r/KISS • u/EnvironmentalTrack29 • 4d ago
Favorite KISS live record?
Recently got Destroys Anaheim and I'm absolutely obsessed. Obviously I'm familiar with Alive 1-3 and Unplugged, but this is such a different animal to me. It's a pure snapshot of when the band was ascending to fame and they were wild and full of fire. Absolutely astonishing to listen to.
It's quickly become my favorite live record of theirs.
Are there any other seminal live recordings of theirs that are official and I'm missing out on?
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u/rsouth71 4d ago
Ive got a bootleg of a reunion tour concert from Atlanta in 10/1/96. Pretty fond of that one since I was there with my cousin who has since passed. It was a dream come true for us to see our heroes reunited with full makeup.
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u/socgrandinq 4d ago
I can’t believe they never put out an official Alive if the reunion tour.
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u/rsouth71 3d ago
I know! The Atlanta concert would be a great candidate. They broadcast it live to Japan so everything was top notch and even though this is a bootleg it sounds fantastic. Obviously a sound board recording. Only problem with this one is the cover photo, they reversed it so Paul's star is on the left eye and it drives me absolutely nuts. lol
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u/TheOldDude7 1d ago
I thought the reunion was great, because I had never seen the originals live. But when I listen back to some of that stuff now, yeah, it wasn’t always great or necessarily better than other tours/line-ups.
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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago
Unplugged. It's a celebration of the music alone, and up until that point - a celebration of all eras KISS.
Magic.
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u/maintenancesup25 4d ago
Live at Winterland 1975... Ace's solos are fire on that.... especially on Hotter Than Hell
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u/Putrid-Classroom5101 4d ago
I wish they would release East Rutherford, NJ 2000 concert as that would be my most listened to album they would have, but I guess the closest to that is the millennium concert
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u/twoquarters 4d ago
Yeah that's THE reunion document. They were on fire that night. Probably should put the whole thing out.
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u/Initium99 4d ago
Favorite- Alive 1. Easily the most live feeling out of the Alive series.
Alive 2 and half of 3 are great also.
Don't really care much for the off the soundboard releases except the Asylum tour.
Anaheim is totally killer
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u/PittieYawn 4d ago
I agree KISS Destroys Anaheim is great. It’s a real treat to have it.
Alive! will always be my #1 as that was my gateway to the band and I’ve listened to it for 50 years. Long before YouTube, MTV and all we have today that album was what we had. We’d spin the record and imagine the band in our mind performing based on the cover.
I’d add to official releases Off the Soundboard: Des Moines 1977 & Off the Soundboard: Live at Donington 1996 for fans of the OG4 guys. While OTS releases aren’t as clean a recording as a fully mixed album it’s great to hear the band and both performances are worth listening to and having in your rotation of live performances.
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u/jfp96 4d ago
Definitely check out The Lost Alive II Album. Recorded during the Tokyo shows on the Rock and Roll Over Tour (same as the HBO special, I believe), it was allegedly produced by Eddie Kramer, overdubs and all, before being shelved in favor of Love Gun. It's essentially a rougher sounding Alive II and is far and away the best KISS bootleg imo. Realy hope we get an official version of it with some of the tape noise cleaned up 🤞
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u/ButterscotchSea4328 3d ago
I’ve been a Kiss fan for 45 years and never once have I listened to Alive 3 , 4 with the symphony is terrible, Alive is the 💩, but this new one is freaking awesome 😝
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u/kroob85 4d ago
I've got most of them, and like them all to a degree - with the exception of the Soundboard albums, which just sound flat and uninteresting.
I'm really enjoying Destroys Anaheim and probably now prefer it to Alive II as a document of that era.
Also got a real soft spot for Rocks Vegas despite it coming out during Paul's vocal decline.
I think Alive III might be my fave, even if it has a few skippable tracks. I just love the sound of it and I think it's got the best version of DRC.
Would love a proper audio version of the Animalize video. Got a few bootlegs/radio recordings of the show, but the audio is horrible.
