Kiss - Kiss Symphony Alive IV - 2003
You really gotta be Kiss fan to buy all this stuff, right? I mean, how many live albums does one band need? This is their 5th! Not only that, but it's not really Alive IV because THAT was included on the Box Set only renamed The Millennium Concert.
This was a one off with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. (Queen was covered by the London Symphony 25 years earlier and the band didn't even play with them)
By now, Ace was gone (Again) replaced by Tommy Thayer (again) but Peter Criss stuck around. A paycheck's a paycheck, even if you have to put up with Gene Simmons
This album is broken up into three sections. And that's how we'll listen to them.
The First Act is Kiss by themselves. Simmons, Stanley, Criss and...Thayer.
Oh, this is just a mess. Without Ace Thayer just shreds his way through Deuce's solo and the band just sounds like they can't wait to get backstage for the Shrimps and Shrimping.
At some point I decided to stop listening and watch the concert on YouTube. I do not recommend this. The director follows a similar style that was all the rage in the early 90s of switching cameras so fast that it's impossible to catch any image and feel like you are part of the concert. It's almost as though the show as televised is designed to induce a stroke.
All of the songs on this section of the concert have appeared in previous Alive records. They certainly don't expose themselves any differently or interestingly. The sole new addition to this grouping is "Psycho Circus" which never really needed to be heard live.
The Second Act is Kiss plus the Melbourne Symphony in a more acoustic oriented setting.
Think Unplugged with more strings. And all of those musicians are wearing tuxedos and kabuki makeup.
It's very appropriate that we start off the cheese with "Beth". I really love hearing it performed as close to the studio version. And Criss sounds fine even though he can't hit any of the high notes any more.
It's pretty insulting that Paul comes out immediately after to sing the crapfest "Forever" by saying, "this is where the fun starts." What a jerk. He redeems himself a song later by suggesting that they might plays something from The Elder.
Ultimately, the songs don't benefit from the orchestra. Unless you really always wanted to hear "Shandi" in concert. With French Horns.
I didn't. But I did. For you.
Act Three is where the action really happens. To see a full orchestra playing amidst the explosions of Detroit Rock City is something. And sounds....well, it WAS from Destroyer, their most experimentally theatrical album. So it works.
Of course, what everyone wants from a Kiss concert is a set of these songs. Early Kiss. Heyday Kiss. King of the Night Time World, Shout it Out Loud, God of Thunder, Do You Love Me, Kiss. The orchestra does nothing to enhance these songs and Ace is sorely missing. The atrocious bass solo on the dvd version of God of Thunder makes me wish I had never undertaken this Listening Post. On the CD it's half the length.
There is something SOOOOOO wrong about having a children's choir sing along to "Great Expectations". Yeah, I know it spounds right. But it's about fucking a groupie. So, it's beyond inappropriate.
But Black Diamond is still cool as shit.
Grade: C
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