The Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour 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 the United States, and the first tour with guitarist Vinnie Vincent, (née Vincent Cusano) who replaced Ace Frehley.
Background In June 1982, Frehley told Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons that he was leaving Kiss, although it would take 12 months for lawyers to negotiate the lead guitarist's complete departure. In an effort to prolong their lucrative recording contract, Frehley agreed to participate in a press conference on October 22, 1982 and to travel to Europe for a promotional tour in late November. Meanwhile Stanley designed a new persona for Frehley's replacement, Vincent Cusano. Wearing a makeup design of an Egyptian "ankh", Cusano adopted the stage name "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 Stanley (vocals/rhythm guitar), Simmons (bass/vocals) and Frehley. 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.
Attendance in North America was abysmal; even though the band had returned to its signature hard rock after a couple of 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 three years, an unprecedented amount of time for them during that era. Frontman Paul Stanley recalled a show in Lexington, Kentucky where he threw a guitar pick that went over the entire audience of 2,500 and hit the floor. On March 11, they decided not to book dates beyond April 3, although they accepted a short tour of Brazil in June. Kiss played to the biggest crowd of their career at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with 137,000 people in the audience. According to the band management, promoters were actually interested in booking Kiss in smaller venues such as large nightclubs and smaller theatres where they would have had an easier time selling out shows. The band, however, refused to play anything except arenas and large theatres.
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.
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.
The Plasmatics were the opening act in the middle of the tour while heavy metal band Mötley Crüe opened for Kiss on the final dates of the North American leg after Kiss noticed their notoriety growing. Molly Hatchet, Night Ranger and Zebra were also the opening acts for several concerts on the tour. The Headpins, from Vancouver, BC, opened all four shows in Canada.
In the tour program for the band's final tour, both Simmons and Stanley reflected on the tour:
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."
Set list "Creatures of the Night" "Detroit Rock City" "Cold Gin" "Calling Dr. Love" "I Want You" "I Love It Loud" "Firehouse" "War Machine" "Love Gun" "God of Thunder" "I Still Love You" "Shout It Out Loud" "Black Diamond" Encore "Strutter" "Rock and Roll All Nite"
"Rock and Roll Hell" was dropped after the first three shows. "Keep Me Comin'" was also played live on this tour, but it was dropped after the first two shows. "Shout It Out Loud" was dropped from the set list after the February 1 concert in Knoxville, TN. "I Love It Loud" was played twice in São Paulo-Brazil (instead of "Strutter").
Tour dates Date City Country Venue Opening Act(s)North America December 29, 1982 Bismarck United States Bismarck Civic CenterHotz December 30, 1982 Sioux City Sioux City Municipal AuditoriumDare Force December 31, 1982 Rockford Rockford MetroCentreShoes January 1, 1983 Terre Haute Hulman CenterWhy On Earth January 4, 1983 Charleston Charleston Civic CenterDefectors January 6, 1983 Lexington Rupp ArenaNight Ranger January 7, 1983 Saginaw Wendler Arena January 8, 1983 Toledo Toledo Sports Arena January 9, 1983 Dayton University of Dayton Arena January 12, 1983 Quebec City Canada Colisée de QuebecThe Headpins January 13, 1983 Montreal Montreal Forum January 14, 1983 Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens January 15, 1983 Ottawa Ottawa Civic Centre January 16, 1983 Glens Falls United States Glens Falls Civic Center Night Ranger January 18, 1983 Syracuse Onondaga County War Memorial January 20, 1983 Rochester Rochester Community War Memorial January 21, 1983 Portland Cumberland County Civic Center January 22, 1983 Worcester The Centrum January 25, 1983 Norfolk Norfolk Scope January 27, 1983 Huntsville Von Braun Civic Center January 28, 