Kiss - Alive!

"You wanted the best, and you got it. The hottest band in the land. Kiss!" The opening line to the most beloved live album ever released. I have never seen a live album that inspired more musicians than this one. This is also the album that made Kiss.

Kiss Alive! is the reason the classic Destroyer album was ever made. This was a band that just couldn't get any type of real following, or radio play, but for some reason when this double vinyl album originally dropped, it blew the doors wide open for Kiss.

Let me start with live albums recorded prior to the 90's generally aren't that good. Hell, many live albums recorded after then aren't very good either. However, this album was a cut above the rest. Most of the problems with live albums in the 70's is the recording quality. Bootlegs had a habit of sounding as good as produced live albums, and most of it came from the fact that they were recorded by simply plugging into the mixer board.

When bands would take the time to record a live album properly they would often have to record a few different nights, usually at the same venue if they could, just to make sure they could get multiple takes of each song. This is still a practice that's common today. However, today's digital recording gear is a lot easier to move and use than the older stuff is.

Kiss recorded this album in the cities of Detroit, Michigan, Wildwood, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ohio and Davenport, Iowa, and the production value is amazing. I mean so amazing that this set the bar for all live albums that followed, not just the Kiss ones either. Sadly, there came a day when this bubble was popped, for the world.

Yes this was a great live album, and with at least four separate nights of recording you'd think they would be able to get a good take of every song. However, that wasn't the case with this album. It would seem that this thing is filled with studio overdubs. From what I understand there were a number of complications with the recordings, everything from gaps of missing sound in the tapes to Ace's playing not being up to snuff, to too much tape hiss. Ace in particular I always read getting a lot of blame. I have to wonder, if he was that much of a sloppy player how did they ever get so far?

The album opens with Deuce. The original lyrics go, "Get up / And get your grandma outta here / Pick up / Old Jim is workin' hard this year / And baby / Just do the things he says to do / Baby, if you're feeling good / And baby if you're feeling nice / You know your man is workin' hard / He's worth a deuce", wich covers the first verse and chorus. Now the only thing I can take from this is that they are saying that a man is worth having sex with twice. By todays slang I would think they might be talking about some type of fecal fetish. This is not one of those songs that I've ever been a fan of.

From there Paul revs up the crowd a bit before the band kicks into a somewhat bland sounding rendition of Strutter. The first problem is that the bass and guitars mirror each other perfectly and it creates a wall of sound that burries the drums in the mix. I also think the vocals are pushed too far forward. However, it's the performance itself that makes that song sound so lack luster. It's almost like they were bored of playing the song.

Got To Choose, from the Hotter Than Hell album, is the third song, on side one, of album one, of the original vinyl. It's track three on disc one of the CD set. This is the first song on this live collection that makes me stand up and take notice of Kiss. Lyrically, it's your typical Kiss sexist "Ooo, baby" song. But musically it's catchy, and the vocal performance is spectacular. I'm not sure if it's really the band sounding like that live, or studio production, but it's really good.

Hotter than Hell follows that. This is another Kiss song that I don't care for myself, but understand why people like it. It's a rockin' number with a heavy punch to it. This is an example of how Gene Simmons used to be a solid bassist, before all he cared about was the money. Back at this point the music still meant something, even if it wasn't much.

Firehouse finishes off the first side of the original vinyl. To be honest I think this should have been used more towards the end of the night. It would have made a better finale, prior to the encore. It just has that type of sound to it.

Track six, or track one side two, is Nothin' to lose. This is originally from Kiss' self titled debut album. I think it should have stayed there. It's a pretty standard Rock song. It sounds just at home on this album as it would have on a Ramones album, or a Van Halen (Roth era) album.

I will say that as the album moves along the energy also seems to pick up. The band sounds more lively and into the music they are playing. Even the songs I don't care for have an energy that I still find captivating.

I normally would skip C'mon And Love Me, for being one of those Kiss songs that are used to fill every album the band has ever released. However, the live version of this song is awesome. I swear that it's Ace's solo at the end of the song that Danko Jones used to create the driving riff behind Love Call.

Parasite is another song that normally I don't care for, but on this album it totally rocks. The band gets into an amazing locked groove, and just pounds out the main riffs. I would have liked to have heard the drums sound cleaner, because Peter Criss does some good work on this song.

The last song on the first CD is She, originally from the Dressed To Kill album. This song is one of the better songs instrumentally. In studio format, this song is only 4:06, but the band jams it out to a kickin' 6:56. This is a great ending to the first album. It's also one of my favourite tracks on the album the whole way around. I won't argue that Kiss are great musicians, but I will argue that their musicianship was often overlooked. Also, totally overshadowed by the performances.

