KISSOLOGY Vol 3 Pretty Good, But Still Not Perfect

KISSOLOGY Vol 3.
To begin, there are 4 distinct versions of this DVD set.
1. Wal-Mart exclusive version which includes the bonus DVD of: Madison Square Garden/NYC 1996
2. General merchants (Amazon.com, etc) version which includes the bonus DVD of: Weenie Roast/Irvine, CA 1996
3. The Be$t B(_)y exclusive version which includes the bonus DVD of: Brazil 1994
4. The “we ran out of bonus DVD’s, so you just get the other 4 discs” version.

This review is for the version sold by Wal-Mart.
I will update or re-review once I have the Amazon version. I won’t review the Be$t B(_)y version because they have messed up so many of my previous orders that I refuse to purchase ANYTHING from them again. The only way I’ll get that version is if I receive it as a gift or if I find one on the side of the road.

I purchased my copy from the local Wal-Mart, brought it home, opened it up and discovered: Disc 1, Disc 2, Disc 2, Disc 3, bonus DVD and the booklet.

How in the world could they have put in two of Disc 2 and NONE of Disc 4?!?
I made a mad run back to the store and exchanged my defective copy for one that I opened at the service desk to ensure all the correct Discs were there.
The entire inventory for the store was only 4 units... way to go Wal-Mart. On a plus side, the in-store price is $10.00 less than the online price.
When I bought mine, there were 4 on the shelf. When I returned to get my replacement (about 15 minutes later), there was only 1 left on the shelf. I live in a small town and I’m surprised these sold so fast.
Upon closer inspection of the discs at home, Disc 2 has noticeable scratches from the awful packaging.

I got lucky in having a store so close to home that actually had another copy to replace my defective one, but I bet lots more people won't be so lucky. I feel bad for people buying these on e-bay, they'll be stuck with them & no way to get what they should. I’m sure there is at least ONE set with 2 Disc 4’s out there, who knows how many others are messed up.

PACKAGING:
Like the other 2 volumes, your discs are layered on top of each other on the plastic trays. You have to remove one disc to get to the disc below it. This applies to both sides.
The plastic trays are attached to the fold out cardboard cover with the usual KISS images.
To keep everything together, you have the outer cardboard slip cover.

This entire KISSOLOGY (vol. 1 through 3) would have been so much better if it were placed in multiple DVD cases like many sets are done these days. Even if they were contained in several Double or Single DVD cases would have been better.

(Come on, a single 5 DVD capacity case would have cost all of $.39 in bulk, these cardboard flop out cases probably cost $1.00 each & are clearly inferior. Sorry, rant over)

Sure, everybody would have 5 or 10 DVD cases to keep up with, but this would be a small inconvenience to live with in order to keep the discs safe from scratches or breaks.
I’ll probably create my own DVD case artwork and store my DVD’s in my own cases. It’s just too difficult to carefully pry & twist the discs from the cardboard & plastic cases they come in.
My Disc 2 was scratched even before I removed it from the packaging. I’m almost afraid to keep them in the cheaply made storage unit it came with for fear the other discs will be scratched or broken.

EXTRAS:
As for extras, there really are none, other than the limited run of bonus DVDs. All you get inside is the 4 Discs, a booklet & the bonus disc. No sticker, no patch, no ticket, not even a $0.25 guitar pick.

CONTENT:
Disc 1 includes:
The Palace at Auburn Hills Detroit MI, 11-27-92 concert. I believe this show was recorded for the KISS Alive III DVD that never seemed to happen. Pretty good show, although I believe it’s incomplete & edited to some degree.
Songs include: Creatures of the Night, Deuce, I just wanna, Unholy, Parasite, Heaven’s on fire, Domino, Watchin’ You, War Machine, Rock & Roll All Night, Lick it up, Take it off, I love it loud, Detroit Rock City, God gave rock & roll to you II, Love Gun & Star spangled banner.

MTV Unplugged behind the scenes. Basically one of the producers’ voices over footage of how the unplugged/reunion came to be. Nothing groundbreaking as I’ve seen most of the footage in other incarnations.

MTV Unplugged. This is an extended version of what was broadcast on MTV, but does not contain ALL of the footage from the MTV Unplugged session. I have seen the Uncut-Unplugged footage which includes several takes on some songs as well as some goofing around between songs.
All in all this Unplugged is much better than the MTV version and better than the Original VHS & DVD release of Unplugged.
Songs include: Comin’ home, plaster caster, Goin’ blind, Do you love me?, Domino, Got to choose, Sure know something, A world without heroes, Hard luck woman, Rock Bottom, See you tonight, I still love you, Every time I look at you, Heaven’s on fire, Spit, C’mon and love me, God of thunder (funny country version), 2000 man, Beth, Nothin’ to lose & Rock & Roll All Nite.

Disc 2 includes:
Tiger stadium Detroit MI 6-28-96
Songs include: Deuce, King of the night time world, Do You Love Me?, Calling Dr Love, Cold Gin, Christine Sixteen, Love Gun, Shout it out loud, Watchin’ you, Firehouse, Strutter, Shock me, Rock bottom, God of thunder, Let me go Rock & roll, 100,000 years & Rock & roll all nite.

