We Wanted The Best, We Almost Got The Best

A long-awaited box set for the greatest live album ever is far from complete

Circumstances surrounding KISS and Casablanca Records in mid-1975 were dire. The group’s first three albums (KISS, Hotter Than Hell, Dressed to Kill) sold in horrific quantities and didn’t contain a hit single to break the group into the mainstream buying public. Having lost distribution from Warner Brothers, president Neil Bogart resorted to borrowing money from, as described by Gene Simmons, ‘people with vowels at the end of their last name,’ to keep the label afloat. He also banked on a novelty release of performances from the Johnny Carson-hosted Tonight Show to set the books straight; more copies were returned than were sold. Pulling KISS off tours to record albums that had no commercial substance was out of the question, so Bogart decided to piggyback off of KISS’s undisputable reputation as a live act by releasing a live album.

Before they were in fashion, live albums were seen as a death knell for artists who were on their way out. For KISS, it was an opportunity to capture the excitement and bombast of their live performances, which hardly translated on their first three studio albums. Eddie Kramer, who recorded the group’s first demo back in March 1973, knew how to capture the band’s raw essence on tape and was assigned by Neil Bogart to produce the album. Kramer and engineer Charles Buchanan set up shop in a 16-track mobile recording truck at Detroit’s Cobo Hall, Cleveland’s Music Hall, Davenport’s RKO Orpheum Theatre, and Wildwood’s Convention Center between May and July 1975 to record material for what became KISS Alive!.

Capturing KISS within the environment that made them sound their best sounds easy on paper; reality proved it was going to be an arduous challenge. They were as far removed from a typical band that stood on stage and precisely executed their repertoire to studio-grade precision. Spectators witnessed leather-clad superheroes jumping around in eight-inch heels at a KISS show, sometimes resulting in audible flaws and mistakes. For the sake of offering perfect performances to the buying public, Eddie Kramer found it necessary for the group to redo most of the guitars, bass, and vocals in the studio; only Peter Criss’ drums were left 100% intact from the raw recordings. In an attempt to maximize the impact of the crowd, Kramer overlaid many layers of applause, to inflate the audience size. Microphones failed to capture pyrotechnics, so he also overdubbed pre-recorded canons. These additives stigmatize KISS Alive! as a studio byproduct that lacks authenticity. Studio trickery aside, the intent of KISS Alive! was to exquisitely recreate the feeling and perception of what a KISS show was like. Paul Stanley concurred by stating, ‘It’s anything but dishonest. If it feels like a live experience, it is a live experience.’ 

Released in September 1975, KISS Alive! became an all-around miracle. Sales soared enough that it became their first multi-Platinum-selling album. Shortly after the album was released, Casablanca managed to backpay the group’s radio royalties, something the group had almost sued the label for breach of contract. Whereas the studio version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” from Dressed to Kill received generous airplay, the live version and its anthemic chorus that came to life in a live setting became KISS’s first Top 20 hit. KISS Alive! shattered the perception of live albums and started the double live album trend of the 1970s, allowing albums like Frampton Comes Alive and Cheap Trick at Budokan to define the decade.

Rabid KISS fans hypothesized the desire for a KISS Alive! box set for a long time, and its 50th anniversary marks a fitting occasion. It comes in a red foil finish, accentuating the cover of four painted warriors delivering a total visual assault. While all aspects of the original album packaging are replicated, leaving out the eight-page booklet is dubious, especially since it's included in the KISSONLINE exclusive colored vinyl pressing of the album (released at the same time as the box set). Each jacket of the supplementary audio contents follows the same artwork template of KISS Alive!, utilizing an array of alternate live and crowd shots. The exquisite 100-page hardcover book, featuring an essay and many unseen photos, is truly the heart of the set. Among the numerous pieces of additional ephemera, a notable highlight is a poster of the infamous fan-made banner as seen on the back cover of the album. Just like Dressed to Kill, the KISS Alive! box set is exclusive to KISSONLINE and matches the $400 price tag. Keep in mind: these two box sets were released a month apart from each other; it was a very expensive KISSmas!

