Bigstore

Kiss’ makeup, costumes, pyrotechnically loaded sets, iconography, and general visual overkill have always been a primary drawing card for the band. Over the years, its fans, the Kiss Army, have, besides aping their onstage appearance, expressed their devotion in the fanzines surveyed by this loud, gaudy, lusciously tacky, near-perfect Kiss relic that also amounts to in-depth fan perspective on the costumed quartet. It showcases hordes of devotees, scores of amateur performance photos, and loads of testimonials from and short biographical sketches of band members. A lengthy gallery of concert and publicity posters chronicles the band’s visual presentation, though a lack of dates for many posters frustrates precision about the progress of that presentation. Of course, precision is a very un-Kiss-like thing. More Kiss stuff than any but the most devoted fan perhaps should want. --Mike Tribby