The Animalize World Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Kiss in support of their twelfth studio album, Animalize.

Animalize World Tour
Tour by Kiss
Associated albumAnimalize
Start dateSeptember 30, 1984
End dateMarch 29, 1985
Legs2
No. of shows119
Kiss concert chronology

Background

edit

This was the first tour with Bruce Kulick on lead guitar, replacing Mark St. John who couldn't play due to his arthritic condition.[1] Originally Kulick was a temporary replacement, but after St. John's condition improved and he returned to the group, the other members decided Kulick was a better fit musically, resulting in Kulick being named an official member on December 2, 1984 after the band had played three shows with St. John.[2][3]

According to Pete Bishop, a reporter from The Pittsburgh Press, the design of the stage featured a leopard-zebra appearance taken from the cover of the album Animalize. The lighted band logo was hung over the upstage portion with specials effects also featuring blasting caps and sparkler jets. There was also colored lights on trusses and beneath meshwork ramps. A truss would lift downwards to lift up the guitarists and lift them to a catwalk, descending down later on a smoke spewing platform.[4]

The Animalize period was the band's most successful of the decade with the crossover success of "Heaven's on Fire" onto CHR/Top 40 radio, a very well-attended concert trek, and with Animalize selling nearly 2 million copies by the end of the tour.[citation needed] The live video Animalize Live Uncensored was recorded at Cobo Hall on December 8, 1984 during this tour, later airing on MTV.[5] On April 7, 2023, Kiss officially released the only known soundboard recording of a live show with Mark St. John, as part of their Off the Soundboard series. The concert was recorded on November 28, 1984 at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.[6]

In the tour program for the band's final tour, Simmons reflected on the tour:

You can't help but have a good time at one of our shows when everybody is going nuts onstage. That kind of good time is infectious. You can't fake it. You can't fool the audience. The people will see right through you if you put on a fake smile or you're not putting out your best. The band are alive and well and playing better than we ever have.[7]

Reception

edit

Linda Moleski, a reporter from Billboard, who had attended the performance in Uniondale began her review by noting that the theatrics had not been toned down, but had toned down in appearance. She praised the concert as a 'powerful metal fury', but said she was disappointed from the performance of "Heaven's on Fire" as it was delivered more weakly and harshly. She pointed out the strong connection with both the audience and the players, even praising the uncluttered stage.[8]

Jeff Bunch, a correspondent from The Spokesman-Review was not impressed from the band's performance in Spokane, stating that they were nothing more than a 'play-it-loud-and-say-it-crude' band and suggested that 'if the rumors that rock 'n roll died, it was true. He criticized that the band were strutting around on stage in a graphic matter while Stanley spent more time telling stories than singing - while noting the band having the audience on their feet throughout the whole performance. He concluded his review by stating that the band's success was relied on playing music loud and throwing in many theatrics as possible. He however, claimed that the opening act played to a better-than-average reception.[9]

Setlist

edit

These are example setlists of what was performed during the tour on each leg, but may not represent the majority of the tour.[2]

