KISS Rocks Seattle One Last Time

Though they have been on what seems to be a never ending “farewell” tour, KISS brought their End of the Road Tour to Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. The band has played in Seattle sixteen times, and this night would, they claim, will be the last time.

The tour ends in KISS’ hometown of New York City at the world-famous Madison Square Garden.

KISS formed in 1973 and currently consists of Paul Stanley (vocals / guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals / bass), Tommy Thayer (lead guitar) and Eric Singer (drums).

The audience was packed full of lifelong KISS fans, parents and grandparents, who brought their children and grandchildren out for a rocking Monday night. Some were also dressed as their favorite band member.

As with every KISS show, everyone knew there was to be tons of pyro, great lighting, an awesome stage production and a huge selection of songs that band could easily cherry pick from with their massive discography of 20 studio albums.

A large black curtain covered the stage prior to the band’s introduction while large video screens showed a satellite view descending onto the arena, which then cut to a video of the band members making their way to the stage.

The infamous “You wanted the best; you got the best!” was spoken over the sound system. The curtain drops, pyro exploded, and the band descended from the top of the stage, kicking off their two-hour set with “Detroit Rock City” and then proceeding to go straight into “Shout It Out Loud”.

The band performed many fan favorites such as “Deuce”, “War Machine”, “I Love It Loud” – ending with Simmons’ signature fire breathing – as well as some songs that seldom make the set list such as “Making Love” and “Say Yea”.

Some of the highlights of the evening included Thayer shooting rockets at the spaceships above the stage at the conclusion of “Cold Gin”, Simmons spitting blood before being hoisted to the lighting rig during “God of Thunder”, Singer’s drum solo perfectly hitting the mark of the cameraman each time the solo climaxed, and Stanley zip lining above the audience to a stage near the rear of the arena.

As the band performed “Do You Love Me”, large balloons fell from the rafters and bounced around the audience.

The band finished the evening in grand fashion by performing the ever popular “Rock and Roll All Night”, which saw a huge amount of confetti being shot into every corner of the arena. Stanley held his guitar high in the air in front of a large wall of fire, then smashed it onto the stage for the final time, the end of their five-decade run and their last ever performance in Seattle. Yes, Stanley has been doing this at the end of every show since the beginning of time, but tonight’s was a little more special, knowing that it’ll (supposedly) never happen again.

The band walked off stage with a large “WE LOVE YOU SEATTLE” across the back drop of the stage.

Setlist
Detroit Rock City
Shout It Out Loud
Deuce
War Machine
Heaven’s on Fire
I Love It Loud (Gene spits fire)
Say Yeah
Cold Gin (With “Let Me Know” outro solo)
Guitar Solo (Tommy Thayer)
Lick It Up (with “Won’t Get Fooled Again” snippet)
Calling Dr. Love
Makin’ Love
Psycho Circus (partial; with dueling guitars intro)
100,000 Years (partial)
Bass Solo (Gene spit blood)
God of Thunder
Love Gun (Paul ziplines to the B-stage)
I Was Made for Lovin’ You (Paul on B-stage)
Black Diamond (Paul ziplines back to the main stage )

Encore:
Beth (Eric Singer on piano and vocals)
Do You Love Me?
Rock and Roll All Nite

God Gave Rock and Roll to You II (tape)