This post is not about Kiss - but that’s how it begins.
A few weeks back, I signed up for what was the last ever Kiss show on Pay Per View. I figured that after spending my whole life in the Kiss Army, through thick and thin, it was the right thing to do. Was it enjoyable? Yep - it was great. I owe Kiss my teenage sanity, my tribe and probably my soul.
None of my Kiss friends were interested in it though and it ended up being an event I ‘attended’ alone - and I get it. Sometimes things belong in a certain time and place. In the real world, Kiss belong in 1977. If it had ended there, it would have been perfect but it didn't. (There are plenty of full 1977 concerts on YouTube if you’re interested). They were on fire. Scary. Powerful. They had the world at their feet. I was 10 years old and I loved them.
But that was then and this is now. Last night, I watched the Taylor Swift Eras tour video (it’s currently up on Amazon to purchase) and it crushed me into a small block of paste. It made Kiss (who, whether you like them or not, are well known for their show) look like small children who had been given some Lego for Christmas. This made me cross because it could have been so much better than it actually was, even though it really was great.
I first saw Taylor on the Speak Now tour about 13 years back (I’m sure somebody will correct me on that) and it was fantastic. I took my daughter under duress and came out a believer - but this latest tour is beyond anything I’ve ever seen - and I’ve seen a lot.
Sure, the movie has been made for a cinematic release but really… wow!
A three and half hour set. Check. Changing sets (including a forest and a swimming pool). Check.
Technology pushed to the max. Check.
No lyric monitors in sight - this is important to me because a lot of bands in the rock world use them and I think it sucks - you’ve got one job. Learn your songs. Err: Check.
Anyway - here’s what it looks like and it makes 99.99999% of all other areas bands look like they’re pretending:
There are deep dive articles into Taylor’s set (and the theatrical release) on a hundred other websites because writing about her practically guarantees double readership but that’s not what I’m here for.
This is a landmark moment in music/concert attendance because it sets a bar so high, it must be impossible to reach it. It’s like the world record of pole vaulting where you watch it happen at a championship level and wonder just how the hell anybody is ever going to jump that high again.
Sure, world records get broken all the time, but I just don’t see how this one will be. It’s more than about the music - which is of the highest order whether you like her or not. If you can’t see that, you’re just being tribal about your own thing. It’s more than going to a show as well. This whole “thing” is built on the shoulders of the fans. They are rabid. They’re supportive. They’re warriors. They’re influencers. They’re loyal.
They’re also mostly young and bankrolled - Taylor speaks their language. You might be remortgaging your house for a ticket but damn… a lot of that money was put back where it belonged. She’s on tour over here this year but I missed that fact and I too scared to look and see what my chances of getting a ticket are. You snooze you lose in 2024.
It will be a long time until something like this happens again at this level but there will come a time - and it may not actually be a million years away - in which virtual reality or A.I (maybe both) will be so accessible that a whole new concert experience will be available. If you’re a young kid right now - or not even born yet - this could well be the norm by the time you’re allowed out of the house by yourself.
Maybe with the assistance of VR, you could be there and at home at the same time - I know it sounds like hell for those of us who grew up getting our feet stuck to beer stained floors but something like this is coming whether you like it or not.
And yet - one of the best shows I’ve been to in the last five years was Steve Conte at The Slaughtered Lamb in London. Venue capacity: 120 sweaty people - standing. Here’s then only clip of him I can find online from that night doing Teenage Kicks with Duncan Reid (from The Boys):
All of which goes to prove that time changes everything. One minute you can be ruling the world but at some point, somebody younger and slicker than you will come along and stand on your shoulders to do their thing, that’s kind of like your thing, only better and for different people.
It also proves that even though I admire what Taylor Swift has achieved and would count myself as a pretty big fan, I’d still prefer to be with 119 like minded souls in the basement of a bar in Clerkenwell. You can take the man out of the club but you can’t take the club out of the man.
Meanwhile:
I’ve got The Secret Hours from Mick Herron on the boil at the moment and it’s excellent:
The Slow Horses series is superb (and hats off to the Apple TV adaptation too which is one of the best shows around by quite some margin) but these stand alone novels are just as good. I’m about halfway through this but it’s already propelled itself to the top of the ‘not Slow Horses’ series. One day, in the not so distant future, the critics will figure out that Herron is every bit as good as LeCarre - if not better because the world is now a far more complex place to be spying than it used to be.
[Side note: All these years later, I still don’t quite understand how something can have The Number One Bestseller printed on it before it’s been published. A little research suggests that a reasonable sales figure for a hardback is between 250 and 2000 in the UK. This of course, might be relative and therefore, it is indeed a bestseller but it still seems a bit low to me when you compare it to say, an Arsenal match where 50,000+ will turn up...every week. That would be a good subject for a podcast don’t you think?]
The new Duran Duran album, Danse Macabre, has also been making its presence felt as the soundtrack to the week:
They might not be setting the chart on fire, because the passage of time is always a cruel thing at the best of times, but the original songs on the album are fantastic - especially with some volume behind them. The second half of the album comprises a fistful of well known covers which all bring something new to the party too - with the exception of Ghost Town, which I have always hated, but the beauty of streaming is I can delete it from ‘my’ album and never have to think of it again.
