Kiss – ‘Off the Soundboard: San Antonio, TX 12-3-1985’ (2025) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

It has been a couple years since we received any new ‘Off the Sounboard’ albums from Kiss. They were busy ending their touring career and selling off the rights on their image and catalog. Now… More

Musventurenal

0 5

Kiss – ‘Off the Soundboard: San Antonio, TX 12-3-1985’ (2025) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

It has been a couple years since we received any new ‘Off the Sounboard’ albums from Kiss. They were busy ending their touring career and selling off the rights on their image and catalog. Now that things are settled, we are back with the newest ‘Off the Sounboard’ and this is the 6th album in the series. This was was filmed in San Antonio, Texas on December 3, 1985 at HemisFair Arena, which puts right in to the Asylum Tour. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first one we get with Bruce Kulick on guitar. This means we are only missing one from the Vinnie Vincent era as all other members have been covered so far. The rest of the band is of course, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons with Eric Carr on drums. A great lineup of the band.

For this one, Kiss changed things up. It is still similar in packaging in the flimsy brown cardboard box, but instead of a plan brown cover with a stamped on logo, they actually added a picture of the band. However, jury is still out if I like the change or not. It does change the look when you place it against the others, but it is still kinda cool. But the thing that really pisses me off is on how they were offered. You could only get the vinyl on Kiss Online and you could only get it in a bundle which means I had to buy a T-Shirt as well which jacks up the already over-inflated price. There was only the color version of the vinyl and not a standard black and there was NO CD!! Well, there was no CD anywhere in the world except for Japan. So, CDJapan received another big order from me as I want to make sure I get enough stuff to make the shipping worth it. I have to say, the choices on what we were able to buy were limited and very disappointing.

However, what we did get was pretty killer. The vinyl colors were un-freaking-believable and some of the prettiest vinyl I’ve ever bought. The show is spread over three vinyl and each one is so different than the other. The 2 CD set was great sounding and even has the treasured Japanese OBI strip you always want for your Japanese purchases. You get the Japanese booklet in both english and Japanese and you even get a miniature poster that looks like the big poster you get in the vinyl. And the T-Shirt, well, I didn’t think I’d like it, but I was wrong…it is kinda cool. It has a pink Soundboard logo on the front which matches the color scheme of the Asylum album and on the back a big steer skull since the show is in Texas. So, I give them high marks for what we received. But what about the show? How is it?

The sound is actually really great. It is a soundboard show as it says in the title, no audience recording. This means the audience isn’t as loud as I like, but that is okay. You can hear each band member although at times a little muddy, but the show is untouched so all the rough patches are included and that is what you like about a live show…warts and all! They open with the typical at this time and it is “Detroit Rock City” which is always a good opener. The great thing about this show is that there are only 4 songs from the 70’s including this one. The rest are all 80’s and that era doesn’t get enough attention in my opinion. After the song, we get one of many, and I mean many of Paul’s raps and some are so cringeworthy. That is the time though. I don’t remember them being this bad though. On the Animalize tour, his stage raps were funny and awesome. Not anymore on this tour.

The next track is “Fits Like a Glove” and Gene takes the reins. It is awesome…hard, heavy and rough. The backing vocals aren’t even that awesome, but who cares…it is “Fits Like a Glove”…how often do we get that one live!! Back to a classic with “Cold Gin” and then what is labeled as Paul’s guitar solo…but it really isn’t. It is basically Paul playing a fee notes then trying to see which side of the arena is the loudest…UGH!! I hate that so much. He spends like four minutes doing this stuff and that could’ve been another song. The interesting thing on this album, is ALL 4 members get a solo…yeah…way too much…but the rest aren’t as bad as this one.

Flipping things over and we get the quintessential 80’s song “Uh! All Night”. This is such a childish song, but damn it is also so much fun. I remember loving this as a kid because I felt it was so dirty…now it is simply corny…but I still love it. The next solo is Eric Carr’s drum solo. It is 7 minutes of bombastic banging and includes a lot of electronic drum elements which I thought were so cool back in the day…and they still are a little today. His solo is also the perfect transition into the next Gene song “War Machine” from the Creatures album. Another favorite Gene song of mine to hear live. We stick with the Creatures album and this time Paul goes all soft with “I Still Love You”. I have to admit it, I love this song…at one time I could actually play the opening guitar part…not anymore though. I think Paul sounds good on this one too thanks to a slight echo effect on the mic.

Then things are off to the races with “Under the Gun” off ‘Animalize’ and the guitars on this one are stellar. The tempo is also up to 11 too! Wow, this is fast. Bruce just rips through it and then off to his own guitar solo. Here we get to see Bruce. He is the most technically brilliant guitarist they had and came up with some killer riffs. I happy he got a showcase that was him and not an Ace rip-off. Now it is back to Asylum with the “almost romantic” song according to Paul called “Tears Are Falling”. This sounds so dated with the electronic drums and cheesy sounding presentation. Never been a favorite, but it is catchy and I wouldn’t be upset hearing this live so really I’ll shut up now as no real complaints here.

It is time now for the Gene showcase as we get his bass solo. Gene doesn’t think it is loud enough so he gets the sound guy to turn it up! This is more of a bass solo then he does in make-up which is usually a smoke-screen for the blood spitting. And after a solo, you need to turn it up even more as they do “I Love It Loud”. After this song, Paul goes on and on in the absolute worst story about his gun…his “Love Gun”. It is fucking awful…excuse my language, but it is that bad. However, “Love Gun”…the song…was awesome. They then end the main show with the classic “Rock And Roll All Nite” and it drones on for like 10 minutes as they try to get the crowd involved.

We are finally to the encore and they kick it off with “Heaven’s on Fire” and Paul simply nails that opening “ooh ooh ooh waooooh!”. Simply stellar. Another classic 80’s Kiss track and being the time it seems sped up faster than normal. But I love it. What I don’t love is the awkward part that comes next when the do “Old Susanna”…what the hell is that shit??? Thank goodness it is so short…it IS totally unnecessary and really kills the vibe as it is so fucking stupid. I remember when they did it the show I saw…I was like WTF!! Before WTF was even a thing. They end the show the song that put them back on the map, “Lick It Up”. Well, it was the make-up coming off, but this was the first song we heard with that and I love it. This version has a few little hiccups at the beginning, but they got it together and hit it out of the park.

And there you have it. Another great Off the Soundboard Series. I love that we got our first Bruce Kulick show and a tour I saw only a couple weeks later after this show. There are some cringeworthy moments as I’ve stated, but overall it really is a fantastic fun show. I think the sound is wonderful, the guys can still sing great, the playing doesn’t get much better with Bruce and Eric there to hold things down. It is also a great setlist that highlights the 80’s as there are only 4 songs from the 70’s. The worst part is all the solos…okay, mostly Paul’s solo…but there are 20 minutes of that stuff that could’ve been more songs. But I’m being picky. My Overall Score is a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars. This tour was my third time seeing Kiss and definitely wasn’t my last!! A great show to add to the collection.

Now, what do you want to hear next? I want either a Dynasty show, an Australian Unmasked show, a Creatures show or a Hot in the Shade show.

The Kiss Review Series: