Wikipedia

Alive II Tour

The Alive II Tour was a concert tour by Kiss, and was the follow-up to the Love Gun Tour which ended in early September.

Alive II Tour
Tour by Kiss
Associated albumAlive II
Start dateNovember 15, 1977
End dateApril 2, 1978
Legs2
No. of shows56
Kiss concert chronology

History

edit

The Alive II Tour saw Kiss perform 5 sold-out nights at Tokyo's Budokan, breaking their previous record of 4 one year earlier, as well as breaking the previous record by The Beatles. They also played three sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in their hometown of New York City, and multiple nights in several other cities, including San Antonio; Landover, Maryland; Chicago; Detroit; and Providence, Rhode Island. The audience for the band were mainly young teenage crowds.[1] AC/DC was the opening act for several concerts on this tour.[2] The costumes and stage show were carried over from the Love Gun Tour, with minor changes made to the setlist.

During the show in Pittsburgh, Peter Criss had passed out in the middle of the concert. After a brief intermission, he returned to finish the show with his bandmates.[3] The band would also be snowed in during the show in Richfield.[4]

In the tour program for the band's final tour, Simmons reflected on the tour:

The Alive II stage show was a big production spectacle. We realized fans were paying as much for a concert, which only lasted for an hour or two, as you would for a record album which you could play over and over again for the price of a concert ticket. A concert was over with the snap of a finger so what are the memories you take from it? We thought visuals should be a big element of a Kiss concert and we were constantly brainstorming about what we could do in the show.[5]

Reception

edit

Barry Paris, a reporter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who attended the Civic Arena show in Pittsburgh, gave the show a positive review, stating: "Kiss (whose members acknowledge that their music is 'nothing profound') is a likable act not so much because of but in spite of its gimmickry. The crucial factor is their good (but not great) musicianship, which amounts to a B-plus/A-minus type of rock 'n roll and gosh darn, how can you not help but like the fresh-faced fans they attract?".[1]

Setlist

edit
  1. "I Stole Your Love"
  2. "King of the Night Time World"
  3. "Ladies Room"
  4. "Firehouse"
  5. "Love Gun"
  6. "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"
  7. "Makin' Love"
  8. "Christine Sixteen"
  9. "Shock Me"
  10. "I Want You"
  11. "Calling Dr. Love"
  12. "Shout It Out Loud"
  13. "God of Thunder"
  14. "Rock and Roll All Nite"

Encore

  2. "Detroit Rock City"
  3. "Beth"
  4. "Black Diamond"

The setlist for this tour was nearly identical to that of the Love Gun Tour, with the only exceptions being that "King of the Night Time World" and "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" took the place of "Take Me" and "Hooligan".[6]

Tour dates

edit
List of tour dates with date, city, country, venue, and support act(s)
Date City Country Venue Support act(s)
United States[6]
November 15, 1977 Oklahoma City United States Myriad Convention Center Detective
November 17, 1977 Denver McNichols Sports Arena
November 19, 1977 Abilene Taylor County Expo Center
November 20, 1977 Lubbock Lubbock Municipal Coliseum
November 22, 1977 San Antonio Freeman Coliseum
November 23, 1977
November 26, 1977 Tulsa Tulsa Convention Center
November 27, 1977 Kansas City Kemper Arena
November 29, 1977 Des Moines Iowa Veterans Memorial Auditorium
November 30, 1977 Omaha Omaha Civic Auditorium
December 2, 1977 St. Paul St. Paul Civic Center
December 3, 1977 Madison Dane County Expo Coliseum
December 6, 1977 Wichita Henry Levitt Arena
December 7, 1977 St. Louis The Checkerdome
December 9, 1977 Memphis Mid-South Coliseum AC/DC
December 11, 1977 Indianapolis Market Square Arena
December 12, 1977 Louisville Freedom Hall
December 14, 1977 New York City Madison Square Garden Detective
December 15, 1977 Piper
December 16, 1977
December 19, 1977 Landover Capital Centre AC/DC
December 20, 1977 Piper
December 22, 1977 Philadelphia The Spectrum
December 27, 1977 Baton Rouge Riverside Centroplex Arena
December 29, 1977 Birmingham BJCC Arena
December 30, 1977 Atlanta The Omni
December 31, 1977 Greensboro Greensboro Coliseum
January 3, 1978 Pembroke Pines Hollywood Sportatorium Detective
January 5, 1978 Charlotte Charlotte Coliseum Nantucket
January 6, 1978 Columbia Carolina Coliseum
January 8, 1978 Richfield Richfield Coliseum The Rockets
January 11, 1978 Huntington Huntington Civic Center
January 12, 1978 Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum
January 13, 1978 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Civic Arena
January 15, 1978 Chicago Chicago Stadium
January 16, 1978
January 18, 1978 Lexington Rupp Arena
January 20, 1978 Detroit Olympia Stadium
January 21, 1978
January 23, 1978 Evansville Roberts Municipal Stadium
January 25, 1978 Buffalo Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
January 27, 1978 Springfield Springfield Civic Center
January 28, 1978 New Haven New Haven Coliseum
January 30, 1978 Philadelphia The Spectrum
February 2, 1978 Providence Providence Civic Center
February 3, 1978
Japan[6]
March 28, 1978 Tokyo Japan Budokan Bow Wow
March 29, 1978
March 31, 1978
April 1, 1978
April 2, 1978

Box office score data

edit
List of box office score data with date, city, venue, attendance, gross, references
Date City Venue Attendance Gross Ref(s)
November 17, 1977 Denver, United States McNichols Sports Arena 10,586 $94,852 [7]
November 27, 1977 Kansas City, United States Kemper Arena 13,613 $100,151 [8]
January 23, 1978 Evansville, United States Roberts Stadium 14,144 $109,298 [9]
January 25, 1978 Buffalo, United States Memorial Auditorium 17,500 $112,636
January 27, 1978 Springfield, United States Civic Center 10,395 $72,765
January 28, 1978 New Haven, United States Coliseum 10,407 $76,000

Personnel

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Paris, Barry (January 16, 1978). "Kiss: A Festival of Blood, Fire, and Music". Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. pp. 1, 7. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  2. ^ Clarke, Patrick (May 17, 2021). "KISS' Gene Simmons on first meeting AC/DC's Angus Young: "He didn't have front teeth"". NME. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  3. ^ Mervis, Scott (March 26, 2019). "Kiss: Rocking Pittsburgh for 45 years with blood and fire". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Smith, Troy L. (March 9, 2021). "KISS' Blizzard of 1978 show: Rock & roll all nite, snow every day in Richfield". Cleveland. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  5. ^ (2019). End of the Road World Tour Program, pg. 14.
  6. ^ a b c Gooch, Curt; Suhs, Jeff (2002). Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5.
  7. ^ "Top Box Office". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 3, 1977. p. 42. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  8. ^ "Top Box Office". Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 49. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 10, 1977. p. 48. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  9. ^ "Top Box Office". Billboard. Vol. 90, no. 6. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. February 11, 1978. p. 36. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 17, 2021.

Sources

edit
  • Gooch, Curt; Suhs, Jeff (2002). Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alive_II_Tour&oldid=1254450055"