KISSOn the way into the Entertainment Centre tonight, there's a small child with a face that faithfully replicates Gene Simmons' make-up and an older gentleman in full Paul Stanley regalia, the spectacle completed by a beer gut squeezing out from the requisite unitard. With all this going on, it's a little hard to focus on Diva Demolition, but despite this, the band hold their own on a bill with whatever remains of several rock'n'roll luminaries.
Sure, it's not the real Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott's not around, but it's still pretty cool to hear some of his song being trotted out over the Entertainment Centre's PA, and the undoubted quality of tracks like Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back in Town is enough to inspire the audience's imagination.
If you didn't know that you were about to see some world class cock rock, then the two busty blondes, wearing cut-off t-shirts and stars and stripes tights, parading through the crowd with Mötley Crüe banners, alert you to the fact. One of the most notorious purveyors of high spectacle sleaze, the Sunset Strip four-piece's set delivers on both fronts. While frontman Vince Neil warms up his voice on numbers like Saints Of Los Angeles there's enough pyrotechnics, strobe lights and chicks. Chicks are integral to the Mötley Crüe experience; even if the band are over the hill, their back up dancers are still twenty-odd and something better to look at during new songs like Sex than Vince Neil's burgeoning man boobs. Crüe should stick to what they're good at; working through their anthem to ladies of the pole, Girls, Girls, Girls, and giving younger crowds a glimpse into what titty bars were like before 808s and Auto-Tune took over. Or they should give up.
We wanted the best, and we got the best. The curtain drops and the hottest band in the world, KISS, descends from the rafters in a blaze of production value and wow the crowd with Detroit Rock City and Shout it Out Loud. Simmons, Stanley, Singer and Thayer pedal the same drumstick twirling, fire-breathing, 'How you feelin' tonight Brisbane?' clichés as Crüe, but the same things that seemed tired during the last band are now awesome, because KISS is onstage. After all, this is the Demon, Starchild, Spaceman and Cat, and at least two of these guys are the reason cock rock's particular brand of showmanship is what it is. The obligatory new album cuts like Outta This World and Hell Or Hallelujah are met with polite indifference but hits like Love Gun and Rock N Roll All Nite remind tonight's crowd why they should be willing to lay down their lives in service of the KISS army.
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