13. KISS - “God of Thunder“ (Alright, Largo! Alive in Maryland 1977 franKENstein Redux)

This is the first in a series of classic multi-cam KISS concerts from the ’70s that I have been upscaling and re-creating the audio for. My goal is to give these shows near-album-quality audio while maintaining all the nuances of the actual performances. Rather than simply syncing the official live albums to these shows, I have re-created the basic tracks using various isolated tracks from those albums along with other sources, blending them with actual guitar solos, vocals, drum arrangements and other variations that match the original performance. This show is from Largo, MD and was taped at Capital Center 12/20/1977 on the ALIVE II Tour. Vocals: Some vocals bits come from the original Largo recording, but since those vocals are very boxy and distorted (even after “clean-up“) they are the vast minority used here. Instead, I used Alive II for the majority of the vocals. They have been altered/edited to perfectly match the Largo video so the feel of the original show is more or less maintained. A few songs use other vocal sources like Houston ’76, Detroit ’76 & Detroit ’77 and NYC ’77. Drums: The drum tracks were done using remixed versions of isolated tracks from Alive!, ALIVEII and Lost Alive II. The original Alive II tracks are blended with samples I created of Peter’s actual Alive II and Love Gun drums. Many of the cymbals are also augmented with Peter’s actual crash cymbals sampled from ALIVE II. By creating these custom samples I was also able to create versions of the non-A2 songs with the “ALIVE II sound“. “Firehouse“, “Let Me Go, Rock ’n’ Roll“, “Rock and Roll All Nite“ and “Black Diamond“ were done using Peter’s actual drumming; sometimes from Alive! with alterations made to match the ’77 tour versions and sometimes with pieces of other songs on Alive II, edited and rearranged to piece together the song. “Black Diamond“, “Let Me Go, Rock ’n’ Roll“ & and “Firehouse“ were done this way. “RARAN“ comes mostly from the Lost ALIVE II recording with the arrangement altered to match the Largo version. Peter’s drum solo comes from the actual show, with samples blended to better match the sound of the rest of the show. Bass: A bit of distortion was added to Gene’s bass tracks to better simulate his live bass tone. Most of his parts come from either Alive! or ALIVE II with a few exceptions where other (mainly studio) sources were used. His solo before “God of Thunder“ is taken directly from the Largo show. Guitars: Most of the guitars come from Alive II or Lost Alive II. Some of Ace’s solos were taken right from the Largo ’77 show where he plays different things than on those recordings. His “Shock Me“ solo spot comes directly from the Largo show. Some of Paul’s guitar tracks come from Alive! and other sources. “Firehouse“, “Let Me Go, Rock ’n’ Roll“ and “Black Diamond“ are taken from Alive! (mostly), but with some distortion added. The video has been upscaled to 1080p using AI software and is a combination of the original video and extra footage from the alternate-angle version so there are lots of new edits and footage not seen in the original. I have adjusted the entire show, shot by shot to my liking. Everyone has a different opinion on what looks best. I have made the best effort not to completely lose all detail in the darker areas and have tried to maintain a good balance between a darker overall look and the original lighting. This show has quite a bit of video noise and horizontal banding in places that can’t be removed without over-darkening. I have made the pacing between songs closer to what you’d see and hear on an official release, but only dead space removed. I also slowed down “Firehouse“ by about 5% because the original performance is ridiculously fast. It isn’t really noticeable in context and still gives the song a similar “pep“ compared to early, much slower performances. Again, my goal was to create a version of this great concert that can be better enjoyed with great audio accompanying it. For those who don’t know, these old concerts were recorded with direct-from-soundboard audio. The PA mix would be compensating more for something like a voice than for a relatively loud guitar amp or drum set. Thus, we often get a very uneven sound when ONLY the soundboard mix is heard. This also means there is zero room ambience and the only crowd noise heard was the bleed coming through the stage mics creating a very dead-sounding atmosphere. While a video like this is NOT for the purist, a strong argument can be made that what is captured on those videotapes is far from what someone in the audience would have actually heard. This version is not an attempt to erase or replace the original, but rather to (hopefully) bring new life to it. You have definitely never seen or heard this show quite like this before. It was many months in the making, so I truly hope other fans enjoy it. Watch the full concert here…