1983 Birmingham Boutwell Auditorium January 29, 1983 Chattanooga UTC Arena January 30, 1983 Nashville Nashville Municipal Auditorium February 1, 1983 Knoxville Knoxville Civic Coliseum Plasmatics February 3, 1983 West Palm Beach West Palm Beach Auditorium February 4, 1983 Lakeland Lakeland Civic Center February 11, 1983 Pine Bluff Pine Bluff Convention Center February 14, 1983 New Orleans Louisiana Superdome Zebra February 16, 1983 Dubuque Five Flags Center Plasmatics February 18, 1983 Bloomington Met Center February 19, 1983 Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Arena February 20, 1983 La Crosse La Crosse Center February 22, 1983 Richfield Richfield Coliseum February 23, 1983 Detroit Cobo Arena February 24, 1983 Indianapolis Market Square Arena February 26, 1983 Springfield Prairie Capital Convention Center February 28, 1983 St. Louis Kiel Auditorium March 1, 1983 Kansas City Kansas City Municipal Auditorium Molly Hatchet March 9, 1983 Dallas Dallas Convention Center Plasmatics March 10, 1983 Houston Sam Houston Coliseum March 12, 1983 San Antonio HemisFair Arena March 13, 1983 Beaumont Beaumont Civic Center March 14, 1983 Corpus Christi Corpus Christi Memorial Coliseum March 18, 1983 Biloxi Mississippi Coast Coliseum March 19, 1983 Shreveport Hirsch Memorial Coliseum March 21, 1983 Norman Lloyd Noble Center March 23, 1983 El Paso El Paso County Coliseum March 26, 1983 Irvine Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre Mötley Crüe March 27, 1983 Los Angeles Universal Amphitheatre March 28, 1983 Phoenix Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum April 1, 1983 Las Vegas Aladdin Theater April 3, 1983 San Francisco San Francisco Civic AuditoriumBrazil June 18, 1983 Rio de Janeiro Brazil Maracanã StadiumHerva Doce June 23, 1983 Belo Horizonte Mineirão Stadium rowspan="2" June 25, 1983 São Paulo Morumbi Stadium
First show with Vinnie Vincent. 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. Kiss' last show in makeup until 1996.
Postponed and cancelled dates Date City Country Venue ReasoningDecember 27, 1982Rapid CityUnited StatesRushmore Plaza Civic CenterSevere snow stormJanuary 23, 1983ProvidenceProvidence Civic CenterPoor ticket sales; tickets for this show were exchanged for the Worcester, Massachusetts, show.February 6, 1983CharlestonCharleston County HallTentative date on the schedule. The concert was not advertised and no tickets went on saleFebruary 8, 1983AshevilleAsheville Civic CenterTentative date on the schedule. The concert was not advertised and no tickets went on saleFebruary 9, 1983Bristol, TennesseeViking Hall Civic CenterTentative date on the schedule. The concert was not advertised and no tickets went on saleFebruary 17, 1983DuluthDuluth ArenaPoor ticket salesMarch 31, 1983San DiegoSan Diego Sports ArenaPoor ticket salesJune 20, 1983Belo HorizonteBrazilMineirão StadiumElectrical outage during show, rescheduled for June 21; as a result only 30,000 of the expected 80,000 showed up.June 24, 1983São PauloMorumbi StadiumReserved on the schedule for a second Sāo Paulo showAugust 19–21, 1983Buenos AiresArgentinaBoca Juniors StadiumTerrorist threat
Box office score data +List of box office score data with date, city, venue, attendance, gross, referencesDateCityVenueAttendanceGrossDecember 29, 1982Bismarck, United StatesCivic Center3,335 / 8,200$30,011January 14, 1983Toronto, CanadaMaple Leaf Gardens9,565 / 10,000$124,100January 15, 1983Ottawa, CanadaCivic Centre4,919 / 7,000$59,028January 21, 1983Portland, United StatesCumberland County Civic Center4,338 / 4,500$45,549January 22, 1983Worcester, United StatesThe Centrum10,147 / 11,000$94,652January 27, 1983Huntsville, United StatesVon Braun Civic Center5,025 / 10,106$49,959January 29, 1983Chattanooga, United StatesUTC Arena4,451 / 11,000$43,533January 30, 1983Nashville, United StatesMunicipal Auditorium8,936 / 9,900$92,841February 3, 1983West Palm Beach, United StatesAuditorium5,202 / 6,200$58,588February 14, 1983New Orleans, United StatesLouisiana Superdome10,421 / 15,000$107,866February 22, 1983Richfield, United StatesColiseum10,212 / 10,212$10,120
Personnel Paul Stanley – vocals, rhythm guitar Gene Simmons – vocals, bass Eric Carr – drums, vocals Vinnie Vincent – lead guitar, backing vocals
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