Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour

The Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour[1] was a concert tour by the hard rock group Kiss in support of their album of the same title. It was the second tour with drummer Eric Carr, his first in his home country, and the first tour with guitarist Vinnie Vincent, (née Vincent Cusano) who replaced Ace Frehley.

Creatures Of The Night/10th Anniversary Tour
Tour by Kiss
Associated albumCreatures of the Night
Start dateDecember 29, 1982
End dateJune 25, 1983
Legs2
No. of shows56 played
Kiss concert chronology

Itineary

Wearing a make-up design of an Egyptian "ankh", Cusano was promoted as "Vinnie 'The Wiz' Vincent" who was "even weirder than we are" in the tour's press release. The groups' lucrative record contract with PolyGram required Kiss to be composed of founders Gene Simmons (bass), Paul Stanley (singer/guitarist), and Frehley.[2] The release did not say Frehley had quit, but instead stated Frehley was too injured from a recent car crash to tour, but might make appearances onstage when able. The band used group photos containing Ace Frehley for the tour's press kits and ad material during early dates; these were used by promoters for advertising, so many fans did not realize Frehley was replaced until they came to the venues. Before Vincent was announced, new photos were taken and later dates featured the band with Vincent in show ads.[2]

Attendance in North America was abysmal; even though the band had returned to its signature hard rock after several years of pop and disco-influenced music, very few people showed up at the concerts on the tour. Even worse was the fact that the band couldn't drum up interest despite it being their 10th anniversary and their first tour of the US in over three years, an unprecedented amount of time for them during that era. Co-frontman Paul Stanley recalled a show in Lexington, Kentucky where he threw a pick that went over the entire audience of 2,500 and hit the floor. They later cancelled the rest of the US leg, and were offered some dates in Brazil, where they played to the biggest crowd of their career at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with over 250,000 people in the audience.[3] According to the band management, promoters were actually interested in booking Kiss in smaller venues such as large nightclubs and smaller theaters where they would have had an easier time selling out shows. The band, however, refused to play anything except arenas and large theaters.

During their North American tour, Kiss was met with accusations from religious groups of promoting Satanism through their music and image, and several protests were held by such groups outside concert venues; however, Kiss politely denied the accusations and the tour continued.[4]

This tour is the only tour to feature live performances of "Rock and Roll Hell" and "Keep Me Comin" from the Creatures of the Night LP, although both would be dropped from the set almost immediately. "I Want You" returned to the setlist for the first time since the Alive II Tour in 1978. The band sang the chant that opened and closed their new main single "I Love It Loud", but by the tour's end, this was changed and only Simmons sang it.

The Plasmatics were the opening act in the middle of the tour while heavy metal band Mötley Crüe opened for Kiss on the final dates of the US tour. Molly Hatchet, Night Ranger and Zebra were also the opening acts for several concerts on the tour.[5]

In the tour program for the band's final tour, both Simmons and Stanley reflected on the tour:

When we were working on Creatures of the Night, I said, "I want to write something that sounds like "My Generation," something that says, "This is who I am and this is what I believe in. – Gene Simmons

On record and on the subsequent tour, Creatures of the Night was very much a recapturing of our desire and our focus as a band and a reclaiming of what was important to us. When we did Creatures it was that step of us declaring that we were back. – Paul Stanley[6]

Stage set

Simmons described the tour's visual effects: "There's some fire-breathing and blood-spitting into the air and we give birth on stage and there's some fire balls that go thirty feet up into the air. And it rains fire and also some rockets take off on stage, and the stage looks like a tank sixty feet wide. You actually feel it in your chest when the tank moves. And then the drum riser, which is on top of the tank, goes forward, moves left and right, and actually fires like a real tank."[7]

Marketing

The tour was billed as their "Tenth Anniversary Tour", and silver was used in tour promotion and for the guitar pick and drumstick signatures in keeping with a "silver anniversary" theme. The band sold T-shirts, jerseys, black baseball caps, and pins at their concession stands. The tour program was not available for sale until mid-February, shortly before the tour ended, making it one of the rarest Kiss programs and very sought after by fans of a certain age.

