The Program

I have to give Kiss credit: they've turned what could have been (and to some accounts, always has been) a novelty act into a thirty-year career that has turned a 70s glam/rock band into a multimedia, multimillion dollar phenomenon.

That's not to say the band doesn't have their share of memorable songs. Like 'em or not, almost everybody has heard or knows the words to "Rock and Roll All Nite", "Beth", "Detroit Rock City", and possibly even a song or two from the abominable Vinnie Vincent Era. Me, I've been a fan since I was seven. To a little kid of the 70s, Kiss were like the ultimate rock and roll superheroes. Scaring the crap out of God-fearing parents everywhere were four bigger than life legends, each one assuming a stage persona: Gene Simmons was the Demon, Paul Stanley the Star Child, Peter Criss the Cat, and Ace Frehley the... the... wait, what the hell was Ace Frehley? A Celestial? Isn't that what Paul Stanley is? Ah, screw it. My point being, I was a fan. I remember being seven-years-old, replaying my prized possession, "Kiss Alive II", over and over again on my one-speaker tape recorder. I fell in love with each and every song on those tapes: "God of Thunder" was my personal favorite, but I couldn't get enough of "Shock Me", "King of the Night Time World", "Christine Sixteen", and "Calling Dr. Love." Everyone had their favorite Kiss member, and mine was Ace Frehley. For the life of me I cannot remember why, although he did come out with the best solo album out of the four ("New York Groove" is still a jazzy number that brought back oceans of memories during the 1996 Reunion Tour.)

Kiss faced extinction multiple times during the course of their career. As album sales dwindled during the late 1970s, Kiss rebounded with the smash hit "I Was Made For Lovin' You" -- a disco tune! Hardcore Kiss fans disowned the song (and the album Dynasty on which it resided) for years, but even the most hardened headbanger would have to admit that the song is catchy as hell. And while "I Was Made For Lovin' You" was a big hit, Kiss faced obscurity again as the eighties began. Albums like The Elder and Creatures of the Night didn't sell very well, and the band was on the verge of "has-been" status when, in 1983, they had the brilliant idea of stripping off their make-up and continuing on as an 80s hair band.

The ruse worked; the 1983 album Lick It Up went multi-platinum, and Kiss was still a major player in the rock-and-roll game. Further albums like Animalize, Asylum, Crazy Nights, and Hot in the Shade were all hits, and Kiss became staples of the 80s metal scene. Of course, 80s metal died a hideous and painful death when 90s grunge and alt-rock made anyone even remotely associated with the previous decade instantly inconsequential.

So what did Kiss do? Why, they slapped their make-up back on, reuinted the original Kiss line-up by bringing back guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss (Paul Stanely and Gene Simmons always remained with the group), and launched a worldwide reunion tour that emerged as one of the most successful touring acts of the 1990s. Again, in the face of oblivion, Kiss persisted. Legions of new fans merged with an army of faithful longtime Kiss aficionados to buy millions of dollars worth of albums, collectibles, action figures, comic books, and memorabilia.

In 2003, the band teamed up with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to for a live performance entitled Kiss Symphony. Similar to Metallica's "S/M" arrangement, the band performed an extensive set in three acts: the first act features the band without accompaniment, the second act is an acoustic set accompanied with a small string arrangement, and the third act is a full-blown symphony, with the band backed up by the full compliment of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

The results: not bad at all, to be honest. Of course, your enjoyment of such a concert is entirely predicated upon your feelings about the band itself. As a fan, I missed Ace Frehley, but his replacement Tommy Thayer certainly looks the part and is a fine axeman to boot. The orchestral arrangements gel a lot more fluidly with the band than I thought would have been possible.

