Musings: KISS - Off the Soundboard: Poughkeepsie, NY 1984

KISS returns with the 5^th entry in their fantastic Off the Soundboard series, this time Live in Poughkeepsie, NY 1984 for the Animalize Tour. What’s special about this show is that it’s the only known soundboard recording featuring guitarist Mark St. John who only played with the band on one album, Animalize, and only played a handful of shows with them. The rest of the lineup comprises Paul Stanley on vocals/guitar, Gene Simmons on bass/vocals, and the late, great Eric Carr on drums/vocals—who also happens to be my favourite KISS drummer. The show runs an hour and twenty minutes and features 18 songs.

Here is the setlist:

1. Detroit Rock City

2. Cold Gin

3. Creatures of the Night

4. Fits Like a Glove

5. Heaven's on Fire

6. Guitar Solo

7. Under the Gun

8. War Machine

9. Drum Solo

10. Young and Wasted (Incomplete)

11. Bass Solo

12. I Love It Loud

13. I Still Love You

14. Love Gun

15. Black Diamond

16. Oh! Susanna

17. Lick It Up

18. Rock and Roll All Nite (Incomplete)

As readers of this blog know by now, KISS is my favourite band of all-time. Nevertheless, to me this is the release we didn’t ask for. Of all the shows they’ve done over the past five decades, surely, Gene and Paul could’ve picked something fans wanted more. Maybe it’s because it’s from a tour for one of the albums I like the least in KISS’s catalogue, but I really didn’t care to have a show featuring Mark St. John on guitar. If you were gonna put out a performance from the Animalize tour, at least give us one with the great Bruce Kulick on guitar! The good thing is we finally get a live release with Eric Carr on drums. Anyway, it’s KISS and I needed to add this volume of the Off the Soundboard series to my collection, so I picked it up. I put on my headphones, hit the play button, and I was still very excited to listen to it, having just gotten back from the mall to purchase the CD in a record store, something I only do about a couple of times a year—whenever KISS releases a new OTS record actually. Colour me surprised, it exceeded my expectations and I had a real good time with it.

KISS in the mid-eighties played their songs live much faster, so it’s interesting to have these versions of classics from the makeup era. Highlights of the record for me include an energetic version of “Detroit Rock City”, a stellar rendition of “Cold Gin”, the headbanger “Fits Like a Glove”, a solid performance of “I Love It Loud”, the superb “I Still Love You”, a kick-ass “Love Gun”, and a phenomenal interpretation of “Black Diamond” with Carr on vocals. As noted above, two tracks are incomplete: “Young and Wasted”, unfortunately, with Carr on vocals, cutting off at the beginning and resuming just before the guitar solo, and “Rock and Roll All Nite” which fades out, missing only about its last minute or so, and truth be told, we’ve all heard that song a zillion times, so it’s really no biggie. All in all, it’s a good set and I was a little surprised that they decided to play more songs from their previous album, Lick it Up (“Fits Like a Glove”, “Young and Wasted, “Lick it Up”) than their current touring album, Animalize (“Heaven’s on Fire”, “Under the Gun”). Maybe they knew from the get-go that it wasn’t as strong an album as Lick it Up. In any case, we get four songs from Creatures of the Night and five tracks from the makeup era, which is easily their most beloved period. It makes for a diverse setlist spanning their first decade. It’s crazy to look back on it now and realize that KISS was still very much only at the beginning of the road back in 1984.

Eric Carr, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Mark St. John

Off the Soundboard: Live in Poughkeepsie, NY 1984 has a clear sound overall, feels raw as a soundboard release should, and delivers what a fan of that era of KISS would want. I’m happier about owning it than I initially thought I would be. In spite of that, for the casual KISS fan, I’d recommend any of the other four OTS releases over this one. If I were to rank them, I’d put Des Moines 1977 at the top of the list, followed by Tokyo 2001, Donington 1996, and Virginia Beach 2004. I’m afraid this one is for completists only. I look forward to the next one; I’d love an official release of the final night from their New Zealand 1980 Unmasked Tour with Ace on guitar and Carr on drums.

KISS Online: https://www.kissonline.com/welcome