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 The Animalize tour was divided into two
halves: the European leg and the U.S. leg, with two very different shows and stage sets! The European staging (seen here in picture 1), was
basically the Unmasked stage, painted like animal skin (leopard spots and tiger stripes).
Picture 1 is from the German part of the tour, as the band is using the German logo!
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1. Detroit Rock City Encores: Other songs performed: *) note: The band
performed a jam session each night, playing such songs as Winchester Cathedral, La Bamba,
Oh Susanna, Sunshine Of My Love, Hey Joe and others. And on at least one occasion they
performed Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Rose" in it's entirety! U.S. Tour 1. Detroit Rock City Encores: Note: The encore "Oh Susanna" was
only performed occasionally, as a substitute for the jam sessions performed in Europe! |
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 The only effects to survive were Gene's fire breathing and
Paul's guitar breaking! Gene's fire breathing stunt had been moved to the end of "War
Machine", because "Firehouse" had been dropped from the set!!Something new was the band doing an impromptu jam session on stage each night as an encore, and Eric Carr singing lead vocals on "Young And Wasted"! Animalize became very successful in America, and a
much larger stage set was designed for the American leg of the tour.
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 The
show would start much in the same manner as the Dynasty show, with the band being lifted
onto the stage by a lift behi nd the drum riser. Sound effects of a large
airplane landing would be played over the speakers while the band was coming up.While standing on the platform right in front of the logo (picture 5), the band would be presented, and launch into "Detroit Rock City", with bombs and flash pots. The flamethrowers were also back, and were used during the opening of "Heaven's On Fire", a song from Animalize.  And there were more fire during "War Machine", as Gene performed his fire breathing trick (picture 6)! As you can also see in picture 7B, the stage floor was covered with a carpet also depicting the Animalize cover. There were also solo's on this tour. Like the drum risers used in the '70's, the 1984 variation (seen in picture 4) could move forward, to the edge of the stage, during Eric's solo. |
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 The
platform marked (b) in picture 4 had a large part in the show. First during Eric's drum
solo, where the platform would appear above the drum kit flashing lights like an UFO! At the end of "Black Diamond" the light
bridge seen in front of the platform in picture 4 would swing down onto the stage. The
band (Gene, Paul and Bruce) would run up into the lightning rig, and then appear on top of
the platform, which would then slowly descend toward the stage, while bombs and firework
would go off! Picture 8 is not Paul auditioning for the part of Tarzan in a new Broadway musical, but Paul swinging onto stage to break his guitar during "Rock And Roll All Nite". Paul always wanted a signature stunt of his own... Gene had the blood spitting, and the flying stunts in the Dynasty and Unmasked shows; Ace had his smoking guitar, the flying guitar, and the rocket shooting guitar; Peter and Eric had their moving drum risers, but Paul never had a stunt! He wanted a flying stunt like Gene's, and eventually he got it, but in the Animalize days he had to do with the swinging on stage to break the guitar! (the picture is used with kind permission from Randy Bergeron) While Paul was smashing his guitar into the stage floor, more pyrotechnics would go off, and the waterfall pyroeffect would end the show (as seen behind Gene and Paul in picture 4!!) |
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 Picture
8B is a rare photo of Mark St. John on the Animalize stage...As you probably know Mark was replaced by Bruce Kulick during the European tour, due to the fact that Mark had been struck by Reiter's Syndrome... an illness that affects the joints in hands and legs.
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logo Gene spitting fire Paul smashing guitar smoke
bombs flying ramp trapez flying
stunt fireworks
Two ramps (one on each side of Eric's drum riser), allowed
the band to walk from the top of the amplifiers to the stage, exactly like the Unmasked
stage.
Like on the Lick It
Up tour, KISS would also on this tour occasionally perform in extremely small venues, like
in Lund, Sweden (picture 2B) where they could only fit parts of the stage gear onto the
stage!! As you can see there is no ramps, and Eric is practically sitting in the KISS logo
behind him!! 
Some effects had been rumored
however! 
Mark was supposed to return to KISS for the U.S. leg
of the tour, but after performing parts of only three shows Mark was permanently replaced
by Bruce!
To view the exact
tourdates of the Animalize tour, go to the Tourdates page.
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THE  TOURS |
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| 1983-84 | 1984-85 | 1985-86 | 1987-88 | 1990 | 1992 |
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| 1994-95 | 1995 | 1996-97 | 1998-99 | 2000-01 | main page |
Many thanks to Jan Laursen for
letting us use these pages.
Here is the link to his website:
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