Tour dates

edit
Date City Country Venue Opening Act(s)
Europe[2]
September 30, 1984 Brighton England Brighton Centre Bon Jovi
October 1, 1984 Southampton Gaumont Theatre
October 2, 1984 St Austell Cornwall Coliseum
October 4, 1984 Manchester Manchester Apollo
October 5, 1984 Glasgow Scotland Glasgow Apollo
October 6, 1984 Edinburgh Edinburgh Playhouse
October 7, 1984 Newcastle upon Tyne England Newcastle City Hall
October 8, 1984
October 10, 1984 Leicester De Montfort Hall
October 11, 1984 Ipswich Gaumont Theater
October 12, 1984 Stafford Bingley Hall
October 13, 1984 Leeds Queen's Hall
October 14, 1984 London Wembley Arena
October 15, 1984
October 18, 1984 Munich West Germany Circus Krone
October 17, 1984 Offenbach am Main Stadthalle Offenbach
October 19, 1984 Neunkirchen am Brand Hemmerleinhalle
October 21, 1984 Copenhagen Denmark Falkoner Center
October 22, 1984 Drammen Norway Drammenshallen
October 24, 1984 Lund Sweden Olympen
October 26, 1984 Stockholm Johanneshovs Isstadion Bon Jovi
October 27, 1984 Gothenburg Scandinavium
October 29, 1984 Hanover West Germany Stadionsporthalle
October 30, 1984 Düsseldorf Philipshalle
October 31, 1984 Ludwigshafen Friedrich-Ebert-Halle
November 1, 1984 Lausanne Switzerland Palais de Beaulieu
November 3, 1984 Brussels Belgium Forest National
November 4, 1984 Zwolle Netherlands IJsselhallen
November 5, 1984 Paris France Zénith de Paris
North America[2][10]
November 15, 1984 Bethlehem United States Stabler Arena Queensrÿche
November 16, 1984 Glens Falls Glens Falls Civic Center
November 17, 1984 Rochester Rochester Community War Memorial
November 18, 1984 Buffalo Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
November 20, 1984 Syracuse Onondaga County War Memorial
November 23, 1984 Worcester The Centrum
November 24, 1984 New Haven New Haven Coliseum
November 25, 1984 Philadelphia The Spectrum
November 26, 1984 Uniondale Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
November 27, 1984 Baltimore Baltimore Civic Center1
November 28, 1984 Poughkeepsie Mid-Hudson Civic Center2
November 29, 1984 Binghamton Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena2
December 2, 1984 Indianapolis Market Square Arena3
December 4, 1984 St. Louis Kiel Auditorium
December 5, 1984 Evansville Roberts Municipal Stadium
December 6, 1984 Terre Haute Hulman Center
December 7, 1984 Fort Wayne Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
December 8, 1984 Detroit Cobo Arena4
December 11, 1984 Saginaw Saginaw Civic Center
December 12, 1984 Columbus Battelle Hall
December 13, 1984 Dayton Hara Arena
December 14, 1984 Richfield Richfield Coliseum
December 15, 1984 Louisville Commonwealth Convention Center
December 17, 1984 Peoria Peoria Civic Center
December 18, 1984 Cedar Rapids Five Seasons Center
December 26, 1984 Kansas City Kansas City Municipal Auditorium
December 27, 1984 Lincoln Pershing Auditorium
December 29, 1984 Saint Paul St. Paul Civic Center
December 30, 1984 Milwaukee MECCA Arena
January 3, 1985 Greenville Greenville Memorial Auditorium Krokus
January 4, 1985 Johnson City Freedom Hall Civic Center
January 5, 1985 Fayetteville Cumberland County Memorial Arena
January 6, 1985 Charlotte Charlotte Coliseum
January 8, 1985 Knoxville Knoxville Civic Coliseum
January 9, 1985 Atlanta The Omni Coliseum
January 10, 1985 Orlando Orlando Sports Stadium
January 11, 1985 Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Musical Theater
January 12, 1985
January 13, 1985 St. Petersburg Bayfront Center
January 15, 1985 New Orleans Kiefer UNO Lakefront Arena
January 16, 1985 Biloxi Mississippi Coast Coliseum
January 17, 1985 Huntsville Von Braun Civic Center
January 18, 1985 Birmingham Boutwell Memorial Auditorium
January 19, 1985 Nashville Nashville Municipal Auditorium
January 21, 1985 Pensacola Pensacola Civic Center
January 22, 1985 Memphis Mid-South Coliseum
January 24, 1985 Lubbock Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Queensrÿche
January 25, 1985 Abilene Taylor County Expo Center
January 26, 1985 Austin Frank Erwin Center
January 27, 1985 Corpus Christi Corpus Christi Memorial Coliseum
January 29, 1985 Dallas Reunion Arena
January 30, 1985 San Antonio HemisFair Arena
January 31, 1985 Houston Sam Houston Coliseum
February 1, 1985 Waco Waco Convention Center
February 3, 1985 Odessa Ector County Coliseum
February 4, 1985 Amarillo Amarillo Civic Center
February 5, 1985 El Paso El Paso County Coliseum
February 6, 1985 Phoenix Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
February 7, 1985 Las Vegas Aladdin Theatre
February 9, 1985 Oakland Kaiser Convention Center
February 11, 1985 Salt Lake City Salt Palace
February 13, 1985 Seattle Seattle Center Arena
February 14, 1985 Portland Portland Memorial Coliseum
February 17, 1985 Long Beach Long Beach Arena
February 18, 1985
February 20, 1985 San Bernardino Orange Pavilion
February 21, 1985 Bakersfield Bakersfield Convention Center
February 22, 1985 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena
February 24, 1985 Sacramento Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
February 26, 1985 Spokane Spokane Coliseum
February 27, 1985 Vancouver Canada Pacific Coliseum
March 1, 1985 Edmonton Kinsmen Field House Sentinel
March 2, 1985 Lethbridge Sportplex Queensrÿche
March 3, 1985 Calgary Stampede Corral
March 7, 1985 Regina Regina Agridome Dokken
March 9, 1985 Winnipeg Winnipeg Arena
March 10, 1985 Grand Forks United States Hyslop Sports Center
March 11, 1985 Bismarck Bismarck Civic Center
March 13, 1985 Duluth Duluth Arena
March 14, 1985 Green Bay Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena
March 15, 1985 La Crosse La Crosse Center
March 16, 1985 Dubuque Five Flags Center
March 17, 1985 Des Moines Iowa Veterans Memorial Auditorium
March 19, 1985 Madison Dane County Expo Coliseum W.A.S.P.
March 20, 1985 Marquette Lakeview Arena
March 22, 1985 Lansing Lansing Civic Center
March 23, 1985 South Bend Athletic & Convocation Center
March 24, 1985 Cincinnati Cincinnati Gardens
March 25, 1985 Toledo Toledo Sports Arena
March 26, 1985 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Civic Arena
March 28, 1985 Springfield Springfield Civic Center
March 29, 1985 East Rutherford Brendan Byrne Arena
  • ^Note 1 Bruce Kulick performed the first half of this show and Mark St. John performed the second half.
  • ^Note 2 Mark St. John performed the entirety of these shows.
  • ^Note 3 This was Bruce Kulick's first show as a permanent member of the group.
  • ^Note 4 This show was professionally recorded and shown on MTV, then later released as Animalize Live Uncensored.

