Review - Kissology: Vol 1 '74-'77
fanch75
Posts: 3,734
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Last night I was finally able to track down the “Kissology Vol 1: 1974-1977” DVD set at Circuit City. This was after going to four different places in Huntington, and two places here in the ‘nati. Anyway, this thing is a monster. I skipped through it last night, and the first clip you see when putting it on is Kiss in grainy footage from early 1974 playing “Acrobat” (if you have the Box Set, you may remember this as “The Love Theme From Kiss” with a song called “You’re Much Too Young” attached at the end of it) in Long Beach, CA.
There are four complete concerts on the DVD set. Three of them, San Francisco ’74 (Hotter Than Hell tour), Budokahn Japan ’77 (Rock & Roll Over tour), and Houston ’77 (Love Gun/Alive II tour) are in clear, pristine quality. The fourth show, the beloved Detroit ’76 show from the Alive! tour, is surprisingly grainy, and truthfully didn’t look much clearer than the VHS tapes that I have. But again, this is blown up on a 52” screen; I’m sure if I put that VHS tape from the OU days in my VCR, it’d probably look pretty grainy.
There are other things thrown in for measure as well, such as the during-the-first-tour ’74 Midnight Special, which offers a crushing version of “She,” complete with Peter, Paul, & Gene singing the verses together. Like FC, I’m very disappointed that they left “Deuce” off from that Midnight Special, as that version was incredible. Mainly, you have the four concerts and about 8 miscellaneous things thrown in, some just interviews and some with 1-3 songs being performed. A good mix.
As you may know, there are three “special version” out there, each with its own bonus 3rd disc. There three bonus discs are Detroit ’76 night 2, Largo MD ’77, and MSG ’77. Circuit City offers the MSG ’77 version, so this is what I got; a buddy of mine got his at WalMart, so he got the Largo MD ’77 show. Best Buy offers the Detroit ’76 Night 2, so when a third buddy picks up that one, then we’d have all three versions among us. The bonus disc is in a paper sleeve inserted inside the casing of the set, so we could burn the other two shows onto one disc and insert as a 4th disc very easily.
The casing looks great. Someone (probably Tommy Thayer) put a lot of effort into making this look like a nice collectible DVD set to have sitting on your shelf. The two main discs are 379 minutes long total, and with the bonus 3rd disc, there are over 7 hours of vintate Kiss material. This is a great deal at $22.99.
There’s so much and much of it we’ve seen already through bootlegs from the mid-nineties bootlegging craze, but this is a great set to have. The only disappointment is the graininess of the ’76 Detroit show from the Alive! tour, which most consider to be the ultimate Kiss video bootleg. If anyone wants a Kiss DVD packed full of material of Kiss at their height, this is it.
Bytchez ain’t shyt,
Fanch
Last night I was finally able to track down the “Kissology Vol 1: 1974-1977” DVD set at Circuit City. This was after going to four different places in Huntington, and two places here in the ‘nati. Anyway, this thing is a monster. I skipped through it last night, and the first clip you see when putting it on is Kiss in grainy footage from early 1974 playing “Acrobat” (if you have the Box Set, you may remember this as “The Love Theme From Kiss” with a song called “You’re Much Too Young” attached at the end of it) in Long Beach, CA.
There are four complete concerts on the DVD set. Three of them, San Francisco ’74 (Hotter Than Hell tour), Budokahn Japan ’77 (Rock & Roll Over tour), and Houston ’77 (Love Gun/Alive II tour) are in clear, pristine quality. The fourth show, the beloved Detroit ’76 show from the Alive! tour, is surprisingly grainy, and truthfully didn’t look much clearer than the VHS tapes that I have. But again, this is blown up on a 52” screen; I’m sure if I put that VHS tape from the OU days in my VCR, it’d probably look pretty grainy.
There are other things thrown in for measure as well, such as the during-the-first-tour ’74 Midnight Special, which offers a crushing version of “She,” complete with Peter, Paul, & Gene singing the verses together. Like FC, I’m very disappointed that they left “Deuce” off from that Midnight Special, as that version was incredible. Mainly, you have the four concerts and about 8 miscellaneous things thrown in, some just interviews and some with 1-3 songs being performed. A good mix.
As you may know, there are three “special version” out there, each with its own bonus 3rd disc. There three bonus discs are Detroit ’76 night 2, Largo MD ’77, and MSG ’77. Circuit City offers the MSG ’77 version, so this is what I got; a buddy of mine got his at WalMart, so he got the Largo MD ’77 show. Best Buy offers the Detroit ’76 Night 2, so when a third buddy picks up that one, then we’d have all three versions among us. The bonus disc is in a paper sleeve inserted inside the casing of the set, so we could burn the other two shows onto one disc and insert as a 4th disc very easily.
The casing looks great. Someone (probably Tommy Thayer) put a lot of effort into making this look like a nice collectible DVD set to have sitting on your shelf. The two main discs are 379 minutes long total, and with the bonus 3rd disc, there are over 7 hours of vintate Kiss material. This is a great deal at $22.99.
There’s so much and much of it we’ve seen already through bootlegs from the mid-nineties bootlegging craze, but this is a great set to have. The only disappointment is the graininess of the ’76 Detroit show from the Alive! tour, which most consider to be the ultimate Kiss video bootleg. If anyone wants a Kiss DVD packed full of material of Kiss at their height, this is it.
Bytchez ain’t shyt,
Fanch
Do you remember Rock & Roll Radio?
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Comments
Awesome. I'm thining about picking this up for my dad for christmas he is a big fan. How much did it set you back at Circuit City?
Thanks for the review
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$22.99. That's with the bonus third disc with Madison Square Garden 1977.
Of my innocence... got back my inner sense...
07-02-11 (Orpheum Theatre) Vedder(Solo) Minneapolis, MN