This past February, Kiss toured Australia for the first time in fifteen years. In conjunction with the five concerts that they performed over there, they held a "Kiss Convention" in each city the night before. On June 17th, in Los Angeles, CA, Kiss launched a North American tour of these conventions. The final stop on that tour was in Pittsburgh, PA on August 1st, at the Monroeville Expo-Mart. On July 31st, I left Baltimore, MD and made the 240 mile drive out to Pittsburgh (and met up with another fan who drove from Columbus, OH, almost the same distance in the other direction). The following day's event, attended by about 700 people altogether, was well worth the drive and the $100.00 price of admission.
August 1, 1995: Monroeville, PA
10:00 - We leave the hotel and walk across the parking lot to the Expo Mart entrance where we join about 20 or so fans who are already waiting in line (the people at the front tell us that they have been camped out since midnight). We hang out and talk to Kiss fans from all over Pennsylvania, as well as ones from Delaware, Ohio and Maryland.
11:00 - The outer doors of the Expo Mart are opened and the line is moved inside of the building to the exhibition hall entrance.
11:30 - Convention officials begin to move down the line, verifying names and handing out passes. Instead of tickets, all of those individuals who paid their $100.00 admission are given laminated passes, similar to a backstage pass one would wear at a regular concert. This made it easy for those in attendance to freely move in and out of the hall during the course of the day.
12:05 - At just a few minutes past noon, the hall is opened and the fans are let inside. Along the far wall of the room, a stage has been set up, complete with Eric's drum kit. Behind the stage is hanging a monstorous banner: "'95-'96 Worldwide KISS Conventions". The stage is flanked by two huge screens which are projecting a montage of photos of the band. A constant mix of Kiss tunes (both originals and covers) is playing over the P.A. system. The majority of the hall is devoted to a large, open area in front of the stage. Along the perimeter of this area, a makeshift wall has been errected; on the other side of this partition are the various exhibits which comprise the "Kiss Museum." The majority of the displays are costumes which the band members have worn over the years. These were displayed on mannequins made up to resemble whoever wore that particular outfit. With the exception of a few items from the Asylum tour, the costumes on display are from the period between 1974 and 1980. Included in this exhibit was the costume designed for Eric's "hawk" character (displayed on a mmannequinwith its face painted with the hawk makeup design seen in Kisstory). Its easy to see why this costume was never used - Eric would have been covered from his neck to his waist in yellow feathers. He would have looked more like Big Bird than anything else. Other exhibits consisted of instruments, makeup kits and some of the original artwork for several album covers. One display consisted of a collection of rock magazines from around the world which featured Kiss on the cover. Yet another display was of various photos from some of the members' pre-Kiss bands and old posters from early Kiss gigs. In addition, the back wall of the hall was lined with several tables behind which various dealers were selling any and all kinds of Kiss merchandise and memorabilia.
1:30 - Convention coordinator Tommy Thayer, along with Spiro Popadopolous, hold a Kiss trivia contest from the stage. The questions range from relatively straightforward ("Where was Gene born?") to more difficult ("Name the venue and city at which Ace was electrocuted on stage"). Prizes for those who knew their Kiss trivia included vinyl albums, posters, t-shirts and autographed photos (this fan scored a Smashes Thrashes & Hits album as well as a promo picture signed by all 4 members).
2:00 - Eric Singer comes on stage to begin his drum clinic. By this point a number of fans are literally camped out in front of the stage. Everyone is seated and a good deal of them are looking quite comfortable - feet stretched out and heads propped up (some even brought pillows). After talking to the crowd for several minutes, Eric climbs behind his kit and plays along to a medley of one-minute snippets of various Kiss tunes. Following that, he comes back to the front of the stage where he proceeds to answer drum-related questions for the next half-hour or so. He then proceeds to give away a number of "door prizes" (mostly drumsticks) to various fans. He randomly picks numbers out of his head and whoever has that number on the back of their convention pass wins the prize. Finally, he gets back behind his drums for one more number. This time, he plays along with a song called "Jam 747" which is a tune that Bruce had recorded with his old band, The Good Rats.