Box office score data

edit
List of box office score data with date, city, venue, attendance, gross, references
Date
(1984)
City Venue Attendance Gross Ref(s)
November 15 Bethlehem Stabler Arena 4,472 / 6,000 $49,346 [11]
December 2 Indianapolis Market Square Arena 10,393 / 10,500 $111,865 [12]
December 4 St. Louis Kiel Auditorium 4,380 / 5,700 $54,533 [13]

Personnel

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Giles, Jeff (April 27, 2017). "The Life and Death of Kiss Guitarist Mark St. John". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Gooch, Curt; Suhs, Jeff (2002). Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5.
  3. ^ Wilkening, Matthew (December 7, 2019). "35 Years Ago: Kiss' Bruce Kulick Era Begins With 'Animalize Live'". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  4. ^ Bishop, Pete (March 27, 1985). "Music still second fiddle at Kiss concert". Pittsburgh: The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  5. ^ Durr, Matt (March 9, 2019). "KISS's most memorable Michigan moments". mlive. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  6. ^ Wardlaw, Andrew. "Kiss to Release Rare 1984 Mark St. john Show as Next Live Album". Ultimateclassicrock.com. Andrew Wardlaw.
  7. ^ (2019). End of the Road World Tour Program, pg. 21.
  8. ^ Moleski, Linda (December 15, 1984). "Talent in Action". Billboard. Vol. 96, no. 50. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 45. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  9. ^ Bunch, Jeff (February 27, 1985). "KISS concert is nothing more than play it loud, say it crude". Spokane: The Spokesman-Review. p. 12. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  10. ^ North America show notices:
  11. ^ "Amusement Business Boxscore: Top Concert Grosses". Billboard. Vol. 96, no. 48. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 1, 1984. p. 37. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  12. ^ "Amusement Business Boxscore: Top Concert Grosses". Billboard. Vol. 96, no. 50. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 15, 1984. p. 45. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  13. ^ "Amusement Business Boxscore: Top Concert Grosses". Billboard. Vol. 96, no. 51. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 22, 1984. p. 41. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved December 11, 2021.

Sources

edit
  • Gooch, Curt; Suhs, Jeff (2002). Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-8322-5.