Anyone but I buy the KISSOLOGY Vol II?

**Terry** · 08-17-2007, 09:24 PM

Got mine. Came with the 1979 Largo show as a bonus disc.

Fairly happy with it. Was good to have ATTACK OF THE PHANTOMS in widescreen, as well as Largo 1979, Australia 1980 and Brazil 1983 (Vinnie Vincent was fuckin' shit hot at that gig).

Dics 3, which has the 1987 and 1990 concerts, won't be getting much play from me in the long run. The whole Bruce Kulick era is pretty much of no interest to me.

Says on the back they're gonna do a Vol. 3, but unless they held back some 1974-1983 footage to be included on a bonus disc, doubt I'm gonna bother. All they could really put out on a Vol. 3 would be some Revenge tour footage, maybe some KISS Konvention footage, maybe the 1995 Unplugged stuff and some shows from the 1996-2002 tours...stuff along those lines which isn't of interest to me.

Now I gotta figure out if I'm gonna bother with TSRTS release in November.

**DeadMan1984** · 08-18-2007, 06:35 PM

I got the same release as you, Terry. I haven't watched most of the content yet because I really haven't had the time. But I think tonight I'm gonna make an effort to watch the whole set in full.

**Terry** · 08-18-2007, 07:39 PM

Kinda odd how it pretty much skipped from 1983 to half of a 1987 show...would have thought they would have put the 1984 Animalize tour footage that had already been previously released on there, but overall it's like Mr.Vengeance said, in that it's a lot of neat stuff for a great price.

**DeadMan1984** · 08-18-2007, 09:07 PM

I think the reason for nothing between 84-86 is because they don't own the rights to the Animalize footage and basically no Asylum tour shows were filmed. Ethier way still an awesome set if for one reason you get Ace stealing the show on Tom Snyder.

**indeedido** · 08-18-2007, 09:14 PM

I picked it up too. Good overall. The Kulick era shows do suck. I was hoping for a better version of the Vinnie Vincent stuff. Audio is kinda poor. Overall pretty pleased. '70s stuff obviously is the best

**Terry** · 08-19-2007, 12:12 AM

suppose KISS not owning the rights to it would explain the lack of inclusion of the Animalize stuff - far as the Asylum shows went, had the misfortune of seeing one of them and that's not something I'd wanna ever see again

**DeadMan1984** · 08-19-2007, 02:59 AM

How bad was the show you went to, man?

**MAX** · 08-19-2007, 07:24 AM

Originally posted by Terry
suppose KISS not owning the rights to it would explain the lack of inclusion of the Animalize stuff - far as the Asylum shows went, had the misfortune of seeing one of them and that's not something I'd wanna ever see again

Ooooh yeah... Ugh, didn't catch either of those but saw the Crazy Nights thing in 1987. IT WAS THE WORST!!!

**Mr. Vengeance** · 08-19-2007, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by MAX
Ooooh yeah... Ugh, didn't catch either of those but saw the Crazy Nights thing in 1987. IT WAS THE WORST!!!

I saw the Crazy Nights tour in Toronto with a half full house, and the show wasn't bad.

**cMb** · 08-19-2007, 11:10 AM

After how amazing Kissology Vol. 1 was, I am a bit disappointed with Vol. 2.

Once Kiss started with all the 'pretty' colors in the costumes, I kind of lost interest, & that's where this set starts. Gimme the silver & black!

I enjoy the way-too-short documentaries more than most of the live footage.

The content of the 3 discs would have fit on 2 dvd's.

The positives.. Eric Carr was a smokin' drummer. His takes on most of the classics are hard to take in at first, But his double-bass kicks add to the songs once you get used to them.

Like Carr, Vinnie Vincent was an amazing player, but his style was not really what I wanted to hear from Kiss. His 2 albums with Kiss are my favorites that Ace did not play on, but not what I would consider 'classics'. JMHO.

I haven't got to disc 3 yet, but I generally despise that era, so I doubt I'll have anything good to say about it.

Woot!
Peace

**Terry** · 08-19-2007, 01:31 PM

Originally posted by DeadMan1984
How bad was the show you went to, man?

