Last night in Montreal at the
Bell Centre, the curtain came down after my favourite band of all-time took a
bow. It’s over. KISS is finally riding into the sunset after 50 years of
delivering magical moments, phenomenal music, lengthy tours, roster changes, and
going through ups and downs that add up to a music career that is legendary. Love
‘em or hate ‘em, but you gotta respect the body of work this band has done and
the level of success they’ve achieved.
After waiting in line for about
45 minutes at the merch booth with hundreds of people to buy expensive
souvenirs—an awesome T-shirt and the gorgeous program which I highly recommend
purchasing as its chock-full of oversized photos and thicker than any concert
program I’ve ever seen—I went to my seat, halfway through the opening act, a Canadian
duo by the name of Crown Lands from Oshawa, Ontario that sounds eerily like
Rush. KISS took the stage with the bombastic “Detroit Rock City” before moving
on to fan-favourites “Shout It Out Loud” and “Deuce.” Paul told us that it was
the 14th time that KISS was making a stop in Montreal since the
first time they came here, back in 1976, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve seen them
five of those times, as early as 1996 for the reunion tour. I skipped them the
last time they were here for the first leg of the 2019 End of the Road Tour and
regretted it a bit afterwards so I was glad they were returning one final time.
Paul’s voice sounded much better than I’d heard back in 2019. I’m not gonna get into the lip-synching debate; if he did so for certain tunes, I didn’t see or
hear it, it all looked kosher to me. And even if he had for a few parts, I
absolutely do not give a shit! It’s insane the amount of energy these guys have
to put on a two hour and ten-minute show night after night amidst explosions,
flames that are literally hotter than hell as I could feel the heat from my
seat which was ways from the stage, loud music, even louder crowds, all that
while having fifty pounds of gear on and wearing platform shoes. Kudos to them
for doing it for so long, especially at their age.
The setlist was a by-the-numbers
affair which I no longer blame them for; I get it, they have to play their
biggest hits to please the fans and for the newer fans who are seeing them for
the first time. It was almost the same 20 songs as during their 2019 tour, save
for switching the order around of a few songs and replacing “Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’
Roll” and “Crazy Crazy Nights” with “Makin’ Love” and “Do You Love Me” this
time around, much to my satisfaction as I prefer these two songs to the two
others. Paul came out to see us as usual for a few songs (“Love Gun”, “Do You
Love Me”, and “Black Diamond”), singing from his starred platform which
happened to be aligned with where I was sitting, to my delight. For the encore,
a piano emerged from under the stage out of the darkness with Eric Singer at
the keys to sing a heartfelt rendition of “Beth.” The boys followed it up with
their biggest worldwide hit, a song that the KISS Army in general hated back in
the day during its initial release in 1979, blaming KISS for having sold-out
and gone disco (how dare they!), “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” Personally, I’ve
always loved this song since the first time I heard it back in the ‘80s and am
always happy to hear it played live as it sounds crunchier than the studio
version. Then they unleashed the confetti and broke into the overplayed “Rock
and Roll All Nite” which for once I was happy to hear because it was bittersweet:
The show was sadly coming to an end. KISS will never play in my hometown again.
On a personal level, this was also my last big rock show in Montreal as I’m
moving to Quebec City on March 1st, after spending all my 49 years
here, so it was kind of a double farewell.
Setlist
1. Detroit Rock City
2. Shout It Out Loud
3. Deuce
4. War Machine
5. Heaven's on Fire
6. I Love It Loud
7. Say Yeah
8. Cold Gin
9. Lick It Up
10. Calling Dr. Love
11. Makin' Love
12. Psycho Circus
13. 100,000 Years
14. God of Thunder
15. Love Gun
16. Do You Love Me
17. Black Diamond
18. Beth
19. I Was Made for Lovin' You
20. Rock and Roll All Nite
For those of you who haven’t seen
KISS on this final tour, there is still time: there are nine shows left,
including the final show in New York in 13 days which will be broadcast live on
Pay-Per-View on Saturday, December 2nd at 8 PM. I’ll be purchasing
that PPV to see them front row, live in my living room for a final time. I’m
hoping for a few surprises—no, not an appearance from Ace and/or Peter, that is
not gonna happen—but rather hoping they’ll play a couple of gems they haven’t
performed in ages like “Love Her All I Can”, “Room Service” or “I Just Wanna.”
In any case, I’m sure it’ll be a blast to see them perform live at their final
concert. I know I will tear up at the end, I was already feeling it coming last
night at the show (and even while writing this lengthy article!).
They don’t call them the hottest
band in the world for nothing. I’ve seen all the big rock bands in my time and
to me, no one does it like KISS. Thank you, Paul, Gene, Eric, and Tommy for all
the awesome music. Thank you to past members like Ace, Peter, Eric Carr, Bruce
Kulick (and even Vinnie Vincent) for their invaluable contributions to KISStory.
Thank you, Star Child, Demon, Spaceman, and Catman for providing the soundtrack
to my life. Thank you for all the memories. No other band has ever been and
will ever be as special as KISS in my eyes. Long live KISS!
* All photos of the show taken by
yours truly
Visit KISS Online: https://www.kissonline.com/
Watch KISS’s Final Concert on PPV: https://www.ppv.com/events/kiss-live
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