KISS, a band that needs no introduction—and
my favorite band of all-time—have just released the second volume of their Off the Soundboard series dedicated to
putting out authorized bootleg concerts in their entirety from various eras of
the band’s storied career. This time around, we go back to July 25, 2004 in
Virginia Beach for their Rock the Nation Tour. The first official live bootleg
KISS release, Off the Soundboard: Tokyo
2001, which I’ve reviewed here, was phenomenal and one of the band’s best
live releases ever. It even wound up in my top five albums of 2021. This one isn’t
as outstanding, but it’s still very much a worthwhile release.
Off
the Soundboard: Virginia Beach 2004 consists of KISS’s current lineup
of Paul Stanley on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Gene Simmons on bass and lead
vocals, Tommy Thayer on lead guitar and vocals, and Eric Singer on drums and
vocals. This lineup has been together for nearly twenty years at this point and
they form a very cohesive unit. To all the disgruntled KISS fans out there
still moaning about Ace and Peter being gone and that it’s not KISS without
them, give it a rest already; this is the longest running lineup the band has
had. I love Ace to death, but Tommy does a great job on guitars and is a hell of
a nice guy. But I digress. Back to the review. This show served as the basis for
one of the two concerts filmed/recorded for KISS’s Rock the Nation Live! DVD from 2005. The DVD showcased footage from
the Virginia Beach set as well as the Washington, DC concert. If you’re
wondering what differs in the setlist from the DVD versus the Soundboard CDs/vinyl,
only two songs have been swapped. On the DVD you have “Love Her All I Can” and “Parasite”
which have made way for “King of the Night Time World” and “Psycho Circus” on
this release. “King” is one of my personal favorites so I’m thrilled to have it
here, while I miss not having “Love Her All I Can” which the band doesn’t
perform that often live. The order of the setlist differs slightly between the Soundboard
release and the DVD from 2005. The setlist is as follows:
Disk 1:
1. Love Gun
2. Deuce
3. Makin’ Love
4. Lick It Up
5. Christine Sixteen
6. Tears Are Falling
7. She
8. Got to Choose
9. I Love It Loud
10. I Want You
Disk 2:
1. Psycho Circus
2. King of the Night Time
World
3. War Machine
4. 100,000 Years
5. Unholy
6. Shout It Out Loud
7. I Was Made for Lovin’ You
8. Detroit Rock City
9. God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll to
You II
10. Rock and Roll All Nite
I won’t do a track by track
rundown, I’ll just give you my overall impressions. Right off the bat, you can
tell Paul’s voice is strained and raspy but he manages to pull it off and he
actually does sound better as the show progresses. The vocals are in the front
of the mix and the crowd noise doesn’t sound as present as on Tokyo 2001. The instruments sound crisp
and clear, and it rarely feels like anyone is getting buried in the mix. The song
selection is pretty great and covers all eras—happy to hear some tracks off of Revenge with “Unholy” and “God Gave Rock
‘N’ Roll to You.” In the end, it does look a lot like the kind of setlist that’s
currently being played during their End of the Road Tour, but KISS is known to
have become creatures of habit in their latter days in terms of shaking things
up and they do prefer to stick to a winning formula of hits the fans love
spanning four decades of music. I’m not complaining, I think this is a terrific
show that paints a pretty accurate snapshot of what it was like to be at a KISS
concert eighteen years ago, warts and all. That’s the beauty of these
Soundboard releases: they sound genuine and raw, not re-recorded and polished to
perfection in the studio. At an hour and forty-nine minutes long, it’s twenty
minutes shorter than Tokyo 2001 with only one song less. I actually appreciate
the fact that there aren’t as many lengthy solos on this release.
Bottom line, if you’re a KISS
fan, you know you need to have this CD/vinyl set. Sure, the packaging may be
lacking, but it’s a good replica of what a bootleg live album should look like.
I do hope that KISS ventures into other unreleased eras of the band for this Off the Soundboard series and that they
won’t go to the Alive 35 Tour of 2008 next or subsequent tours as their next
picks. Give us the 1980 New Zealand from the Unmasked Tour. Or something from
the excellent ‘80s lineup of Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr. Or the awesome Psycho
Circus Halloween show of 1998 at Dodger Stadium with Ace and Peter. I’ll be
writing an article about my favorite KISS live bootlegs soon where I’ll discuss
my wish list of concerts I’d love to see released for this series. In the
meantime, until the next volume—in nine months time perhaps—the Virginia Beach
2004 show remains an amazing concert, whether you’re a die-hard KISS fan or
were born on the other side of the 21st century and have only just
begun enjoying what this awesome band has to offer. After all, the best way to
experience KISS is live!
Visit KISS’s Off the Soundboard Shop
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