LPs 1 and 2 are the original album. Bernie Grundman’s remaster of this landmark album intensifies all of its bombastic qualities. The pre-recorded canons that go off during the introduction of “Deuce” and the finale of “Black Diamond” sound absolutely massive. Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley’s respective rhythm and lead guitars sound more elevated, and their tone is sonically rich when syncopated. Between his softened kick drum and sizzling cymbals, Peter Criss benefits both polar ends of the EQ spectrum; the phasing effect during his solo on “100,000 Years” has three-dimensional character. One of the album’s sonic highlights is “She,” where Gene Simmons’ bass genuinely growls, and Frehley’s solo at the tail end is pleasantly ear-piercing. Eddie Kramer’s method of overdubbing the audience, despite the illusions it causes compared to what actually exists on tape, is extremely effective. On this pressing, they sound absolutely intense, and some of the applause loops he utilized are absolutely deafening. The middle section of “100,000 Years” is where it truly comes to life. Paul Stanley morphs into his ‘rock and roll preacher’ role and makes the audience every bit as receptive to his demands, whether it's clapping along or chanting ‘rock and roll’; it’s a hair-raising moment.

LPs 3 and 4 are the second of two shows performed at the RKO Orpheum Theatre in Davenport, Iowa, on July 20th, 1975. Performing two shows in one day results in the group’s weary sounding performance and Paul Stanley’s rough vocals. Reportedly battling a bout of illness at the time of the show, rescheduling the Metro Audio recording truck would’ve been an unnecessarily expensive ordeal. In return, Stanley’s ill-suited falsetto and less engaging stage raps plague the show. The band builds performance momentum as the show progresses, the crowd is every bit as enthusiastic, and the damn bullhorn from the first show (as heard on the DTK box set) is gone. Ears will perk when Gene references the crowd as ‘Quad City’ during “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a moment that was included and immortalized on KISS Alive!.

LPs 5 and 6 are of the show at the Convention Center in Wildwood, New Jersey, on July 23rd, 1975. Before the band kicks in, a pleasant surprise is JR Smalling’s unique introduction that isn’t his typical ‘You wanted the best…’ battle cry. Whereas listening to the Cobo Hall show proved that none of it was used on KISS Alive!, listening to this show almost rewrites history, proving that Wildwood was the nucleus for most of the album. It's unknown whether the re-recorded vocals done at Electric Lady were scrubbed over the raw live vocals, but Eddie Kramer conspicuously used the overdubs for this release. It’s obvious how Paul Stanley’s raw vocal bleeds into the mix, and certain tracks, particularly “Hotter Than Hell,” sound almost too perfect compared to his not-so-conveying delivery on “100,000 Years.” What’s more weird is that some of the audible flubs in Ace Frehley’s guitar solos are left intact. The compact size of the venue worked to the band's advantage, enhancing their tight performance and making this show sound exceptional.

LPs 7 and 8 are dubbed Bonus Live. Side 1 focuses on rehearsals KISS conducted in Davenport on July 20th. This was most likely done as a precautionary measure to have plenty of varied material to assemble the album, and to run through material that wasn’t in steady rotation in their repertoire. The band took this opportunity seriously, as Gene Simmons can be heard quipping at one of the roadies for making background noise. “KISS Jam” kicks off this portion, a slow and bluesy piece that isn’t too musically adventurous, proving that KISS could never fit within the ‘jam band’ category; Ace Frehley’s Jimmy Page-esque guitar licks are the only redeeming quality. One of the box set’s biggest surprises was hearing a run-through of “Strange Ways,” a Hotter Than Hell deep cut only played a handful of times, sung by Gene rather than Peter Criss. Sides 2 and 3 are the middle portion of the show at the Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 21st, 1975. Despite having ‘overdub syndrome’ similarly to Wildwood, it’s a shame the full show isn’t presented because the band provides absolutely dynamite performances, and it could’ve been the crown jewel of the set. It’s safe to say all of Paul Stanley’s stage raps on KISS Alive! came from this show; they contain all the gusto that made him one of rock’s greatest frontmen. Another packaging faux pas is the etching on Side 4: a mirrored band photo where the star on Paul Stanley’s right eye is now on his left eye. 

Technically speaking, a full telling of the KISS Alive! story should also encompass Detroit, and the first Davenport show included in the Dressed to Kill box set. Given the unlikelihood that any performances from those shows actually appeared on the final album, and the notion of keeping these sets cost-effective (to KISS’s standards at least), it was wise to split them up. However, there are still some glaring omissions that would’ve made this KISS Alive! box set a definitive overview.