The entire performance was recorded and has been presented on a two-DVD set entitled Kiss Symphony. DVD One contains The Kiss Symphony Story, a ninety-minute behind-the-scenes documentary featuring the pre-production of this concert. The documentary also includes most of the Third Act of the concert (for the set list, see the information on Disc Two.) I found the documentary to be moderately enjoyable. I'm fully convinced that hardcore Kiss fans are just as frighteningly fanatical as Trekkies, but they probably get laid a whole lot more. The members of the orchestra seem to have enjoyed the adventure quite a bit; there is nothing quite like a respectful-looking young lady playing the viola while wearing demonic face-paint.

DVD Two contains the entire concert, including all three acts of the performance. The set list is as follows:

Act One:

1. Deuce
2. Strutter
3. Let Me Go Rock & Roll
4. Lick It Up
5. Calling Dr. Love
6. Psycho Circus

Act Two:

1. Beth
2. Forever
3. Goin' Blind
4. Sure Know Something
5. Shandi

Act Three:

1. Detroit Rock City
2. King of the Night Time World
3. Do You Love Me
4. Shout It Out Loud
5. God of Thunder
6. Love Gun
7. Black Diamond
8. Great Expectations
9. I Was Made For Lovin' You
10. Rock and Roll All Nite

The DVD

Video:

Kiss Symphony was videotaped live in Melbourne Australia, and retains its original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The video has been anamorphically enhanced for your widescreen viewing enjoyment. The transfer is generally solid. I have found many taped performances transferred to DVD often suffer telltale video noise and compression artifacting, but this transfer appears to be generally solid and smooth. Black levels are extremely deep and rich, while contrasts are bright and well presented. Image detail is solid throughout, with reasonable sharpness levels throughout. There is occasional softness in the transfer, but these are few and far in between. Color levels are bright and well rendered throughout, but this concert is mostly concerned with blacks and darkness highlighted by the multicolored lighting scheme. Overall, this is a fine and surprisingly solid transfer.

Audio:

The audio is delivered in Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and Dolby Digital 2.0. The 2.0 provides for a reasonably entertaining two-channel experience, with solid range and fine fidelity. However, the money shots are in the six-channel surround experience and in that regard that Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 mixes are virtually identical. Befitting a bombastic heavy metal experience, LFE activity is positively pounding, with deep, pulsating thuds that will pretty much piss off your neighbors for miles on end. The soundstage is significantly expanded, placing the listener smack dab in the middle of a Kiss concert. The mix is fairly accurate in reproducing arena acoustics, with significant levels of reverb and audience noise in the surround channels and a fairly spacious front stage. I found the audio to pretty saturated throughout, thus making any discrete directional effects pretty difficult to detect. But that's a nitpick, isn't it? This is a live heavy metal performance, virtually mandating that the listener be swept up and enveloped in an ocean of loud, screeching guitars, deep bass lines, thunderous drum fills, and a wall of symphonic orchestrations. In that line of expectations, Kiss Sympony delivers in spades.

The Extras:

Rove Live! Interview is a thirteen-minute interview with the band on the Australian "Rove Live!" television program. Paul and Gene pretty much dominate the interview, but they've pretty much been the main Kiss spokespeople anyhow (and the only members who have existed in every iteration of the band.) The interview is entertaining if not excessively deep. They talk about how the project originated, their decision to do the project in Australia, and the celebration of the band and their fans... your basic rock-and-roll interview material. The band also caps the interview with a live acoustic performance of "Sure Know Something" (which can also be accessed from the Sure Know Something Live link.)

Rounding out the supplements are Web Links and the DVD's production Credits.

Final Thoughts

While I can't really recommend this DVD to non-fans, Kiss Symphony presents an enjoyable experience for Kiss fans. The disc features a fairly solid presentation; the audio and video quality is well represented on the DVD. The set list represents a broad span of the group's career, although I found myself yearning for Ace Frehley's presence. However, the package does seem somewhat padded. The documentary on DVD One seems to be bloated; in total it barely runs half-an-hour. The "Third Act" of the performance that is contained within the documentary is completely repeated on DVD Two. Nonetheless, Kiss fans should be pleased with Kiss Symphony.