Kiss - End of the Road Tour - 1013 Music Reviews

Kiss presents the End of the Road Tour.

We decided to go to Minneapolis – Sioux Falls and Omaha for starters.

Spoiler alert – if you do not want to know anything about the show DO NOT READ FORWARD.

Kiss announced last year that this would be The End of the Road Tour. It will be lasting 3 years, so if you like me and like to road trip there will be multiple times to see this tour. I have seen Kiss over 35 times dating back to 1979 when I was 10 years old. I have found joy in every tour I have seen. They are a huge part of my life, from the music to the collecting and memories. I have followed a lot of their advice through out the years and one being them telling you, You can do anything, just apply yourself. This attitude has been installed in my since I was young.

First off have fun with the show. Go early, hang out, have drinks, see friends, catch the vibe. Their may never be bands like this ever again. I love going and hanging before hand and meeting with friends sharing stories about other Kiss shows. Just go to the show and enjoy.

Let’s start with the stage show. The stage show is always one of the best parts of a Kiss show. They come down from the top of the stage on these octagons. There are several on the stage that are all screens. They change completely throughout the show. During God of Thunder they all become Gene’s face singing at you, very cool effect. The pyro and explosions are non stop. Almost every song has something different. Eric’s drums are up on a riser that goes up into the air right in front of a massive flame throwing machine. The flames come sideways, horizontal and vertical, they go everywhere. One of the best site’s on the stage is Sam the Serpent is back!!! This was a huge surprise when I saw this.I had no idea until the stage curtain came down. All the regular effects are still there Gene blood spitting and fire breathing, guitar and drum solo’s, paul flying, it’s all there. The stage and show is a massive celebration of Kiss. This is one of the best Kiss shows I have ever seen. I must admit the last tours were fun but they got pretty the same video screens, same type of stage and same set list. I was very skeptical about what they were gonna bring this time around. The set has to be the same each night due to the mighty amount of things going on. Most change you will get is maybe a setlist change but time will only tell on that one.

So let’s hit up the set list. When we went on the Kruise last October we got a small preview of what the setlist will be. It is the perfect set list for a Kiss greatest hits show. Those of you looking for deep tracks sorry to say there are none. It really bums me out that they did not do any. With that said you get every Kiss song you know by heart. In the beginning of the tour they had Hide Your Heart toward the end of the show. They did drop it for Dr Love about half way through the tour. No complaints here, Dr Love is the stronger song. Enjoy every minute of the songs cause this maybe the last time you see they live.

The band. Well the big debate is Paul is lip syncing. I went to three shows, one in the 9th row and one in the 3rd row. I could see no sign of it. And really I don’t care if they are using some track to fill in. It was such a good show. Eric and Tommy are at the top of their game. Gene is doing some stuff I have never seen him do before on stage. Plus the over all chemistry of the band is on fire. I saw paul flicking Gene’s tongue, pretending to wipe his make up off, all sorts of goofing around. Plus during 100,000 years they do a little jam time thing during the break down. I’ve seen them do covers but never do little jams and play off each other. They seem to be just enjoying the ride.

Some advice. I have critiqued way to many shows for a long time. About 5 years ago I got tired of doing it and decided I’m just gonna enjoy each show cause you never know how long it will last. So thankful they are still on tour and have brought one of the best stage shows ever to us in 2019. I saw the show three times in 5 days and can not wait to see it again in Des Monies September 3rd.

I also want to thank all the Three Sides of the Coin listeners that saw Tommy Sommers and said hi. They all knew who I was when he introduced me. It was so fun to talk Kiss with all of you. If you have never listened tot he podcast it is on most streaming services. If you can not find it click HERE Youtube is a great way to watch the podcast.

Thank you Paul, Peter, Ace, Gene, Bruce, Tommy, Eric Carr, Eric Singer, Vinnie Vincent and Mark St John. I wanted the best, I got the best!!!

Review and photos by Kyle Hansen

Minneapolis Gallery