Robert V. Conte, KISS’s catalog consultant in the late 1990s, located ALL of the multitracks of the shows recorded for KISS Alive! during his assessment of the archives for compiling the initial contents of the You Wanted The Best You Got The Best compilation in 1996, including the full Cleveland show. For this box set, only one of the three multitrack reels was located, so what happened between 1996 and 2025 to the other two is unknown. One of the intended inclusions on the original You Wanted The Best… was a version of “Ladies in Waiting,” a Dressed to Kill track that wasn’t performed live officially until the KISS Alive! Tour in late-’75/early’76, sourced from other recorded rehearsals; nowhere to be found on this box set. Alternate versions of the rehearsal tracks on the box set, such a non-instrumental version of “Room Service," are also known to exist.  According to Conte, there were other rehearsals recorded that have yet to be revealed. 

Another critical omission is the King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcast from November 1975. This included three tracks from Wildwood (“Hotter Than Hell,” “Firehouse,” and “Black Diamond”) and two tracks from Cleveland (“Let Me Know” and “Rock and Roll All Nite”). Knowing two other songs from Cleveland exist in some form, despite not being on the available multitracks, is a low blow. As nitpicky as it is, the live single edit of “Rock and Roll All Nite” is also missing, having appeared in the KISS Alive! 1975-2000 box set from 2006. 

For this review, I listened to the Blu-ray on a friend’s home theatre system. It utilizes a 5.1.2 speaker configuration.

The Blu-ray consists of Eddie Kramer’s Dolby Atmos mix of KISS Alive! It’s what one would expect from a live album mixed for surround sound: the band is locked in the front, and audience ambiance in the rears and overheads. This comes across more as a reconstruction of the original album. Kramer most likely narrowed down which song came from which source and assembled the mix using the available multitracks. For example, “Strutter” and “Hotter Than Hell” are from the Wildwood show and contain the same mistakes in Ace Frehley’s guitar solos as heard on LPs 5 and 6. Take tracks recorded in Cleveland, particularly “Parasite” and “Cold Gin,” where no multitracks were available. Kramer had to rely on AI-powered demixing technology and separate an already established stereo mix, which makes those tracks sound fluctuating and filtered compared to the rest; the busier the mixes get, the finer details are lost. This practice was also applied to “Rock and Roll All Nite,” and that sounded absolutely explosive. 

Moments where the mix gets interesting are the sirens panning around on “Firehouse,” and when certain instruments that carry out arrangements fill up the front speakers. A prime example is the dueling jangly guitar introduction of “Rock Bottom.” The audience, a crucial component to any live album, has space to rapture between each song or, in the case of the ‘preacher section’ during the drum solo, ebb & flow in ecstasy. Each band member also has their respective moments of glory. Gene Simmons’ bass sounds boosted and almost isolated, making his performances sound punchier or, in the case of “Nothin’ to Lose,” rumble through a subwoofer. Peter Criss’ drum solo during “100,000 Years,” and how it's panned across the front speakers, is the Catman performing at his dynamic peak. Anytime Ace Frehley goes into a lead guitar solo, the extra applied reverb makes them pop more. 

Many anomalies make this Dolby Atmos mix of KISS Alive! a radical departure from the album people have known and loved for the past 50 years. JR Smalling’s ‘You wanted the best…’ introduction is slightly different from the one on the final album. It doesn’t make sense for the pre-recorded canons to go off at the beginning of “Deuce,” but not during the climax of “Black Diamond.” The phasing on Peter Criss’ drums during his solo is dialed back, and Gene Simmons’ ‘Quad City’ mention is oddly mixed out, though Peter calls it out before he yells ‘KISS loves you!’ at the end of “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Some of the more careless mistakes fall under lazy quality control, such as “She” abruptly ending instead of fading out, and the out-of-sync bass on “Rock Bottom” that makes the track sound like a total trainwreck; who signed off on this?!

Regardless of what wasn’t included or how certain things sounded, I personally hope that KISS fans gain some closure. This is a KISS album that’s the most deserving of the ‘super deluxe’ treatment, and one that many fans have wished for for years/decades. Whether it’s revisiting the original album, hearing raw multitracked live shows, being a fly on the wall at rehearsals, or being surrounded by an immersive speaker setup, you are bound to rock and roll all nite… and you know the rest!