Revenge Tour - 1992
Start Date: April 22, 1992
End Date:December 20, 1992
Shows: 77
Legs: 3
Countries: Canada, England, Scotland, United States, Wales
Opening Acts: Danger, Faster Pussycat, Fortress, Great White, Jackyl, Shooting Gallery, Trixter, Vesuvius
Average Attendance: 5,029 (club dates excluded)
Line Up: Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, Gene Simmons, Eric Singer
KISS in 1992 was a changed band since the Hot In The Shade Tour, in appearance and in music, for Revenge the band went back to their hard rock roots and the loss of Eric Carr also changed the band emotionally, with the loss of Eric Carr they did not only lose a friend and a brother, also KISS's drummer.
This time no auditions were held as when Peter Criss left in 1980. The choice this time was simple, they went with Eric Singer, who already had a solid background being Lita Ford's touring drummer in 1984, the drummer for Black Sabbath on their albums Seventh Star (1986) and The Eternal Idol (1987), and he already played on Paul's 1989 solo tour and on 'Hot In The Shade' recording on some demo's, Eric eventually seemed a solid choice and would be with the band until the reunion of the original KISS line up in 1996 and would permanently rejoin again in 2004.
KISS's sound was heavier than ever thanks to Bob Ezrin and KISS following trends once again and had a even heavier musical style that was on the rise. Next to their music, also their costumes became heavier, back was the long hair, black leather and metal studs. Gene even had a short beard that was probably his best look during the KISS unmasked era.
Revenge Tour Stage
Robert Roth designed the stage and it was constructed by Tait Towers. The stage was first planned to resemble a post-apocalypse wasteland with guard towers, cars buried in the stage, broken amplifiers around the stage, eventually this was scrapped as it was unsafe and the costs were too high. The only things remaining were some amplifiers put sideways on the stage, a graffiti covered subway sign on the far right of the stage and some lighting rigs hanging crooked to resemble like it would fall down any second.
But the biggest prop on the stage would become the Statue Of Liberty:
Statue Of Liberty - This big prop that would fall apart during 'War Machine' with the help of explosions and show the chrome colored skull and bones underneath. This effect was inspired by Metallica who also used a Statue Of Liberty on their stage during the 'And Justice For All' Tour in 1989 and would collapse by explosions during their final song. But the KISS Statue Of Liberty had some more tricks up her sleeve, it contained light and pyro effects in it's crown that would be used during the show. At the end of the show the statue's hand would lift up it's middle index finger giving the finger, some fans took it too literally and thought it was the band saying 'fuck you' to the fans! Larry Mazer, KISS's manager in 1992, stated the piece was a disaster as it would not work some nights and some nights barely and the pieces that would break off were very heavy.
Strippers - Another interesting living addition to the stage were strippers that came on the stage during 'Take It Off'. This started out as a joke by the house production manager, Tim Makoul, who's girlfriend was a stripper. Tim now had the responsibility at every town to find the local strip club, pick like 20 girls and Gene & Paul picked three or four of them to be on stage, in the end, there were three girls who enjoyed joining the show so much they stayed with the band for a month, without payment and they only asked to ride on the tour bus (too the delight of Gene). The strippers were not allowed to undress completely nude according to US law but only down to their bra's and panties. The strippers were used again in 1994 during the South America tour and in 1995 in Australia and Japan. In Australia they were allowed to take their tops off.
KISS Logo -The biggest difference to the stage was that there was no real KISS logo hanging behind the band in the old traditional way. Instead they used a giant black and white vinyl KISS logo curtain behind the band and it was only visible during the encores.
Fire Breathing - Gene breathed fire again during the tour.
Paul Smashing Guitars - Paul would smash guitars again, something he skipped doing so during the 'Hot In The Shade Tour'.
Guitar and Drum Solo - Both Bruce and Eric would have a short solo, During his solo, Eric would stand up, and play 'Oh Susannah' on a harmonica. Paul would then comment that the audience hadn't paid to see Eric play any "Hee-hah"-music, and then Eric would launch into an impressive drum solo.
Gene enjoying the company of one of the strippers
The full stage during rehearsals
The tour started way before the album was even released (May 19, 1992 vs tour start on April 22), but in support they released
'Unholy'as a single on May 4th to show how different KISS's sound was. KISS eventually toured with three legs supporting the album. First they launched a US club tour without the full show, than the band continued to England for a short tour but with the 'Hot In The Shade' stage. The last leg was suppose to start July 31 and end on September 20 but this postponed and in October the band eventually would start the real arena tour in support for the Revenge album.