Tour setlist
  1. "Creatures of the Night"
  2. "Detroit Rock City"
  3. "Calling Dr. Love"
  4. "Cold Gin"
  5. "Firehouse"
  6. "I Love It Loud"
  7. "Guitar Solo" (Paul Stanley)
  8. "I Want You"
  9. "Guitar Solo" (Vinnie Vincent)
  10. "War Machine"
  11. "Drum solo"
  12. "Love Gun"
  13. "Bass solo"
  14. "God of Thunder"
  15. "I Still Love You"
  16. "Shout It Out Loud"
  17. "Black Diamond"
  18. "Strutter"
  19. "Rock and Roll All Nite"

"Rock and Roll Hell" was dropped after the first three shows.[8] "Keep Me Comin" was also played live on this tour, but it was dropped after the first two shows. "I Love It Loud" was played twice in São Paulo-Brazil (instead of "Strutter").

Information
  • Average Attendance (5400) "Does Not Include Brazil Shows"

Tour dates
Date City Country Venue Opening Act(s) Attendance
North America
December 29, 1982BismarckUnited StatesBismarck Civic Center1Hotz3,335 / 8,200 (40%)
December 30, 1982Sioux CitySioux City Municipal AuditoriumDare Force4,934 / 5,200 (94%)
December 31, 1982RockfordRockford MetroCentreShoes3,500 / 9,213 (37%)
January 1, 1983Terre HauteHulman CenterWhy On Earth3,944 / 10,000 (39%)
January 3, 1983CharlestonCharleston Civic CenterDefectors4,466 / 10,195 (43%)
January 6, 1983LexingtonRupp ArenaNight Ranger3,305 / 9,500 (34%)
January 7, 1983SaginawWendler Arena5,409 / 7,169 (75%)
January 8, 1983ToledoToledo Sports Arena4,739 / 7,500 (63%)
January 9, 1983DaytonUniversity of Dayton Arena4,430 / 13,278 (33%)
January 12, 1983Quebec CityCanadaColisée de QuebecThe Headpins8,893 / 11,285 (78%)
January 13, 1983MontrealMontreal Forum8,217 / 12,500 (65%)
January 14, 1983TorontoMaple Leaf Gardens9,565 / 10,000 (95%)
January 15, 1983OttawaOttawa Civic Centre4,919 / 7,000 (70%)
January 16, 1983Glens FallsUnited StatesGlens Falls Civic CenterNight Ranger4,637 / 7,713 (60%)
January 18, 1983SyracuseOnondaga County War Memorial4,902 / 7,908 (61%)
January 20, 1983RochesterRochester Community War Memorial4,267 / 4,900 (87%)
January 21, 1983PortlandCumberland County Civic Center4,338 / 4,500 (96%)
January 22, 1983WorcesterThe Centrum210,147 / 11,000 (92%)
January 25, 1983NorfolkNorfolk Scope5,191 / 13,800 (37%)
January 27, 1983HuntsvilleVon Braun Civic Center5,025 / 10,106 (49%)
January 28, 1983BirminghamBoutwell Auditorium4,635 / 5,778 (80%)
January 29, 1983ChattanoogaUTC Arena4,451 / 11,000 (40%)
January 30, 1983NashvilleNashville Municipal Auditorium8,936 / 9,900 (90%)
February 1, 1983KnoxvilleKnoxville Civic ColiseumPlasmatics4,391 / 10,000 (43%)
February 3, 1983West Palm BeachWest Palm Beach Auditorium5,202 / 6,200 (83%)
February 4, 1983LakelandLakeland Civic Center5,287 / 10,000 (52%)
February 11, 1983Pine BluffPine Bluff Convention Center3,173 / 10,000 (31%)
February 14, 1983New OrleansLouisiana SuperdomeZebra10,421 / 74,000 (14%)
February 16, 1983DubuqueFive Flags CenterPlasmatics3,319 / 6,700 (49%)
February 18, 1983BloomingtonMet Center5,370 / 12,731 (42%)
February 19, 1983Sioux FallsSioux Falls Arena2,020 / 8,000 (25%)
February 20, 1983La CrosseLa Crosse Center3,613 / 8,000 (45%)
February 22, 1983RichfieldRichfield Coliseum10,212 / 20,400 (50%)
February 23, 1983DetroitCobo Arena7,620 / 12,191 (62%)
February 25, 1983SpringfieldPrairie Capital Convention Center3,384 / 6,888 (49%)
February 26, 1983IndianapolisMarket Square Arena5,426 / 11,000 (49%)
February 28, 1983St. LouisKiel Auditorium2,802 / 5,646 (49%)
March 1, 1983Kansas CityKansas City Municipal AuditoriumMolly Hatchet3,929 / 10,372 (37%)
March 9, 1983DallasDallas Convention CenterPlasmatics5,468 / 7,475 (73%)
March 10, 1983HoustonSam Houston Coliseum5,975 / 6,969 (85%)
March 11, 1983San AntonioHemisFair Arena8,474 / 8,694 (97%)
March 13, 1983BeaumontBeaumont Civic Center2,663 / 6,300 (42%)
March 14, 1983Corpus ChristiCorpus Christi Memorial Coliseum6,500 / 6,500 (100%)
March 18, 1983BiloxiMississippi Coast Coliseum4,645 / 7,000 (66%)
March 19, 1983ShreveportHirsch Memorial Coliseum4,059 / 10,200 (39%)
March 20, 1983NormanLloyd Noble Center3,419 / 7,850 (43%)
March 21, 1983AmarilloAmarillo Civic CenterN/A
March 23, 1983El PasoEl Paso County Coliseum5,171 / 8,000 (64%)
March 26, 1983IrvineIrvine Meadows AmphitheatreMötley Crüe5,786 / 5,969 (96%)
March 27, 1983Los AngelesUniversal Amphitheatre6,251 / 6,251 (100%)
March 28, 1983PhoenixArizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum5,734 / 10,000 (57%)
April 1, 1983Las VegasAladdin Theater4,702 / 7,240 (64%)
April 3, 1983San FranciscoSan Francisco Civic Auditorium7,299 / 8,500 (85%)
Brazil
June 18, 1983Rio de JaneiroBrazilMaracanã Stadium3Herva Doce137,000 / 200,000 (68%)
June 23, 1983Belo HorizonteMineirão StadiumNo Opening Act30,000 / 80,000 (37%)
June 25, 1983São PauloMorumbi Stadium460,000 / 90,000 (66%)
  • ^Note 1 First show with Vinnie Vincent.
  • ^Note 2 Paul Stanley announced from the stage they would not be allowed to use pyrotechnics. The show had none, except Simmons' firebreathing. Clips of this show and a quote from Paul Stanley backstage appeared on a Providence, Rhode Island TV station WPRI Channel 12 news story about the Centrum venue beating out the Civic Center for business, using Kiss as one example.
  • ^Note 3 Kiss Biggest show (137,000 people)
  • ^Note 4 Kiss' last show in make-up until 1996.
  • ^Note 5 Show was canceled by the promoter when it sold only 2,000 tickets.

