KISS mania, delirium, ecstasy, heavens in flames, and debauchery at the rock ‘n’ roll mega-orgy in Zagreb (2022)

Venue: Zagreb / Arena / Croatia
Concert date: Saturday, July 9, 2022

---

Kiss are a phenomenon unlike anything else in the rock ‘n’ roll universe. In fact, it’s fair to say they occupy a completely unique spot on the vast rock map of the galaxy — nothing even comes close. Especially when you factor in everything that surrounds their musical output. The band has by now become legendary several times over, and the funny thing is that they’ve been saying their goodbyes to the stage for the past decade. Every tour comes with proclamations that it’s the last. And so here we are — having gone from the band’s 40th anniversary to a tour marking their 50th, titled “End of the Road,” with Kiss still waving farewell. Who knows? Maybe this really is it, maybe not. Their last studio album came out ten years ago, which means creatively the band is well and truly retired — but on the other hand, it’s hard to walk away from the thrill of performing live, and from all the perks, rituals, and habits that fill a rock star’s daily backstage existence. Once you get used to that kind of indulgence, it’s awfully hard to give up.  

If you’ve never been to a Kiss concert, one thing you can say with absolute certainty is that they’re worth seeing live at least once in your life — even if you don’t count yourself among the global army of die-hard fans. A back catalogue with millions upon millions of albums sold speaks for itself, and it remains hugely inspiring to this day. Timeless.

This was Kiss’s first trip to Croatia. The Arena was far from packed this time around — barely more than half full, and you could still buy tickets in every category on the day of the show. Interesting. You’d have expected a bigger turnout.

Anyway. We skipped the support act as a matter of routine — in fact, we were so casual about it that we didn’t even bother finding out their name. All we were there for was the two-hour Kiss spectacle. The setlist didn’t hold many surprises — the one standout was perhaps the return of the excellent Animalize track Heaven’s On Fire — but otherwise the quartet ran through their pretty standard collection of career singles and hits. The thing about Kiss is that at their concerts, the music is actually overshadowed by everything else that goes into their stage presentation. From the band’s costumes — starting with their signature face paint and Gene’s infamous tongue — and that’s before we even get to the rest. Though we have to. Because Kiss are one of those outfits that has most thoroughly studied every possible angle of effective marketing, as already underlined by four colossal band-member figures flanking the stage left and right — looking like giant stone monuments — before the main curtain had even gone up. After a pre-recorded intro cut to half its length, there was a massive bang, the black drape dropped, and The Demon, The Spaceman, The Starchild, and The Catman descended from on high, each on their own platform, zip-lining down to the stage. The stage instantly erupted in flames. Alongside a volley of detonations there was no shortage of smoke screens and crackling sparks. The stage was absolutely enormous. If you were standing even ten metres from it, the whole thing genuinely wouldn’t fit in your field of vision. Every time you thought you’d seen everything up there, a fresh look always revealed some new detail. Kiss are a machine that’s been oiled to absolute perfection. What is it that Kiss don’t have that other major rock and metal acts do? If anything, Kiss have more — or they deliberately crank every idea previously used by other artists up an extra notch. Which is entirely welcome, because Kiss are that notorious rock and glam metal act of shameless excess and shock therapy, and that’s what has always drawn wave after wave of new fans.