There are only three songs that are not on this double live album that are on the first Kiss album. This is an astounding fact when you consider there are a total of sixteen songs on this double live album, and just shy of half of them are from the same album. That left only 9 other tracks to cover two other albums. Each of which contains ten songs. Based on that it's easy to extrapolate which of the first three albums is the best.

The second record/CD is broken down with three songs from Kiss, two songs from Hotter Than Hell and two songs are from Dressed To Kill.

The first song to start the second disc is Watchin' You. I'm not a fan of this one. It's okay, but when I look at the track listings for the Hotter Than Hell album, which this song comes from, I see that I don't care for most of the album. Parasite is the only song from there I like on Alive! It's the one Kiss album from the 70's you can guarantee I'll never pick up on my own.

With that being said, I will more than likely pick up Kiss. Like I said before almost the entire album is on Alive! That includes 100,000 Years, which is the next song up. I love this one, right down to Peter Criss' drum solo. It's not complex, and after a while gets a little repetitive (only a little), but it fits perfectly on this album and is great to listen to. Also is doesn't take away from the actual song which is great, and important.

The song 100,000 Years is also one of my favourite Kiss songs. I find it one of the best performances the band gave in the early days. In the live version it's also great to listen to Paul work the crowd as Peter keeps pounding away on the skins. You can easily picture the entire scene from the concert in your mind as it happens. Although I disagree with Paul when he says, "Clap your hands! That's what Rock 'N' Roll is all about." It's the only real negative thing I have to say about this live performance.

Now I don't know if it's because of the way it flowed on the original studio album, or if it is just because it allows for a bit of a mellow break, but Black Diamond follows 100,000 Years on here just like it did on the studio album. I like the studio version much better than the live version, but this rendition gives something unique to the audience. The drummer is also singing the song live.

It takes a lot of practice to sing and play drums at the same time, because of breathing. It's real easy to find yourself out of breath in less than thirty seconds of singing, if you don't know how to do it right. It's even worse if you are as energetic as Peter Criss. I also speak of this from personal experience. So for that reason, and that reason alone, I will not trash talk how rough he sounds while almost yelling the vocals into the microphone.

Black Diamond also sounds like it was the closing song for the night. Then there's a phase effected fade out and then fade in. Then it's on to the first of four encores, Rock Bottom.

Rock Bottom starts off really nice and pretty. Ace knows how to play pretty guitar very well, however, it's just a smoke screen. The song itself is actually kind of heavy, and definately rock hard. This is just a good solid Kiss song, and the live performance is spot on.

My absolute favourite Kiss song ever, is one of my favourite drinking and karaokeing songs. Cold Gin has one of the best riffs I ever heard, and I have loved this song since the first moment I heard this live version. It was the version from this live album that I knew first. I prefer the studio version over this one, but I will put this version on my Mp3 player every now and then instead.

I also feel the need to mention that my favourite song is from their first studio album. My second favourite song is from Revenge, and then everything in the middle fills out the rest.

The second last song on the album is the most famous Kiss song ever. Rock And Roll All Nite, which showcases two very important things about American culture. The first is that spelling things Ebonically started with a bunch of White/Jewish guys back in the 1970's. The second is that over played, cheaply written, Pop songs, meant for the lowest common denominator to even understand, were also given to you by the same group of guys.

I'm sure I'll take some heat for this, but let's be honest. If it were not for Ace's solo in the song, it would be Peter Criss banging out the same non stop tempo as the guys sing, "I wanna rock and roll all nite / And party everyday", over and over and over again. I'd also like to point out that Gene Simmons should be sued for false advertising everytime he personally plays this song. After all he pretty much booted Ace out of the band for doing that exact thing. We also have to thank this song, specifically this version, for making Kiss as famous as they are.

The double live album ends with Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll. This is a great tune, in the same way that all songs about Rock N' Roll always end up being great tunes. It has a solid rhythm section, smoking guitar riffs and they are songs about a subject that everyone listening to the song understands. We all wanna go rock 'n roll.

All in all, I can see why this album is so well loved. It's a fantastic live album, even with the studio overdubs. You can hear the crowd almost the entire way through, all the instruments except for the drums, are mixed very well. I won't hold the drum mixing against them too much either. Peter Criss' drumset was huge, and drums can never get the proper number of tracks they actually need for a live recording. At least not prior to the use of digital.

If this album does nothing else, it at least inspires me to pick up the first Kiss album. The truth is that it inspired me to pick up multiple albums, and become a fan myself. I'm not a Kiss Army type of fan. I think General Simmons is a corrupt dictator, and I can't follow him for that reason. But, I am a fan of the music.

8/10 - content

9/10 - production

7/10 - personal bias