I Was There

"What, or who, is Kiss?" My mother asked me one cold morning as I sat in front of the furnace register.

"It's a band" I said, "I LOVE them!"

A friend and fellow Kiss fan's mother had gotten us some tickets for the winter show at Olympia in Detroit.

Yes, Detroit Rock City, that Detroit.

My mother, having lived through my older siblings, knew a few things about rock concerts. She wouldn't let me go unless my friend's mother went along.

This was starting to sound a little lame. But, after all, we were only 13 years old, so we would need a ride anyhow.

So it was that I went to my first concert. It was an extension of the Love Gun tour, which is immortalized as a double live album called "Alive II", widely considered to be one of the best live albums in the history of rock & roll. Right up there with "Frampton Comes Alive" and Cheap Trick's "Live at Budokon".

The price for all of this? A cool $8.50, the same amount as the FEES on my recent Jimmy Buffet ticket.

I loved Kiss, especially their guitarist Ace Frehley, who was responsible for getting me interested in guitar playing, and kicked off my fondness for the Gibson Les Paul guitar as well.

I was excited, like a squirrel invited to a nut-cracking festival.

I remember the doors opening to Olympia as we were ushered in. We found our seats in the midst of a haze of pot smoke so thick you could almost hang your coat on it. We were pretty far from the stage, but it didn't matter, Kiss was near. I could feel it.

The Detroit band The Rockets warmed up, but I don't remember much of that. I was looking past them, trying to make out the immense wall of Marshall amps and electric staircases that was the Kiss stage.

When it finally came time for "The Hottest Band In the World" to come onstage, excitement was beyond frenzy-levels. The first harmonized notes of Detroit Rock City are lodged in my brain like a wedge doorstop. And the huge, 5-stick-of-dynamite-loud explosions as the huge letters lit up one by one K-I-S-S, that's deep in there too.

As it turned out, it was an amazing experience that I have never forgotten...even my friend's mom admitted it was impressive. The concert was fantastic, full of the theatrics (blood, fire, smoking guitars...) for which Kiss was famous. Watching the people was great too, faces painted up with Stein's Clown Makeup to match their favorite Kiss "character".

Afterwards I had quite a "contact high" and my ears rang for about three days.

But I had been to one of the great musical events of the 70's. I was there.