By David Morton / www.chroniclelive.co.uk

 

It looked like the opening exchanges of World War III. As the giant stage curtain dropped, and in the midst of a blitzkrieg of thunder flashes, smoke bombs, and searing jets of fire, the four members of KISS descended from high up in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena.

 

Opening the show with their rabble-rousing anthem Detroit Rock City, the American rock legends expended more explosives and pyrotechnics in one song than most bands do over the course of an entire tour.

 

For KISS, it’s always been about the show. And their shows have seen them pump out glam rock on steroids for the last four and a half decades.When young guitarist Stan Eisen and bass player Gene Klein teamed up in New York in the early 1970s, their vision was to form the “ultimate rock band”.