KISS – Don’t Take A Date!
In 1974 a new band by the name of “KISS” released their first album. Kiss was on a tour to promote the album and made a stop at a small club just outside of downtown Nashville called “Muthers.” Many acts played this venue on their way to stardom including, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen, ELO, Ted Nugent, and many others. Kiss performed two shows on this particular night. They did an early show for all ages (which we attended), then they performed a second show for the legal nightclub attendees. Brian Hasbrook and I with several others went to this show. The ticket price for this show was only 99 cents, although we didn’t get a penny back from our dollar, which Brian still complains about today.

By looking at their album cover, I knew this show was going to be different than any other concert we’d attended. One really neat thing about it was that as we were standing in line waiting for the doors to open, we got to see the band’s sound check through the tinted glass windows. May I also say they didn’t have on their makeup during their soundcheck. We didn’t realize their facial identity was going to be hidden for years to come or we would have taken pictures.

The opening act was a local band, but then came on these guys all painted up looking like something from out of this world. This was neat! They had this huge lighted sign displaying “KISS” on the side of the stage. Later as they played concert halls, the sign was placed up above them. However, there was no room for this display above them at Muthers, which held about 250 people. I’m surprised there was enough power in the building to run the sign without blowing a circuit. During this time in their career, Kiss had very cheap makeup. In fact, as the band members sweated throughout the night, the makeup was sweating off their faces. My younger brother, Barry, was up against the stage in front of Gene Simmons. Gene’s makeup was all over his hair and shirt.

One main fact about this story worth mentioning is that Brian brought a date to this show. This very pretty and nice girl was quite out of place. When Kiss took the stage and the lights came on, she looked at them and said in a loud voice, “Oh My God!” She had no idea about Kiss the band or their music. Did I mention she was out of place?

All night long she complained about the freaks on stage. She couldn’t believe that Gene Simmons breathed fire during the song “Firehouse.” Then the ultimate happened. Gene began his small bass solo and you KISS fans know what is coming next. That’s right, he put that magic capsule in his mouth as he strutted around the stage building up all that saliva. Then Gene looked at us as he spit up the fake blood all over the stage and slinging it all over the crowd. Brian’s date let out a yell and passed out! That’s right, she fainted right then and there! All of us had to get her out of there as fast as we could to get her some air quickly. We were all worried about her, but she finally came around and we left. We didn’t know what else was about to happen in the concert, but we couldn’t take a chance on her with us. Brian said he would never be responsible for a date at a rock concert again.

All in all it was still a fun night. We all went to McDonald’s and talked about the show. Brian and I couldn’t wait for them to come back to town so we could enjoy the full show. It was only a year later when they came back to Nashville to play the arena, the Municipal Auditorium, with Bob Seger. Less than a year later, they were back again. Kiss had to be one of the fastest rising bands to graduate from the club circuit to the arenas.