KISS-KISSOLOGY vol.2

2007
VH1 Classics

This DVD set represents the career of KISS from 1978 until 1991. The set contains three discs plus a fourth bonus DVD. However there are three different bonus DVD's so you would have to buy the sets at different places to ensure getting all three of the bonus DVDs. The first three discs contains two whole concerts, parts of concerts, TV appearances, the European version of the film KISS meets the phantom of the park, interviews and a few videos. The first of the two whole concerts is from Australia in 1980. The quality is a little fuzzy, but it's a solid show overall with a wild crowd and a decent performance. Ace seems a little tired, but the rest of the band makes up for it. The second whole concert was surprisingly the one I preferred. It's from Detroit and was filmed in 1990 which means it was "The Hot in the shade" tour. Not my favorite album by a long shot, but they put on a very entertaining show. Not the high energy of the mid-1970's, but an enjoyable performance for certain. I think Bruce was so solid that it allowed Gene and Paul to roam the stage more. Of course this also allowed Paul to do some stage moves that are completely ridiculous. Some of the language is cut, but overall the sound and picture quality is fairly high. There is an eight song performance from 1983 in Maracana Stadium in Brazil. The quality is fuzzy on these tracks and Paul and Gene are having to shout the words because the crowd is just enormous. There are five songs live at the Spectrum in Philadelphia from the Crazy Nights tour. The quality on these clips is very good and it's a shame we didn't get the whole concert. That's probably the biggest highlights of the set. My bonus disc was nine songs from a 1988 show in Tokyo. While good, it's not the whole show (I assume) and it would have been nice to have the complete show. The quality on some of the clips like the two tracks from Belgium in 1983 are rough, but most of the clips on the set are of decent or better quality. What's here is good, but there is a big gap with nothing representing Animalize or Asylum. I would gladly have traded the European version of KISS meets the phantom of the park and some of the partial concerts in exchange for the whole Animalize Live Uncensored concert that I saw on VHS a few times so many years ago. Overall most of the material is good and there is a lot of it. Whether you want it or not probably depends on how much you think of this period of the band's career.