Everyone remembers their first concert, I’m sure. Mine was KISS, which was heady stuff for a 14-year-old. But my buddy knew Harold Ballard and scored four tickets – gold seats, no less – for the gig at Maple Leaf Gardens. “Destroyer” tour, 1976, Canadian band no one ever heard of again called Hammersmith opened – such are the indelible memories from one of life’s defining moments.
I was never a member of the KISS Army, but I was a fan. I had the poster of the “Destroyer” album cover on my bedroom wall (along with Doodle Arts I had coloured and team posters of both the Canadian and Russian Summit Series hockey teams), and the album, of course – it’s the one that had “Shout It Out Loud,” “Detroit Rock City,” and the shockingly soft ballad, “Beth.” I had etched the stylish KISS logo onto my pencil case at school.
Four of us made the long subway trek from the burbs to downtown Toronto when parents let kids do such things, which added to the occasion’s sense of occasion.
The concert was amazing: colourful, theatrical, loud! None of us could hear straight for about three days. Flash explosions erupted stage-side, Gene Simmons (the devil) spewed blood on cue, and we had the great fortune to be nailed by a confetti bomb in our primo seats. On the way home there was the unexpected terror of not being able to air out our jackets (mine was purple! at a KISS concert! sigh!) from the, er, fragrant aroma of the concert that had seeped in, so our parents wouldn’t smell it.
Over the years, my tastes evolved, as did the band (who eventually ditched the iconic make-up), but just as they eventually put it back on, nostalgia pulled me back to music I still like (well, some of it).
By this point, my then teenage son had (PTL) become fully engaged in classic rock music rather than some of the other stuff his peers favoured, and KISS, lo and behold, was touring again, and not in that whatever-happened-to kind of way.
So, Harold Ballard long gone, I plied traditional channels to get a couple of tickets to a summer gig at the Molson Amphitheatre, which was a bucket-list, see-‘em-while-I-still-can opportunity for Brendan, plus a chance to see the real guys play songs he had learned to crank out on the guitar, like “God of Thunder.”
For me, it was a nod to nostalgia, almost 40 years to the day after I had first seen them. To be honest, I would not have gone on my own, but I was thrilled to round the circle with my son.
For the record, the performance was still amazing. In fact, it was the same! There was a giant spider that probably was not there in ’76, and a few more songs in the repertoire that had come after “Destroyer”; and there was a couple of new guys under the face paint, but that didn’t matter: Paul Stanley (banner photo) and Simmons (in the corner) were still out front, and the audience sang every word on hits like “Rock and Roll All Nite” like it was a Blue Rodeo concert.
When I think about it, the glow of cell phones replaced thousands of lighters lifted to heavens, but, otherwise, it could have been the same show I first saw. And that was just fine, because every once in awhile – even at my age – everybody’s got to rock and roll!
Lyrics
Well, the night’s begun and you want some fun
Do you think you’re gonna find it?
(Think you’re gonna find it)
You got to treat yourself like number one
Do you need to be reminded?
(Need to be reminded)
It doesn’t matter what you do or say
Just forget the things that you’ve been told
We can’t do it any other way
Everybody’s got to rock and roll, oh oh
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
If you don’t feel good, there’s a way you could
Don’t sit there broken hearted
(Sit there broken hearted)
Call all your friends in the neighbourhood
And get the party started
(Get the party started)
Don’t let ’em tell you that there’s too much noise
They’re too old to really understand
You’ll still get rowdy with the girls and boys
‘Cause it’s time for you to take a stand, yeah, yeah
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
You got to have a party
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Turn it up louder
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
And everybody shout it now
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Oh yeah
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
I hear it gettin’ louder
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
And everybody shout it now
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud