The stage set for the Dynasty
tour, was an enormous production! It has supposedly cost more than 1 million dollars to
build, and was at the time the largest show anyone had ever build.
According to Chris Lendt's book "KISS and Sell" it was supposed to look like, as
if a hangar ship had crashed into the arena... but somehow I fail to see the resemblance!
But for the first time ever KISS used a halfcirlcled stage, that reached into the
audience. This gave more people a chance to get closer to the band. The stage itself had
four ramps: two in front (marked (a) in both picture 1 and 2) and two in the sides (marked
(b) in picture 2)! The two front ramps had lights built into them, that
would chase in patterns, like on the staircases in the Love Gun show!!
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Set list:
1. King Of the Night Time
World
2. Let Me Go, Rock And Roll
3. Move On
4. Calling Dr. Love
5. Firehouse
6. New York Groove
7. I Was Made For Lovin You
8. Christine Sixteen
9. 2.000 Man
10. God Of Thunder
11. Shout It Out Loud
12. Black Diamond
Encores:
13. Detroit
Rock City
14. Beth
15. Rock And Roll All Nite
Other
songs occationally played:
On the early part of the tour "Radioactive" and "Tossin' And
Turnin'" was performed instead of "Let Me Go. Rock And Roll" and
"Christine Sixteen" respectively.
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Peter's
drum kit was placed on a riser, which was located circa in the middle of the stage. This
meant that there was quite a lot of room behind Peter (as you can see in picture 1). In
this area there were four lifts, that would lift each of the four band members on stage at
the beginning of the show. A spotlight in each members signature color would be turned on
him as he rose onto the stage. After the band announcement, Peter would jump down behind
his drumkit, and Ace would run down the right "a"-ramp to start "King Of
The Night Time World".
The show would continue as usual, with Gene spitting fire at the end of
"Firehouse", but for "New York Groove" Ace had a new effect: the
chaser light guitar (picture 3). Ace explained how it worked in the Metal Edge "KISS
Alive/WorldWide 1996/1997 tour Magazine" special, released in June 1996: "The
guitar had a lot of knobs that made the lights on the guitar chase a different way. I
always liked the way it chased across in bars like a movie theater marquee, so I ended up
hot wiring it that way, and getting rid of those knobs because there were too many. A lot
of times I would bump some other knobs accidentally and change the pattern to one I didn't
like, so I decided to get rid of some of the knobs so there's less things to worry about.
There's twenty rechargeable "C" cells for the battery pack, circuit board and
bulbs. It's probably the heaviest guitar I have".
Ace also had a new effect for his solo during "2.000 Man". The guitar
would smoke as usual, but at the end of the smoking effect, Ace would attach the guitars
headstock to a wire, and the guitar would fly up into the lightning rig! Then Ace would
return to the stage with the second new "effect" guitar, one that would shoot
rockets from the headstock.
The rockets would be fired into the lightning rig, where they would appear to explode.
They didn't though... the explosion was an pyrotechnics effect hiding up there.
Ace explained the rocket firing guitar, in the May 1997 issue of "Guitar World":
"Thats a regular Les
Paul with a rocket launcher strapped to the back of the headstock. We routed out a strip
in the neck and ran a thin ribbon cable down to the neck pickup controls which fire the
rocket. The regular pots have been replaced with click switches: click it once, press it
down, and a rocket shoots out. Click it again and the second rocket shoots out. It's pretty
elementary shit, but it looks so cool! It works 95 percent of the time." Ace's guitar solo would
usually be followed by Gene's bass solo, leading into "God Of Thunder", for which Gene introduced an entirely new stunt: his famous
flying trick!
As usual Gene would spit blood during the solo, but this time he would also
"fly" up onto a platform in the lightning rig, from where he would sing the
song.
The stunt was done by hoisting Gene up, hanging from a wire (just visible in picture 4),
using an electric motor. This motor would on several occasions malfunction, and cause Gene
to go up at warp-speed. On other occasions it would leave Gene hanging somewhere between
the stage and the lightning rig... but the stunt soon became a very famous one between
fans.
The drum riser would move forward to the
front of the stage for Peter's drum solo in "God of Thunder", but not only
that... it would also turn in every direction, so everybody in the hall got a good look at
Peter performing.
Peter's drum kit would as usual rise from the stage at the end of "Black
Diamond", but this time it would reach higher than ever before... The curtain hanging
under it (picture 5), would only show one cat monster, as opposed to the two seen on
the Love Gun tour.
This part of the show would also be complimented
with a lot of fireworks, including two cathrine wheels going off on each
side of the logo. The cathrine wheels were hidden by two metal stars, one
of which are visible in picture 2 (marked with a (c)).
During the encore Beth, Peter was handing out
roses to people in the audience (see picture 7).
Picture 6 gives you a look at the diamond shaped lighting rig used on this tour!
Several other new things were supposed to be
introduced for this tour: one of these was a laser show. Supposedly the band was to enter
the stage through a curtain of laser light, but did not work properly. It was only used
once, at the first show of the tour, and all what the fans got to see, was a distant blue
haze!
The laser equipment was returned to the manufacturers, to be repaired, but did not appear
again! Years later the firm, that had built the equipment, sued KISS for non-payment.
Another new idea was KISS
World... a traveling amusement park, with KISS rides, KISS museums, and 3-D movies! The
logistics of this prevented the thing to happen, but the idea was brought out in life
during the 90's... though not as originally conceived!!
Paul also wanted an effect of
his own... he wanted to shoot laser beams from his "stareye" like in the
"KISS Meets The Phantom" movie! Several things were tried out, but none gave the
desired effect, and the idea was dropped permanently. |