Alive II Tour

The Alive II Tour was a concert tour by Kiss, and was the follow-up to the Love Gun Tour which ended in early September.

Alive II Tour

Tour by Kiss
Associated album	Alive II
Start date	November 15, 1977
End date	April 2, 1978
Legs	2
No. of shows	56
Kiss concert chronology

History

The Alive II Tour saw Kiss perform 5 sold-out nights at Tokyo's Budokan, breaking their previous record of 4 one year earlier, as well as breaking the previous record by The Beatles. They also played three sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in their hometown of New York City, and multiple nights in several other cities, including San Antonio; Landover, Maryland; Chicago; Detroit; and Providence, Rhode Island. The audience for the band were mainly young teenage crowds.^[1] AC/DC was the opening act for several concerts on this tour.^[2] The costumes and stage show were carried over from the Love Gun Tour, with minor changes made to the setlist.

During the show in Pittsburgh, Peter Criss had passed out in the middle of the concert. After a brief intermission, he returned to finish the show with his bandmates.^[3] The band would also be snowed in during the show in Richfield.^[4]

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

The Alive II stage show was a big production spectacle. We realized fans were paying as much for a concert, which only lasted for an hour or two, as you would for a record album which you could play over and over again for the price of a concert ticket. A concert was over with the snap of a finger so what are the memories you take from it? We thought visuals should be a big element of a Kiss concert and we were constantly brainstorming about what we could do in the show.^[5]

Reception

Barry Paris, a reporter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who attended the Civic Arena show in Pittsburgh, gave the show a positive review, stating: "Kiss (whose members acknowledge that their music is 'nothing profound') is a likable act not so much because of but in spite of its gimmickry. The crucial factor is their good (but not great) musicianship, which amounts to a B-plus/A-minus type of rock 'n roll and gosh darn, how can you not help but like the fresh-faced fans they attract?".^[1]

Setlist

1. "I Stole Your Love"
2. "King of the Night Time World"
3. "Ladies Room"
4. "Firehouse"
5. "Love Gun"
6. "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"
7. "Makin' Love"
8. "Christine Sixteen"
9. "Shock Me"
10. "I Want You"
11. "Calling Dr. Love"
12. "Shout It Out Loud"
13. "God of Thunder"
14. "Rock and Roll All Nite"

Encore

15. "Detroit Rock City"
16. "Beth"
17. "Black Diamond"

The setlist for this tour was nearly identical to that of the Love Gun Tour, with the only exceptions being that "King of the Night Time World" and "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" took the place of "Take Me" and "Hooligan".^[6]

Tour dates

List of tour dates with date, city, country, venue, and support act(s)

Date	City	Country	Venue	Support act(s)
United States[6]
November 15, 1977	Oklahoma City	United States	Myriad Convention Center	Detective
November 17, 1977	Denver		McNichols Sports Arena
November 19, 1977	Abilene		Taylor County Expo Center
November 20, 1977	Lubbock		Lubbock Municipal Coliseum
November 22, 1977	San Antonio		Freeman Coliseum
November 23, 1977
November 26, 1977	Tulsa		Tulsa Convention Center
November 27, 1977	Kansas City		Kemper Arena
November 29, 1977	Des Moines		Iowa Veterans Memorial Auditorium
November 30, 1977	Omaha		Omaha Civic Auditorium
December 2, 1977	St. Paul		St. Paul Civic Center
December 3, 1977	Madison		Dane County Expo Coliseum
December 6, 1977	Wichita		Henry Levitt Arena
December 7, 1977	St. Louis		The Checkerdome
December 9, 1977	Memphis		Mid-South Coliseum	AC/DC
December 11, 1977	Indianapolis		Market Square Arena
December 12, 1977	Louisville		Freedom Hall
December 14, 1977	New York City		Madison Square Garden	Detective
December 15, 1977				Piper
December 16, 1977
December 19, 1977	Landover		Capital Centre	AC/DC
December 20, 1977				Piper
December 22, 1977	Philadelphia		The Spectrum
December 27, 1977	Baton Rouge		Riverside Centroplex Arena
December 29, 1977	Birmingham		BJCC Arena
December 30, 1977	Atlanta		The Omni
December 31, 1977	Greensboro		Greensboro Coliseum
January 3, 1978	Pembroke Pines		Hollywood Sportatorium	Detective
January 5, 1978	Charlotte		Charlotte Coliseum	Nantucket
January 6, 1978	Columbia		Carolina Coliseum
January 8, 1978	Richfield		Richfield Coliseum	The Rockets
January 11, 1978	Huntington		Huntington Civic Center
January 12, 1978	Cincinnati		Riverfront Coliseum
January 13, 1978	Pittsburgh		Pittsburgh Civic Arena
January 15, 1978	Chicago		Chicago Stadium
January 16, 1978
January 18, 1978	Lexington		Rupp Arena
January 20, 1978	Detroit		Olympia Stadium
January 21, 1978
January 23, 1978	Evansville		Roberts Municipal Stadium
January 25, 1978	Buffalo		Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
January 27, 1978	Springfield		Springfield Civic Center
January 28, 1978	New Haven		New Haven Coliseum
January 30, 1978	Philadelphia		The Spectrum
February 2, 1978	Providence		Providence Civic Center
February 3, 1978
Japan[6]
March 28, 1978	Tokyo	Japan	Budokan	Bow Wow
March 29, 1978
March 31, 1978
April 1, 1978
April 2, 1978

Box office score data

List of box office score data with date, city, venue, attendance, gross, references

Date	City	Venue	Attendance	Gross	Ref(s)
November 17, 1977	Denver, United States	McNichols Sports Arena	10,586	$94,852	[7]
November 27, 1977	Kansas City, United States	Kemper Arena	13,613	$100,151	[8]
January 23, 1978	Evansville, United States	Roberts Stadium	14,144	$109,298	[9]
January 25, 1978	Buffalo, United States	Memorial Auditorium	17,500	$112,636
January 27, 1978	Springfield, United States	Civic Center	10,395	$72,765
January 28, 1978	New Haven, United States	Coliseum	10,407	$76,000

Personnel

• Paul Stanley – vocals, rhythm guitar
• Gene Simmons – vocals, bass
• Peter Criss – drums, vocals
• Ace Frehley – lead guitar, vocals

References

1. Paris, Barry (January 16, 1978). "Kiss: A Festival of Blood, Fire, and Music". Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. pp. 1, 7. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
2. Clarke, Patrick (May 17, 2021). "KISS' Gene Simmons on first meeting AC/DC's Angus Young: "He didn't have front teeth"". NME. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
3. Mervis, Scott (March 26, 2019). "Kiss: Rocking Pittsburgh for 45 years with blood and fire". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
4. Smith, Troy L. (March 9, 2021). "KISS' Blizzard of 1978 show: Rock & roll all nite, snow every day in Richfield". Cleveland. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
5. (2019). End of the Road World Tour Program, pg. 14.
6. Gooch, Curt; Suhs, Jeff (2002). Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5.
7. "Top Box Office". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 3, 1977. p. 42. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
8. "Top Box Office". Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 49. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 10, 1977. p. 48. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
9. "Top Box Office". Billboard. Vol. 90, no. 6. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. February 11, 1978. p. 36. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved March 17, 2021.

Sources

• Gooch, Curt; Suhs, Jeff (2002). Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5.