Capping off their Alive/35 Tour, KISS stormed the Sprint Center in Kansas City in an a bombastic, over the top performance that had the arena rocking full-tilt, with nary a butt in any of the 20,000 seats.
Photographer's Notes:
Hands down, one of the most fun and exhilarating concerts to photograph in 2009. After 35-years, KISS proved to this music photographer that they still have one of the most fun rock shows filling arenas on the globe.
KISS was flat out fun to photograph. It's truly one of the few shows where I've felt that the band was basically attacking the photographers in the photo pit with a constant stream of mugging. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the remaining original members of the band, were particularly playful for the cameras.
Even with over half a dozen photographers in the pit, the band seemed intent to make sure absolutely everyone got at least a frame of eye contact, a finger-point, or an outstretched tongue thrust their way – and sometimes all three at once. KISS is one band that did everything in its power to deliver to the photographers in the time allotted, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, with only two songs to shoot, all of this posturing was as incredibly welcome as it was fun and entertaining to shoot.
If anything, the band's constant mugging for photographers and fans during the first two songs made it a little challenging to get more “candid” shots of the band when members weren't hamming it up for me. This is a fine problem to have, if you ask me.
I photographed this concert with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 for a large part of the set, with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 filling in as supplemental lenses. The stage was tall enough that 24mm was quite good for all but the few instances when Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Tommy Thayer all came to the front of the stage to rock out.
End Notes:
If you're a music photographer, you owe it to yourself to photograph KISS before you hang up your camera.'Nuff said.
