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Mar.
13, 1990 -
Nov. 9, 1990 |
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huge logo smoke bombs Sphinx fireworks
laser show |
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Considering
the fact that the "Hot In The Shade" tour was an enormous success, it's really
odd, that so few good pictures from the tour exists!! It's actually been really hard just
to find the ones seen here! In fact KISS almost did not go on tour with Hot in the shade.
The album was not doing that well at the beginning when it came out in September 1989, but
when "Forever" became a TOP 10 hit in early 1990, the interest was there and
they went on tour im May 1990 with 2 good opening acts (most of the time Slaughter were
opening, who had a huge hit album back then and another second big band like Faster
Pussycat for instance)
The new stage set were the most
amazing thing KISS had used since the '70's. The stage was dominated by a large Sphinx
(like on the cover of Hot In The Shade, and seen behind the band in picture 1!), that was
nicknamed Leon The Sphinx.
As the houselights dimmed, the humming sound would be heard from the speakers, while Leon
opened his mouth, and let hundreds of thin laser beams out.
The laser curtain had already been developed for the Dynasty show, but it had not worked
proberly, and was discarded after the first show. On this tour it worked perfectly. As
Leon's mouth opened fully, KISS would be revealed standing in silhouette, in the mist of
laser beams!
There was no "You wanted the best, you got the best" introduction on this tour;
KISS would just walk down on the stage and open the show with "I Stole Your
Love" and an amazing firework display. |

Set list:
1. I Stole Your Love
2. Deuce
3. Heaven's On Fire
4. Crazy, Crazy Nights
5. Black Diamond
6. Shout It Out Loud
7. Strutter
8. Calling Dr. Love
9. Rise To It
10. Fits Like A Glove
11. Lick It Up
12. God Of Thunder (incl. drum solo)
13. Forever
14. Hide Your Heart
15. Cold Gin
16. Tears Are Falling
17. I Love It Loud
18. Love Gun
Encores:
19. Detroit Rock City
20. I Want You
21. Rock And Roll All Nite
Additional songs occasionally performed:
I Was Made For Lovin' You.
Kiss also did some warm-up gigs in April 1990, in a couple of nightclubs. At these shows
they played some interesting songs: Betrayed, Little Ceasar, and C'mon And Love Me
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KISS
sounded better than they had for years on this tour. It helped a great deal that there
were no solo's this time around... well, not at first that was.
Eric was so unhappy about this decision, that he eventually got permission to do a solo.
And he didn't disappoint this time. The solo has to be heard, but I'll do my best to
describe it:
The solo came in the middle of "God of Thunder", just like in the good old days,
and started with Eric playing along to some Egyptian themed choir (played via the
electronic drum pads). It sounded awesome. This was followed by his usual drum/electronic
tune drum part, and then ended with Eric playing some disco styled stuff, which actually
sounded good, too! But as I said, it has to be heard!
Just before the solo, Leon's eyes had lit up, and searched the crowd, and just as KISS
kicked into the song again after the solo, he would shoot rockets from his eyes, just like
Ace and Gene had done on previous tours. And then came the biggest surprise: Leon sang the
verse that came after! The effect was done, by having the laser cannon displaying the
vocals as an oscilloscope readout on a small screen inside Leon's mouth (see picture 4).
It might sound silly, but it really looked like Leon was singing!  At the end of the last song, Detroit Rock City, Leon would
collapse, amidst a giant fireworks display. The first encore would be I Want You, which
started with Paul and Bruce playing the intro while a big mirror ball was hanging over the
stage bathing the entire arena in thin purple light beams. As the heavy part of the song
started, a big, metallic KISS logo would come up (as seen in picture 2 and 3). The logo
looked a lot like the one used from 1976 to 1984, but it was not the same. Look carefully
at the K, and you will see it had a wrong shape. This version of the logo was last seen in
the concert segment of the "Detroit Rock City" movie! Picture 3 here also gives
you a good look of the lasers used during the show!
Aside from this most of the signature things were missing from the show... Gene didn't
breathe fire, there was no confetti in Rock And Roll All Nite, and Paul didn't break his
guitar. The latter was probably because Paul for the most part of the tour played a Gibson
Les Paul model, which are rather expensive... certainly too expensive to break. Instead
Paul misjudged a jump one night and ran into a metal barrier, and broke a couple of ribs. |
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Tourbook |
line-up:
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Gene
Simmons (bass, vocals)
Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Bruce Kulick (lead guitar)
Eric Carr (drums, vocals) |
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To view the exact
tourdates of the Hot in the shade tour, go to the Tourdates page.

Many thanks to Jan Laursen for
letting us use these pages.
Here is the link to his website:

 
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