The tour eventually was considered a disappointment, with a attendance averaging 5,000 people per show at the arena gigs, the worst attendance record since 1975. Shows were canceled during the tour due to a lack of ticket sales and the tour itself ended prematurely just before the Christmas holidays, The next leg of the tour was planned for 1993 but the attendance figures were so poor in most markets that the dates never came to fruition. One of the many reasons for the tour doing badly was a poor economy in the start of 1991, 'Everytime I Look At You' was a commercial failure as a single and the music scene was changing rapidly and when the real Revenge arena tour started, 'Revenge' had already fallen out of the Billboard 200. Too keep the album relevant they released more music video's than ever for an album. The only reason why promoters agreed with a tour was that they saw the economy recovering in the Summer of 1991.
Stage Props:
Pre-Show "hum"
Fireworks
Flamethrowers
Pyrotechnics
Flash Pots
Leon The Sphinx (Europe)
Statue Of Liberty
Fire Engine Lights
Fire Engine Siren
Bombs
Giant Curtain Opening Show
Strippers
Gene Breathing Fire
Dry Ice Smoke
Improved Laser Show
Giant KISS Logo Curtain
Paul Breaking Guitar
Eric Singer during his first KISS tour
Typical Setlist:
01.'Creatures Of The Night'
02. 'Deuce'
03. 'I Just Wanna'
04. 'Unholy'
05. 'Parasite'
06. 'Heaven's On Fire'
08. 'Watchin' You'
09. 'Hotter Than Hell'
10. 'Firehouse'
11. 'I Want You'
12. 'Forever'
13. 'War Machine'
14. 'Rock And Roll All Nite'
15. 'Lick It Up'
16. 'I Love It Loud'
17. 'Detroit Rock City'
Encore:
18. 'Shout It Out Loud'
19. 'God Gave Rock 'N Roll To You II'
20. 'Love Gun'
21. 'Star Spangled Banner'
Tour Book:
The Revenge Tour Book
Special Shows / Happenings:
- The Stone, San Francisco, CA, April 23, 1992 -
This was Eric Singer's first official show with KISS, '100.000 Years' and 'Parasite' were performed for the first time since 1976.
- Hammerjacks, Baltimore, MA, May 4, 1992 -
May 4 was declared KISS Day in Baltimore and the band received the keys to the city from the mayor himself!
A second from disaster when the pyro was about to hit the ceiling!
Wales National Ice Rink, Cardiff, Wales, May 20, 1992
During a pyrotechnic cue during 'Heaven's On Fire', the pyro hit the ceiling and it caused $30,000 worth of damage to the venue's low ceiling and it even made the papers the next day.
- Forum, Montreal, QC, Canada, October 5, 1992 -
During Gene's fire breathing act a small mishap occurred, after breathing fire Gene stuck his fire breathing sword in the square box as he always does,
only this time he hit the side and it bounced off right into the barricade but nobody got hurt.
- Civic Center, Portland, ME, October 6, 1992 -
The road crew found out that Gene hated lobsters, they look like giant cockroaches to him, when Gene went back out for the encore, they placed a big lobster tail on his mic stand,
he did not dare to come near it!
- Miami Arena, Miami, FL, October 31, 1992 -
This was the last show for the opening act Faster Pussycat, as a joke, KISS's crew littered their dressing room with several 50 pounds bags of dog food and left McDonald's applications on the mirror (as their bass player was rumored to be quitting), in revenge Faster Pussycat came on the stage during KISS's show in drag during 'Take It Off'! Gene, being completely pissed off told the stage manager: "I don't give a f*ck if you even have to shoot them, no one gets on this stage!"
- The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI, November 27, 1992 -
Eddie Kramer was present to record the show for 'Alive III', as a precaution, if the footage would not turn out desirable, at the band's sound check, Kramer recorded the show up to 'Firehouse'. This show was also professionally archived by the in house video crew and it was send through a live feed through the entire venue. The footage eventually ended on the 'KISS Konfidential' home video and 'Kissology 3' DVD set.
- Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, IN, November 28, 1992 -
This was the second show recorded for 'Alive III', video camera's were stationed at various positions around the stage to capture 'insert shots' for 'KISS Konfidential'.
- American West Arena, Phoenix, AZ, December 20, 1992 -
This show had a attendance of just 3,741 people, (with the venue having room for 18,000 people ) to help mask this a fog machine was set up at the sound board. To make matters worse, Eric was coming down with the flu and had a bucket next to his drum kit just in case.
Crew backstage pass and a pass for the after show
The Revenge stage