3:15 - Eric thanks the crowd and then introduces Bruce, who comes up to do his clinic. After a few opening remarks, he plays his song from the "Guitar For the Practicing Musician" compilation, which is entitled "Zeptune." The basic track is played on tape and he solos over it. Then, he proceeds to take about 30 minutes answering questions on both the band and on his technique. On request, he does several solos from various Kiss songs. With regards to band-oriented questions, one fan asked about Mark St. John and the Animalize tour. Bruce states that Mark played live with the band on only two occasions: in Baltimore, MD (where Bruce played the first half of the show and Mark played the second) and Poughkipsie, NY (where Mark "did a few songs"). He goes on to say that they got along very well and that, while he really wanted the gig with the band, he never felt any ill-will towards Mark. In response to another question, Bruce says that he alone wrote the solo to "Unholy" without any help from Vinnie Vincent (as Vinnie apparently claimed at a recent (unofficial) convention). Then, after handing out his share of door prizes, Bruce closes his clinic with a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner and then goes into several minutes of semi-improvisational soloing (which, overall, had a very Hendrix-ish feel to it). The most pleasant surprise of Bruce's clinic was his interaction with the crowd. In interviews, Bruce is usually the quiet one, but during the hour or so he spent on the convention stage, he was very talkative and seemed very excited about what he was doing.
4:20 - Bruce leaves the stage and various videos and interviews are shown on the screens while the crew does some technical work on the stage.
5:00 - The Kiss tribute band "Alive" comes on stage and plays a 30 to 40 minute set of songs from the 1973-77 era. In this fan's opinion, this set was about 25 to 35 minutes too long. Although the guy playing Gene did an excellent job of mimicking the real thing, this was basically four guys trying to do note-for-note copies of songs off of Alive! and Alive II, which was really unexciting - definitely the low point of the convention (it would have been better to fill this time with live videos of the real thing). A few fans got into it, but the majority of the people who had been camped out in front of the stage during the clinics used this time to go stretch their legs.
6:00 - Gene, Bruce, Paul and Eric walk on to the stage, and each takes a seat in front of a microphone. For well over an hour and a half, two girls armed with wireless microphones make their way through the crowd giving the assembled fans a chance to speak to the band. Although this was billed as a "Question and Answer" session, a majority of the time was spent with fans heaping such adulations on the band such as "you guys are gods," or "you guys have been a huge part of my life for the past 20 years." A couple of fans read poems that they had composed or gave presents to the band. One of the more interesting events during the Q & A session was a girl who asked if the band could call up her mother (who was apparently a Kiss fan) and wish her a happy birthday. Someone lent Paul their cellular phone and he did call her up; all four members briefly spoke to this woman, and then Gene led the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday" to her over the phone. Another fan mentioned that she almost did not make it because she had a problem finding a sitter for her three children. Paul asked her why she did not bring them, and she replied that she did not have an extra $300.00 to throw around. Paul looked genuinely surprised that the fans were asked to pay admission price for their small children. He then apologized and told those in attendance who had brought their kids (and there were several running around who looked to be less than 10 years old) that they would give them back the money they paid for their children. In terms of actual questions, there was not much asked that was not already general knowledge to most Kiss fans. One interesting question had to do with the existence of a script for "The Elder" and whether or not it would ever see the light of day. Gene responded that an actual script does exist, but the fans will probably never see it because the band does not own the rights to it. Kiss also spoke with some of the young fans in attendance. One six-year old (sporting his Crazy Nights t-shirt) asked the band if they would play "their bestest song," to which Gene replied "of course." Paul asked another six-year old fan what his favourite Kiss song was. He emphatically responded "Rocket Ride," which met with a roar of applause from the audience (and a round of laughter from the band).
