Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour

Creatures Of The Night/10th Anniversary Tour

Tour by Kiss
Associated album	Creatures of the Night
Start date	December 29, 1982
End date	June 25, 1983
Legs	2
Number of shows	56 played
Kiss concert chronology

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 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 was the opening act in the middle of the tour while heavy metal band Mötley Crüe opened for KISS early in the tour—but was dropped due to bad behavior. Night Ranger was the opening act for several concerts on the tour, too, replacing the Plasmatics.

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."^[6]

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.^[7] "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

Date	City	Country	Venue
North America
December 29, 1982	Bismarck, North Dakota	United States	Bismarck Civic Center^1
December 30, 1982	Sioux City, Iowa		Sioux City Municipal Auditorium
December 31, 1982	Rockford, Illinois		Rockford MetroCentre
January 1, 1983	Terre Haute, Indiana		Hulman Center
January 3, 1983	Charleston, West Virginia		Charleston Civic Center
January 6, 1983	Lexington, Kentucky		Rupp Arena
January 7, 1983	Saginaw, Michigan		Wendler Arena
January 8, 1983	Toledo, Ohio		Toledo Sports Arena
January 9, 1983	Dayton, Ohio		University of Dayton Arena
January 12, 1983	Quebec City, Quebec	Canada	Colisée Pepsi
January 13, 1983	Montreal, Quebec		Montreal Forum
January 14, 1983	Toronto, Ontario		Maple Leaf Gardens
January 15, 1983	Ottawa, Ontario		Ottawa Civic Centre
January 16, 1983	Glens Falls, New York	United States	Glens Falls Civic Center
January 18, 1983	Syracuse, New York		Onondaga War Memorial
January 20, 1983	Rochester, New York		Rochester Community War Memorial
January 21, 1983	Portland, Maine		Cumberland County Civic Center
January 22, 1983	Worcester, Massachusetts		The Centrum^2
January 25, 1983	Norfolk, Virginia		Norfolk Scope
January 27, 1983	Huntsville, Alabama		Von Braun Civic Center
January 28, 1983	Birmingham, Alabama		Boutwell Auditorium
January 29, 1983	Chattanooga, Tennessee		UTC Arena
January 30, 1983	Nashville, Tennessee		Nashville Municipal Auditorium
February 1, 1983	Knoxville, Tennessee		Knoxville Civic Coliseum
February 3, 1983	West Palm Beach, Florida		West Palm Beach Auditorium
February 4, 1983	Lakeland, Florida		Lakeland Civic Center
February 11, 1983	Pine Bluff, Arkansas		Pine Bluff Convention Center
February 14, 1983	New Orleans, Louisiana		Louisiana Superdome
February 16, 1983	Dubuque, Iowa		Five Flags Center
February 18, 1983	Bloomington, Minnesota		Met Center
February 19, 1983	Sioux Falls, South Dakota		Sioux Falls Arena
February 20, 1983	La Crosse, Wisconsin		La Crosse Center
February 22, 1983	Richfield, Ohio		Richfield Coliseum
February 23, 1983	Detroit, Michigan		Cobo Hall
February 26, 1983	Indianapolis, Indiana		Market Square Arena
February 27, 1983	Springfield, Illinois		Prairie Capital Convention Center
February 28, 1983	St. Louis, Missouri		Kiel Auditorium
March 1, 1983	Kansas City, Missouri		Municipal Auditorium
March 9, 1983	Dallas, Texas		Dallas Convention Center
March 10, 1983	Houston, Texas		Sam Houston Coliseum
March 11, 1983	San Antonio, Texas		San Antonio Convention Center
March 13, 1983	Beaumont, Texas		Beaumont Civic Center
March 14, 1983	Corpus Christi, Texas		Corpus Christi Civic Coliseum
March 18, 1983	Biloxi, Mississippi		Mississippi Coast Coliseum
March 19, 1983	Shreveport, Louisiana		Hirsch Memorial Coliseum
March 20, 1983	Norman, Oklahoma		Lloyd Noble Center
March 21, 1983	Amarillo, Texas		Amarillo Civic Center
March 23, 1983	El Paso, Texas		El Paso County Coliseum
March 26, 1983	Irvine, California		Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
March 27, 1983	Universal City, California		Universal Amphitheater
March 28, 1983	Phoenix, Arizona		Veterans Memorial Coliseum
April 1, 1983	Las Vegas, Nevada		Aladdin Theater
April 3, 1983	San Francisco, California		Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
South America
June 18, 1983	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Maracanã Stadium^3
June 23, 1983	Belo Horizonte		Mineirão Stadium
June 25, 1983	São Paulo		Morumbi Stadium^4

• ^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, RI 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 (250.000 people)
• ^Note 4 Kiss' last show in make-up until 1996.

Postponed/Cancelled Dates

Date	City	Country	Venue	Reasoning
December 27, 1982	Rapid City, South Dakota	United States	Rushmore Plaza Civic Center	Severe snow storm
January 23, 1983	Providence, Rhode Island		Providence Civic Center	Poor ticket sales, tickets for this show were exchanged for the Worcester, MA show.
February 6, 1983	Charleston, South Carolina		Charleston County Hall	Poor ticket sales
February 8, 1983	Asheville, North Carolina		Asheville Civic Center	Poor ticket sales
February 17, 1983	Duluth, Minnesota		Duluth Arena	Poor ticket sales
June 20, 1983	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	Mineirão Stadium	Electrical outage during show, rescheduled for June 21, as a result only 30,000 of the expected 80,000 showed up.
June 24, 1983	São Paulo		Morumbi Stadium	Poor ticket sales

Notes

1. The KISSFAQ - KISS Tourdates Archive
2. Interview with Chris Lendt - Three Sides Of The Coin podcast
3. Interview with Chris Lendt - Three Sides Of The Coin podcast
4. KISSONLINE.COM - KISS Chronology
5. 'Kiss vs Religious Groups: 1982-1983
6. Herzog, Marty (April 1983). "Gene Simmons". Comics Interview (2) (Fictioneer Books). pp. 57–62.
7. Gooch, Curt and Jeff Suhs. KISS Alive Forever: the Complete Touring History. Billboard Books, 2002. p. 121