(Whoever did the editing on this show must have never watched a concert DVD before. Between songs on this show in particular, there are several seconds (up to a minute) of SOLID BLACK screen with Paul or Gene intro-ing the songs. This is VERY disturbing when you want to set back with the surround sound & big screen and feel like you’re at the show. At first I thought it was my DVD player or TV going bad, but from what I understand, every one of these sets is done this way.)

Also on Disc 2 is MTV VMA performance 9-4-96.
Songs include: Rock & roll all nite, New York Groove, Deuce, Calling Dr Love & Love Gun.
It was nice to see the rest of the songs here that didn’t make it onto TV way back then.

(Now here’s where I really start to get upset with this set.)
Dodger Stadium Los Angeles CA Halloween 10-31-98 PART ONE
Songs include: Psycho Circus, Shout it out loud, let me go rock & roll, Shock me, Do you love me?, Calling Dr Love, Firehouse, She & I was made for lovin’ you….

Disc 3 includes:
Dodger Stadium Halloween 98 PART TWO

The complaint I have is the splitting of the Dodger Stadium 10-31-98 concert onto TWO DVD’s. Why not simply move some of the footage at the beginning of Disc 2 over to Disc 3 and have the entire concert on Disc 2?!?!? Unless you have a DVD changer, you’ll have to get up MID CONCERT and change discs. Unacceptable.
Songs include: Into the void, Love Gun, Within, 100000 Years, King of the night time world, God of thunder, Deuce, Detroit rock city, Beth, Black Diamond & Rock & roll all nite.

Also included on Disc 3 is:
Detroit rock city movie premier 8-9-99.
Songs include: Detroit Rock City, Shout it out loud, Cold Gin & Rock & Roll All Nite.

The LAST KISS. Continental airlines arena E. Rutherford NJ 6-27-00.
The LAST KISS was supposed to be a big online or PPV show that somehow fizzled and never happened the way it was supposed to.
I remember seeing an edited version of this on MTV or VH1 (I still have the original broadcast on tape) and it’s nice to have it in better quality now.
Songs include: Detroit rock city, Deuce, Shout it out loud, Firehouse, Heaven’s on fire, Let me go rock & roll, Shock me, Psycho Circus, God of thunder, 100000 years, Love Gun, Black diamond, Beth & Rock & roll all nite.

By now there has been half a dozen versions of Rock & Roll All Nite. Two or three would have been plenty, but for some reason other songs are cut and not this one. I don’t mind hearing the song, but enough is enough already.

Disc 4 includes only one show.
The 1973 show known to be the earliest known concert of KISS. Coming in at less than 45 minutes, it's a nice show but there's still plenty of room for more footage.
Songs include: Deuce, Cold Gin, Nothin’ to lose, Strutter, Firehouse, Let me know, 100000 years, Black Diamond & Let me go rock n roll.
You really have to be a die-hard fan to enjoy this black & white grainy footage.

The Bonus DVD of Madison Square Garden New York, NY 7-27-96 Reunion Tour includes the songs: Deuce, Calling Dr Love, Cold Gin, Let me go rock n roll, Shout it out loud, Watchin’ you, Firehouse, Shock me, Strutter, Rock Bottom, God of thunder, Love Gun, 100000 years, Black Diamond, Detroit Rock City & Rock & roll all nite.
By far better production value than the concert on Disc 2.
I don’t believe this show is shown in its entirety, but it’s still a nice addition.

As with the previous volumes, each disc (except for maybe disc 4) has 5.1 audio as well as standard 2.0 channel audio and some portions have commentary tracks from the band.

Easter Eggs… well, if you can call them Easter eggs… move the selection tool over the KISSOLOGY text on each disc and you’ll get a short video clip.

I was actually surprised to see that Gene & Paul let so many mistakes, miscues & other screw ups make it onto something this big. It’s not a bad thing, it just shows they’re human and it’s pretty funny watching Ace look at his non-smoking guitar like “what the hell is wrong with this stupid thing?” The bloopers are some of the best parts of the live experience. Maybe they’ll put together a KISS’ funniest videos next year.

Even though this is “The End” of the KISSOLOGY set, I look for Volume 4 2001 – 20?? to be released in a year or so…. or whenever Gene needs another facelift.

There was limited exposure with Eric Singer & Bruce Kulick which is too bad. I never really liked Bruce, but he was still an important part of KISS.
The Revenge era was some of the best non-makeup of KISS since Creatures of the Night, but it hardly gets any of the credit it deserves.

The Carnival of Souls era hardly gets a mention. I guess it was an afterthought because during the recording sessions Gene was already working the lawyers to bring Ace & Peter back for the Reunion Tours & Psycho Circus. COS was a great heavy album, almost as good as Revenge.

Unfortunately, there’s no footage of the band in its current configuration of Gene, Paul, Eric Singer & Tommy Thayer. Hopefully this era of KISStory will be seen in the next volume.
All things considered, this Volume 3 falls a little below Volume 2 & 1 in my book.