Paul Stanley/Cosmic Storm
Thebarton Theatre
Thursday 26 April



Upon arrival at Thebarton there was no mistaking the fact that Paul Stanley is from Kiss; for other than a large percentage of the audience being a) older, b) big, hairy and scary looking and, c) wearing a variety of tour t-shirts (any base colour you like as long as it's black) from over the past thirty years there was a good natured air of excitement to be found. Once inside there was there was plenty of opportunity to update your wardrobe, as well as add a pair of women's knickers with the tasty slogan, "I spent the night with Paul Stanley", emblazoned on them to your kit. These were held high later in the show by one blonde chickie-babe as a banner during the Kiss classic, Do You Love Me.

No more needs to be said there, but then there was the extraordinary amount of kids in attendance. And I mean young ones at that, and looking around during the show many were yelling out and singing as loud and proud as their mums and dads, with one little girl donned in an oversized t-shirt, full Starman makeup and a huge black wig catching Stanley's attention mid-performance.

You have to admit, she did look cute and in turn the night proved to be a real family affair and every Kiss fan's wet dream as the consummate showman, and very chatty Stanley and his absolutely awesome band gave us over two hours of old and often obscure Kiss album tracks (including: Hide Your Heart, A Million To One, Magic Touch), big hits and near forgotten cuts from his 1978 debut self titled solo release: Tonight You Belong To Me and Move On. Goodbye was the obvious night's closer, with Everytime I See You Around and Bulletproof from his new release, 'Live To Win', becoming instant live favourites.

Then of course it was the biggies from Kiss that really got the crowd enthusiastically punching the air: and up close in such a confined space songs like Love Gun, Detroit Rock City, I Was Made For Loving You and Strutter sounded bigger than ever and together with the incredible lighting and brilliant sound were almost too huge for the venue itself. I've seen Kiss play on a number of tours, but tonight really gets my vote hands down. Or should that be hands up?

Opening band Cosmic Storm also deserves considerable kudos here, though I can't tell you anymore than much of their original material stood well against the only song I recognised, Concrete Blonde's God Is A Bullet. A very worthy rendition indeed. Thanks!

Steve Jones