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.

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.^[3]

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 3 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 Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with over 250,000 people in the audience.^[4] According to the band management, promoters were actually interested in booking Kiss in smaller venues. 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.^[5]

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.

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

The Plasmatics were the opening act in the middle of the tour while heavy metal band Mötley Crüe opened for KISS early in the tour—but were dropped due to bad behavior. Molly Hatchet, Night Ranger and Zebra were also the opening acts for several concerts on the tour.^[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" or "Deuce"
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"). "Deuce" was also played early on in the tour instead of "Strutter".

Tour dates

• ^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.