Gene Simmons will turn 73 at the end of August this year, while Paul Stanley joined the seventy-year-olds’ club back in January. The two founding members are extraordinary. Gene’s extra pounds are fairly well hidden under the colossal armor he wears during performances, while Stanley, well into his seventies, still maintains incredible stage agility, energy, and playfulness. He’s everywhere at once — darting left and right without ever pausing for breath. Vocally he’s still perfectly solid, even if he’s lost a bit of his edge over the years. Kiss use fully pre-recorded backing vocals throughout, and Gene’s bass was also looking suspiciously pre-taped on more than one occasion — right from the opening Thin Lizzy-esque Detroit Rock City, his right hand was nowhere near in sync. The flint-tongued bad-ass thunder-lord is kitted out on stage with black towels (to hide all the grime he wipes off), which he constantly uses to mop his sweat — and if you’re the lucky type, Gene might just fling a sopping rag straight at you. The man was visibly suffering under the battalion of spotlights, also constantly dousing himself with water. Everywhere. Including over the bass guitar. And he made a point of thoroughly soaking the crowd too. Simmons, Thayer, and Singer each get a solo spot, during which they’re raised on separate additional platforms — zip-lined up to just below the lights. Simmons compensates for his limited bass playing ability — alongside the face paint — with his massive tongue alone. That’s his sacrifice for the eternal fame he’s achieved with Kiss! And when he’s suspended high above the stage during his solo, bathed in green light, he bites into a sachet of red gelatine for an effect that looks like he’s spitting blood. Nobody’s watching his fingers. For his solo he plays the famous axe-shaped bass guitar. Thayer’s solo, meanwhile, is accompanied by a barrage of detonations.  It goes without saying that the stage looks like hell. It goes without saying that the interplay of spotlight beams is one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable, and magnificent. Honed to perfection — laser beams included.  Stanley remains the band’s extraordinary driving force. During Love Gun he zip-lined from the main stage to a smaller additional stage set up in the standing area, where he held court all on his own. He stayed there for the obligatory I Was Made For Lovin’ You as well, then after the final chorus got back onto the vehicle that carried him along the same zip-line cable back to the main stage.

In the grand finale, packed with pyrotechnic effects, Stanley theatrically smashed his Black Diamond Ibanez guitar. Now multiply that by every show on the current Kiss world tour and you’ll have the total number of badly battered Stanley guitars. But no — Kiss are such a money-making machine that this kind of theater only adds to their bottom line. Further proof that the band never has to worry about their wallet for even a second is the flood of guitar picks the band members toss into the crowd throughout the show. During Do You Love Me there’s fun with enormous balloons, and the closing Rock And Roll All Nite comes with a blizzard of confetti.

The band keeps its crowd patter minimal but punchy. They don’t say much, but what they do say comes in short, sharp slogans that feel pretty populist. And it works. They shamelessly wield their on-stage roguishness and take endless pleasure in winding the crowd up. Two hours of incredible spectacle where you can barely find a second to breathe. So much happens — not in terms of the playing itself, but in terms of the sheer show excess of the restless stage backdrop and scenery. There was enough fire, steam, smoke, and crackling sparks to export.

As for the setlist, the band did a solid job of picking from across their entire twenty-album studio discography — though you’d have wished for a few more songs, especially from the non-make-up era. The excellent Hot In the Shade album was completely absent, and surprisingly the band didn’t include a single track from Crazy Nights either (including the title track). The Destroyer ballad Beth was duly delivered by drummer Eric Singer — as tradition demands — for which a proper classical piano is set up right at the very front of the stage just for him. The convoy of semi-trucks parked outside Zagreb’s Arena comes as no surprise after everything described in this review. Hauling a classical piano around the entire world just to perform a single song in the set. On a full world tour. Kiss truly are in a league of their own. They can afford all of this. Why? Because they can. They’ve got money to burn.

Two hours of pure hypnosis. Limitless entertainment. Yes. Nothing less. Entertainment that makes you forget everything. Your face just breaks into an involuntary grin and all sense of time and place vanishes in an instant. All that’s left is the hypnosis of glam metal’s vivid shock-therapy doctrine — honed to absolute perfection in every detail and utterly flawless when realized in these stage spectacles. Kiss don’t even register in discussions of musical virtuosity. That’s not the point. They’re very average musicians, but they make up for it with a perfect, meticulously crafted stage spectacle that quite simply delivers an unforgettable party, an escape, endlessly entertains, and somehow even leaves you feeling fulfilled. The band’s fans have long been hopelessly addicted to Kiss in every sense, while everyone else who turned up — especially curious types like me with a general love of rock and metal — definitely got their money’s worth at the Kiss concert in Zagreb.

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik

Setlist:
Rock and Roll (taped intro orig. Led Zeppelin)
1. Detroit Rock City
2. Shout It Out
3. Deuce
4. War Machine
5. Heaven’s on Fire
6. I Love It Loud
7. Say Yeah
8. Cold Gin
9. Guitar Solo
10. Lick It Up
11. Calling Dr. Love
12. Tears Are Falling
13. Psycho Circus
14. Drum Solo
15. 100,000 Years
16. Bass Solo
17. God of Thunder
18. Love Gun
19. I Was Made for Lovin’ You
20. Black Diamond
—encore—
21. Beth
22. Do You Love Me
23. Rock and Roll All Nite
God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll to You II (taped outro)

---