is a bevy of buxom beauties in the front row giving an eyeful of what's underneath their tops from time to time. It's a great way to chronologically end volume three.


Here are the contents for Vol. 2 -
Disc Four - Forty-Three Minutes

Coventry (Queens, NY) December 22nd, 1973
Deuce
Cold Gin
Nothin’ To Lose
Strutter
Firehouse
Let Me Know
100,000 Years
Black Diamond
Let Me Go, Rock and Roll

In an attempt to come off as poetic, KISSology concludes their three volume set with a single DVD chronicling a video of their first full-length show committed to video tape. The video is black and white and the view of the band is from a single camera stationed in the back of the room. KISS had their stuff almost together here at this early show, yet they didn’t have a record deal as of yet. They had a brand new manager, Bill Aucoin, whose idea it was to videotape the band in order to watch the playback in order for self-critique and perfecting their craft. KISS is playing The Coventry here in Queens NY, and it’s a small place with a small stage. I thought it was great to see Gene Simmons get on is knees in order to breathe fire due to the very low ceiling. The video ends in just under forty-five minutes.


Commentary
Commentary from Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley is toted here as a bonus feature on KISSology. The two discuss in even more depth than they had on KISSology 2. For this volume, the commentary is pretty much the most entertaining aspect since there is very little footage outside the concerts. The commentary is like an expose` into the struggles to keep it together behind the scenes. Ace and Peter seemed to alternate their personal screw-ups sort of like a tag team against the KISS machine in order to create a tense misery for Paul and Gene. It’s a good thing that money was coming in the way it was for the duo, because dealing with immature drug addicts is hardly worth the time.

Easter Eggs:
On the first disc, highlight the word KISSOLOGY on the menu and you will get an awesome five minute featurette chronicling the three months of recording the most forgotten KISS album Carnival of Souls. The album’s music exhibits a new reinvented KISS which embraces the grunge music scene. This is maybe the best Easter Egg on any of the KISSology’s.
On the second disc, when you highlight that same word you get a very rare sneak peak of a soundcheck for the MTV VMA performance. It’s a notable addition since it’s one of the very few times you will see the original line up perform without make-up.
On the third disc, the Easter Egg is accessed the same way, and we see is a snippet from the millennium concert in Vancouver BC, Canada on December 31st, 1999. The band tears through an awful version of The Rolling Stones 2,000 Man. The whole excerpt lasts about seven minutes.
Disc Four contains no Easter Eggs.

Bonus Disc
There were three different versions of the DVD box set released. They differ only within the bonus DVD included. The version I have is the one with the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater (Irvine, California) show. The show is the very first reunion show. I’m not sure if this is a complete show, there are only ten songs and it lasts only a fraction under an hour. Before this DVD, I have never seen this show anywhere. The band sounds a bit rough around the edges, we hear Peter missing beats, Ace losing his place and the background vocals are just a mess for the most part. Yet the band looks great, healthy and anxious to give the fans a great show, and that’s just what they got. By the time I finished watching this show; I think I could tell the difference between drunk Ace and sober Ace. Here at the KRQQ Weenie Roast, he is definitely sober.

This DVD Box Set also comes with a 18-page color booklet filled with pictures and quotes taken directly from the commentary. There are no little memorabilia extras that were included in the first two volumes.

I think that this volume could have been better. There are plenty of things that could have been included on this volume. KISS were touring everywhere, and one thing that they never failed to do is show up somewhere and do promotion for KISS. I had a couple of hours on video of KISS showing up on TV from 1996 and on promoting themselves. Some glaring omissions include:
The Intrepid Press Conference officially announcing the reunion tour
KISS on MAD TV
Promotional Videos for Psycho Circus, Every Time I Look At You and so on.
Aside from that, it does keep my interest, yet I am not as entertained as I was with the first two volumes. Although, I’m sure there are KISS fans out there who appreciate the concert footage more than the public appearances and documentary featurettes.