Kiss Tickets!

(Overzealous single mom to sincere but potheaded son):

"You take my hard earned money…and you and your idiot friends spend it on Kiss tickets?? KISS TICKETS?!?" (- Mrs. Bruce, from Detroit Rock City)

Yes, that's right friends and neighbors, thanks to the magic of the internet and advance ticket sales, I now have two (count 'em, 2!) slices of concert gold that will admit me and bro-in-law Joel to the following:

Ahhh…the fabled Cobo Hall, where the make-or-break Kiss Alive! was partially recorded in early 1975. The album from which I learned to drum, perched on my tower of shiny vinyl cushions teetering precariously on my bed. Wait, I can supply a photo of those, too, I just realized…

Nice, eh? Bicentennial specials, those…prob'ly ran my mom all of $14.95 for the set. Anyway, imagine those three stacked on my bed, me flailing around and two of my friends with tennis rackets (or brooms, who really cared?) and the curtains closed and a colored lightbulb in my 7-Up can light…

and all's basically right with the world as we rocked out to 4 sides of LP heaven. *sigh*

Of course, I spent a lot of time a year or so ago frantically decrying everything about the "new" Kiss lineup. I swore that, having sat in the 2nd row and met them backstage, I'd never go back to the nosebleeds. I didn't have any interest in Tommy Thayer as a stand-in for Ace Frehley, singing Ace's songs and playing Ace's solos note for note like some sort of goddamn machine.

Then, Kiss went and did the unthinkable.

They recorded a new album…

And I said "WHAT?!?" And I answered, "Well, apparently so, according to the information!" (I often have these little conversations with myself. I do SO love good conversation!) And the details coming out of the Kiss camp were designed to hype and intensify anticipation: "It's our best album in 30 years." "It's Rock and Roll Over meets Love Gun" (two classic back-to-back Kiss LPs from 1976/77). "It'll be out this fall." And then suddenly BLAMMO! I log onto KissOnline.com on Monday and there's a clip of new music, and the album title, the artwork, and best of all, an announcement that Kiss would play Cobo one last time before it closes. And I said "Oh, I gotta be there!" And now I will be. I got tickets in section A-5, row 1, seats 1 and 2. Which, if you look at this handy-dandy li'l chart here…

puts us in the front row of the lower bowl about halfway out. Far enough to not have to be staring at the stage from the side, but close enough to see shit. UP. CLOSE.

For those of you who care (and if you've read THIS far you must, right?), the album is called Sonic Boom, and the artwork was done by beloved RaRO artist Michael Doret. First time he's worked with Kiss since 1976, and frankly I think he hit it outta the park once again…