By: Robert Cavuoto 
With only three shows left in their summer tour schedule, Kiss and Motley Crue pulled out all the stops and put on one Hell of a show at PNC in Holmdel, New Jersey, as they shared the stage in a tour simply and powerfully dubbed “The Tour”.
Think Fourth of July colliding with New Year’s Eve, all in one night. Both bands came out trying to outdo each other, but the clear winner was the audience! Their sets were packed with enough hits, pyro and explosives to level Holmdel back to the Stone Age.
Motley Crue went on first and opened the show with a funeral march through the audience with girls and ghouls in tow firing CO2 at the fans. Instantly, you knew you knew this was leading up to something great.
The precession ended at the stage with the band slamming the audience with their 2008 hit single, “Saints of Los Angeles”. They continued to pummel the audience for 90 minutes with classics Crus tunes like; “Wildside”, “Primal Scream” and my personal favorite song “Live Wire”
If the band wasn’t assaulting your ears with high decibel hits, then they were hosing you down with water cannons during their newest single “SEX”. Most of the audience probably didn’t notice that signer Vince Neil was performing with a broken foot which never slowed him down as he ran the length of the stage for each song.
Mick Mars lead the charge with the killer guitar riffs that made Crue the gods of glam metal. Though suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis, he seemed more active than I can recall in recent years, let’s hope this is a good sign and that his health steadily improves.
Nikki Sixx owned the stage providing the snarls and pounding bottom end to their songs and let’s not forget about Tommy Lee, the sickest MF’er of the band, on his roller coaster drum set.
One lucky grandmother got to go for a ride during his drum solo. I have one question- What do I have to do to go for a ride next year?
Kiss was up next and blasted their way into the PNC arena from the ceiling during their opening song “Detroit Rock City”. They were like fire to Motley Crue’s gasoline.
Over the last 40 years, Kiss has continued to raise the bar on how bands should entertain their audience and taught everyone how to provide over-the-top bombastic thrills. A Kiss concert doesn’t live and die with just fire and explosions,but by providing fans with the classic songs that made the band the icons they are. After all, they have two of the best front men in rock n’ roll with Paul Stanley flying across the audience during “Love Gun” and Gene Simmons spitting blood from the lighting rafters for “God of Thunder”. Add Tommy Thayer shooting rockets from his guitar on “Shock Me” and Eric Singer’s elevating drums during “Black Diamond” and it’s impossible not to see why they are one of the greats!
There was no shortage of other classic like “Lick it Up”, “Shout it Out Loud”, “Firehouse”, “Hotter than Hell” as well “Hell or Hallelujah”, their newest song off their upcoming CD, Monster, due out this October. Amid the swirl of white confetti, the rubble of smashed guitars, and a tremendous light show, the band closed the concert with “Rock n Roll all Night”.
One can only guess where Kiss will take their show next year as this time around will be pretty hard to top. As I left the venue and passed the sold out 14,000 fellow Kiss Army members everyone I could see was grinning ear-to-ear. Kiss and Motley Crue – like fire and gasoline, the making of one explosive night!
GALLERY