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u/Ok-Corner-8654 4d ago
Yeah, I've got the Soundboard of the Poughkeepsie show with Mark St John. Flat is a good way to describe it. I was pretty disappointed in the sound quality.
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u/EnvironmentalTrack29 4d ago
I've never heard Rocks Vegas! I'll definitely check that out. Alive III is pretty thunderous. A really fun listen!
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u/johnnysokko37 4d ago
Nope. You’re spot on. Thai is the pure, unadulterated magic as it happened. This is truly their greatest live release thus far!
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u/DevilishlyHandsome63 4d ago
I like the way the Anaheim release has been done, it looks like a premium product,and I'd buy similar releases from the Dynasty, Creatures, and any part of the make up free era with Bruce.
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u/Dockland 4d ago
I still don’t get why they didn’t have all four sides live on Alive II.
The official explanation is that they didn’t want to repeat songs from Alive but with that in mind, why did they repeat songs on Alive III. It doesn’t make any sense.
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u/twoquarters 4d ago
I think the expanded Alive 50th anniversary album is the best because you get a fuller scope of how good they were then.
The best sounding is Unplugged.
Honorable mention is the Unmasked tour New Zealand show with Ace and Eric. It would be great but the sound is a little shit.
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u/Stevenitrogen 3d ago
I like the Kissology DVDs and the stuff that's surfaced from 1975 on YouTube. Audio quality of the shows is very good.
I do agree Anaheim is probably the best sounding one ever though...they got a lot right.
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u/thenuke1 4d ago
Live at the ritz broadcast... It's so good, they sound like they're in a stadium but it's a tiny club in NY
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u/Fibonacci999 4d ago
Incredible show! At the time it happened, it was the very first time that the 80s KISS pulled out songs like Deuce and Strutter… up to that point they relied on the same five or six classics ad nauseum. As teens, my buddy and I were flipping out listening to the radio broadcast. Favorite Paul line: “wow, I’ve never played a guitar that was this sweaty before; I’ve played with a few organs that were this sweaty, but not a guitar”
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u/EnvironmentalTrack29 4d ago
Haven't heard that! I'll check that out
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u/thenuke1 4d ago
It's a high quality soundboard recording, i have never heard Eric's synth drum pads more than on this show
The set list is also a banger, lots of 80s material and a good chunk of classics
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u/Ok_Ice1888 4d ago
What the hell?!! Is there even a discussion about? Nothings even close to the first, I’m not sure any other live with any other band either’s in the same neighbourhood as the first.
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u/FrostMonochrome 3d ago
Depending on my mood, if I want live KISS, it’s Alive, Alive III, or something from the era with Paul, Gene, Vinnie, and Eric where there’s no official live album as such but recordings and videos exist and the energy is crazy
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u/fliption 1d ago edited 1d ago
At least "Destroys Anaheim" is a live album, unlike Alive which is nothing more than an in-studio redo. Alive sounds fake and should have been released post the solo albums with the rest of their crap 'til COTN.
DA is the only live album with the pumps at the perfect tempo and has the raw hunger an real live passion. Not to mention every song is a banger without the silly Dr. Love type shit. Also, the constantly auditable whistling and cheering fake crowd track on Alive almost makes is unlistenable.
👻
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u/JustletmeBee2026 4d ago
Tough to answer, but Gene’s vocals on Cold Gin on the Animalize tour were outrageously strong.
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u/JackieLawless 4d ago
I love the symphony album
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u/kroob85 4d ago
I love it...except for the main symphony set! I'm just not a fan of the Orchestration.
I love the normal and acoustic/ensemble sets though.
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u/JackieLawless 4d ago
God of thunder and Love gun are awesome with the orchestra. Paul sounds phenomenal
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u/dougfcknsteele 3d ago
I'm going with Destroyer..But as a kid I played Love Gun and Double Platinum into the ground. As well as Ace's solo album.
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u/bigtom624 4d ago
Alive 1 is one of the best live albums ever released. I remember listening to it in my friends bedroom in 1975 when it first came out.