Kiss
Alive!

THE REVIEW

In 1975, Kiss had just released "Dressed To Kill", a very beautiful album that, however, did not achieve spectacular success, so they were about to leave Casablanca, the label they had worked with up until then. They released this live album in hopes of achieving enough success to stay in the game. Success they got indeed, such that this album remained on the charts even after the release of "Destroyer", "Rock And Roll Over", and "Love Gun", also highly successful albums.

The album opens with the announcer yelling: "You want the best and you've got it, the hottest band in the world: Kiss!!!" and then "Deuce" starts. This version is better than the studio one because the band is full of energy (especially Simmons' voice) and the crowd's roar is incredible. Ace embellishes the performance with a more powerful solo than the original. The second track, "Strutter", is a mix between the more melodic version found on the debut album and the more powerful one on Double Platinum. The Starchild's voice is perfectly in tune, and all the members do a good job. I’ll skip the next three tracks, namely "Got To Choose", "Hotter Than Hell", and "Firehouse", since they are played similarly to their album versions, to talk about "Nothin' To Lose", where Gene Simmons' voice alternates in the chorus with Peter Criss's. The latter also adds small touches of class, like rolls or pedal hits which, although they might seem insignificant to some, I really appreciate. I’ll also skip "C'mon And Love Me" and "Parasite" for the same reasons mentioned earlier, to talk about "She", which in this version lasts about 7 minutes with improvisations, especially by Ace Frehley, who plays solos that, if they lengthen the piece, certainly do not make the listening experience burdensome, which, at least for me, is very relaxing.
The next track is "Watchin' You", a song which, truth be told, I've never appreciated much in its original version. Indeed, it is live that this track truly shines 100%, thanks to Gene's warm voice. At a certain point, bass notes echo: it is obviously "100,000 Years", which around the third minute, stops to make way for Criss's drums, giving us a good solo. Stanley returns to the microphone to talk to the audience and make them shout a bit, asking them to repeat what he says. After that, Ace comes back with short guitar riffs, and when Paul sings the refrain, the piece resumes only to conclude at 12 minutes. A clean guitar now starts along with Stanley's voice. Then the clean guitar is interrupted to become distorted, and Peter Criss's voice comes in. You've probably already guessed which song I'm talking about: "Black Diamond". This version is intense, and Ace does one of those solos "even if he tries a thousand times to redo it, he won't get it right even once." The Catman, despite not being a proper singer, sings adequately. At the end of this track, the crowd calls for an encore, and so "Rock Bottom" begins, with the clean guitar intro reduced by more than half. Paul is still energetic and always in tune. But now his voice needs a little rest, so he starts talking to the crowd again before announcing "Cold Gin", which, as usual, is sung by Simmons. This version contains the usual great performances from Frehley and Criss. After this, the crowd goes completely wild thanks to "Rock And Roll All Nite", which, as usual, in the chorus, is sung by all the band members and Frehley fits in one of his usual solos. At this point, Kiss understands that they need to do something else before sending the audience "to bed," so they play "Let Me Go, Rock and Roll", where at the beginning Simmons shouts convincingly: "Rock And Rooooooooooooll!!!!!!!!!!" The song is well-played and contains an instrumental break that precedes the song's end.

At this point, the album is over, so it's time to make some considerations: all the members do a good job, but a special applause must be given to Stanley, who with his rhythm and voice never disappoints throughout the live performance; and also to Frehley, who with his improvisations, adorns the tracks with an energy not present on the studio albums.