A Crazy Night In Modena (Eat A Peach EAT 197)
Arena Festa Dell’unita, Modena, Italy – September 10, 1988
(79:03) Deuce, Love Gun, Fits Like A Glove, Heaven’s On Fire, Cold Gin, Black Diamond, No No No, Firehouse, Crazy Crazy Nights, I Was Made For Loving You, War Machine, Tears Are Falling, I Love It Loud, Shout It Out Loud, Lick It Up, Rock And Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City, Paul & Gene RAI TV Interview
After the somewhat lackluster reception and sales for their 1987 opus Crazy Nights, KISS did what KISS does, tour. They were able to snag a spot on a five date European stadium tour dubbed Monsters Of Rock headlined by the mighty Iron Maiden, who just eight years earlier were opening for the KISS Unmasked tour on the same continent. The band would take advantage of these appearances by adding headline dates throughout Europe, this tour is notable in KISStory as being Eric Carr’s last dates abroad.
The fifth and final Monsters Of Rock gig was held in Modena, Italy and had the smallest attendance of the five. The line up was smaller than the other shows, David Lee Roth was not on the bill and KISS provided direct support, this allowed them to play the longest set of all the stadium gigs. KISS was no stranger to being an opening act, their rise to stardom in the mid 70’s was built upon playing every gig like they were the headliner and showing no quarter, an attitude that would be their battle cry. Their set list was made up of Klassic KISS songs with only two songs from the new record, this would maximize the bands time perfectly.
The recording from Modena is a very good audience source, being from a open air stadium gig it is distant but clear and well balanced with all instruments and vocals clearly heard plus a nice range of frequencies, the sound does move around a bit as one would expect from an open air venue. There has been one previous release from this concert, Monsters Of Rock (Care-13 A/B/C/D/E/F) is a triple LP vinyl box set with music from Iron Maiden, KISS, and Anthrax. Video also circulates from this concert as well, audience filmed hand held shaky but a cool video to look up on YouTube.
Paul asked the crowd how they are and the band launches into Deuce, the perfect opener since it was immortalized on the first ALIVE! record. The band teases Led Zep’s Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love prior to Fits Like A Glove that gets the audience cheering. There is no time for individual solo spots, the band stick to the music and hammer out hit after hit, never get used to hearing Black Diamond early in the set. The band add I Was Made For Loving You to the set, it had been played on the Japanese tour and the audience goes crazy, based on the response for the crowd, the song would remain in the set for the rest of the tour. The band take a quick break after Shout It Out Loud then hammer the rest of the set, Detroit Rock City finishes the crowd off, Eric Carr pounds the audience with his double bass drums. The interview at the end of the CD is a two minute spot done for RAI TV, pretty much talking about doing your own thing and large crowds of Rock fans and how well behaved large groups of fans are, this is also online for your viewing pleasure. Great performance for fans of 80’s era KISS.
The packaging is typical Eat A Peach mini LP jacket with color pictures from the Monsters Of Rock tour. The CD sleeve and insert have pictures of the gig poster and event schedule as well as liner notes from Kerrang, RAW, and Classic Rock magazine writer Dante Bonutto. There is also a picture of Gary Corbett playing back stage and a great shot behind Eric Carr looking over the crowd.