7:45 - The band leaves the stage and takes a 15 minute break. They then come back out, armed with their instruments and proceed into the unplugged portion of the event. They open up with "Comin' Home," which was the standard opener throughout the convention tour, and then proceed into Plaster Caster. For close to two and a half hours the band played a number of pre-selected songs as well as audience requests. Overall, Kiss took a very laid-back approach to the whole thing - they all seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. A number of times Gene or Paul would start a song, often at the request of a fan, that the others just didn't know. Usually they would get about halfway through these songs before deciding it was a lost cause. For several of these ("Charisma," "All The Way," "Rock and Roll Hell") the band chose to let the audience sing the words while they tried to remember exactly how to play them. One such experiment was with "Shock Me;" they got through the second verse and then simply gave up trying to figure out how it went. Some of the more interesting songs played this evening included "Mr. Speed," "Let's Put the X in Sex," "Shandi," and a country/western version of "God of Thunder" (during which Gene sang some interesting lyrics about farm animals). In addition, Eric was given the chance to show off his vocal talents by singing lead on "Black Diamond" and "Nothin' to Lose." After about two hours, Paul told the crowd that is was their turn to sing, and two of the convention aids came back into the crowd with microphones. After several attempts by people to hit the intro to "Heaven's On Fire" (some were good, some weren't) one fan nailed it perfectly, at which point the band jumped in. Several of the fans were given the opportunity to sing lead on the song. Audience members were also given the opportunity to sing "Cold Gin" and "Lick it Up." Finally, Gene, Paul and Bruce all stood up and Gene told the crowd that they had to stand up as well for this final song of the night (and of the tour). With that, Kiss launched into a pumped-up version of "Rock and Roll All Nite."
10:30 - After a brief break, Paul and Bruce head over to one side of the room while Gene and Eric proceed to the other. For the next hour and a half, the band members sign autographs, pose for pictures and talk to their fans. This last portion of the event was pretty much unorganized. The band stood behind a makeshift, waist-high barrier and the fans were basically left to their own devices to reach them. The end result was a small mob on either side of the room. However, unlike at some of the convention stops, the fans in Pittsburgh were, overall, a pretty patient bunch. Everyone waited until they got in close enough to get their items to the band members, had them signed, and then moved out of the way to let someone else to the front of the group. It did not seem that there was anyone in attendance who was not able to get at least one autograph from every member of the band (again, there were fans at some of the other conventions who were not able to do so for one reason or another). By the time that the end drew near, fans were on their way out the door with their autographed albums, photos, lunchboxes, guitars and assorted other paraphanalia (one fan even got each of the members to put his signature on a baseball). Even so, several of the convention assistants waited by the doorway with autographed photos for anyone who was not able to obtain autographs on their own.
12:00 - At midnight, Tommy announced that the convention was over and that it was time for the band to leave. Gene, Paul, Bruce and Eric stopped signing autographs, said their farewells and departed the convention hall.
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Some final thoughts - Overall, this day was an incredible experience. It was not merely a concert, nor was it simply fuel for the egos of four, famous musicians. The feeling one got at the end of that day was that membership in the club known as Kiss was not limited to nine individuals, but rather to thousands. Although Gene, Paul, Eric and Bruce were the ones on the stage, they did not place themselves on a pedestal. This day belonged to the seven hundred people gathered around the stage as much as it did to those four. Everyone who was there was taking part in a celebration of the music and magic that is Kiss. And it was that magic that transformed a room of seven hundred strangers into the biggest family reunion on the planet.
Finally, there are a couple of points which need to be addressed concerning the convention and the way in which it was set up. First of all, the band seems to have done a little rewriting of Kisstory in that there was not one single mention / image of Vinnie Vincent to be found anywhere. Regardless of their personal feelings towards him Gene and Paul need to owe up to the fact that he was a member of the band for a period of time and that he did make a valuable contribution to the music that the band created in 1982 and 1983. Second, that the overall focus of the exhibits and displays was on the band's first decade - there were very few items from the post-makeup era on display and there was no video footage shown that was more recent than 1981. Granted, the 1970's were the time during which the band was at the height of their popularity, however, the fact that they experienced a number of "lean years," and are still alive and kicking (when many bands would have simply thrown in the towel) is as much a testament to their strength and their spirit as was what, for a time, made them the hottest band in the world.
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