Went and saw them on the Asylum tour in 1985 at the Providence Civic Center, which was about maybe a 15,000 seat arena. Literally about half-full. Black and Blue (I think) opened up for them...it was either them or Ruff Cutt - whatever the opening band was, they weren't anything great.

Got to go for free because a bud of mine ended up with an extra ticket after one of our other buds decided not to go.
I remember Eric Carr's drum set was probably one of the biggest I'd seen outside of AVH's on the 1984 tour, and that Eric Carr was a lot better live than his studio performances on the Lick It Up, Animalize and Asylum albums would have indicated (gotta remember this was before bootlegs were as easily available as they are today, so I really had no idea what he'd be like live).

Think a lot of it had to do with having been such a huge fan in the 1970s, and having always wanted to see the band in THAT period, playing THAT music, as opposed to the first three 'makeupless' albums, which I still feel to this day had very weak material (about the only one out of all the post 1982 releases that did anything for me when it was all over was Revenge)...there was a bit of pyro, the stage show was okay, but seeing the band after having seen other groups over the previous two years like Van Halen, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Dio (twice), etc. - KISS just seemed like they were treading water at that point, and the sound and mix were awful. Kulick was, much like many other guitarists of the period, throwing Eddie Van Halenisms in his playing (seemed like he spent more time with two fingers on the fretboard than even Ed did at times) every chance he could, regardless of if it fit the song or not.

They came out for their final encore and did 'Won't Get Fooled Again', and Stanley and Kulick did a twin -guitar interpretation of the lengthy synth break towards the end of the song, and I remember how terrible it sounded; the guitars were clearly out of tune, the tone was just way too much high end, and it sounded frickin' abysmal.

It was as if the band had seen Spinal Tap, missed the irony, thought it was a real band and decided that would be a smart career template...

The 1987 and 1990 shows on disc 3 were a bit better than the Asylum show I saw, but none of that stuff approaches the highwater mark of the band, IMO.

**MAX** · 08-20-2007, 03:49 AM

Originally posted by Mr. Vengeance
I saw the Crazy Nights tour in Toronto with a half full house, and the show wasn't bad.

Oh man, the show we saw was absolutely terrible!!! I had never seen KI$$ prior and that show was a total letdown. Thank goodness I got to see them on their reunion in 1996 cos that was badass. Fuck, I even caught Ace Frehley in a club in 1992 or 1993 and his show blew that Crazy Nights KI$$ away!!!

Honestly, the only thing I truly remember about that '87 KI$$ show was Gene $immon$ using his bass as a gun and "shooting" the lights above the stage during his "solo" spot.

It was horrible. Ughhhhh.

**Terry** · 08-20-2007, 09:49 PM

Originally posted by MAX
Oh man, the show we saw was absolutely terrible!!! I had never seen KI$$ prior and that show was a total letdown. Thank goodness I got to see them on their reunion in 1996 cos that was badass. Fuck, I even caught Ace Frehley in a club in 1992 or 1993 and his show blew that Crazy Nights KI$$ away!!!

Honestly, the only thing I truly remember about that '87 KI$$ show was Gene $immon$ using his bass as a gun and "shooting" the lights above the stage during his "solo" spot.

It was horrible. Ughhhhh.

Simmons did the same thing on the Asylum tour, with the fireworks shooting out of the bass towards the lighting rig.

After many of the stellar stage productions I had seen in the 2 years leading up to that show, KISS' own stage show was strangely underwhelming, strange in that they were trailblazers in the 1970s for so much of the pop rock/metal productions of the early to mid 1980s...it was just odd seeing them clearly follwing the pack at that point rather than leading it.

**cMb** · 08-22-2007, 12:28 PM

After watching with the 'Kiss Commentary' audio track, I have to say that I really enjoyed this set.

The commentary regarding Eric Carr's final months is quite emotional & Paul in particular is quite candid.

They admit to taking the wrong path & becoming consumed with money, fame & ego during the Dynasty/Unmasked/Elder era, and allowing the music to become soft.

All in all, about half of the commentary tracks is G & P admitting the mistakes they made during the years of this Volume. Their honesty & humbleness is refreshing.

The set glosses over (and/or skips) the really bad years (Asylum, Crazy Nights) & the HITS show is pretty good if I don't compare it to the 'classic years'.