Postponed/Cancelled dates
Date City Country Venue Reasoning
December 27, 1982 Rapid City United States Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Severe snow storm
January 23, 1983 Providence Providence Civic Center Poor ticket sales, tickets for this show were exchanged for the Worcester, Massachusetts show.
February 6, 1983 Charleston Charleston County Hall Poor ticket sales
February 8, 1983 Asheville Asheville Civic Center Poor ticket sales
February 17, 1983 Duluth Duluth Arena Poor ticket sales
March 31, 1983 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena Poor ticket sales
June 20, 1983 Belo Horizonte Brazil Mineirão Stadium Electrical outage during show, rescheduled for June 21, as a result only 30,000 of the expected 80,000 showed up.
June 24, 1983 São Paulo Morumbi Stadium Poor ticket sales
August 19-21, 1983 Buenos Aires Argentina Boca Juniors Stadium Terrorist threat[9]

Aftermath

Following the conclusion of the tour, Kiss decided on a change in their image. They elected to abandon their trademark make-up and extravagant costumes before releasing their next album Lick It Up later in 1983. They would return to performing in makeup in 1996, reforming their classic lineup with Frehley and Peter Criss.

Kiss would pay homage to the Creatures tour several decades later by donning the same costumes during the sixth annual Kiss Kruise and then again on their 2017–18 Kissworld Tour.

References
  1. "The KISSFAQ – KISS Tourdates Archive". Archived from the original on July 10, 2012.
  2. "Chris Lendt Talks about The Elder, Creatures of the Night & Lick It Up What Was Going On" – via www.youtube.com.
  3. Online, KISS. "KISS Online :: KISS Chronology | The Complete History Of KISS". KISS Online.
  4. "KISS vs Religious Groups: 1982 – 1983" – via www.youtube.com.
  5. "necramonium.com – Informationen zum Thema necramonium". www.necramonium.com.
  6. (2019). End of the Road World Tour Program, pg. 17.
  7. Herzog, Marty (April 1983). "Gene Simmons". Comics Interview (2). Fictioneer Books. pp. 57–62.
  8. Gooch, Curt and Jeff Suhs. KISS Alive Forever: the Complete Touring History. Billboard Books, 2002. p. 121
  9. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/08/12/The-US-rock-group-Kiss-Friday-canceled-a-three-day/8991429508800/
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