*Kiss' set was videotaped - Available on the 4DVD Set "Kissology III".
Click each song title below to watch video from Kiss's 12/22/73 performance:
Deuce / Cold Gin / Nothin' To Lose / Strutter / Firehouse / Let Me Know / 100,ooo Years / Black Diamond / Let Me Go Rock 'N' Roll
*This was Kiss' final show as a NYC club band. During the show Paul Stanley announced to the crowd that the band had signed a record contract.
Paul Stanley - Guitar & Vocals, Kiss
Peter Criss - Drums & Vocals, Kiss
Lydia Criss - Ex-Wife of Peter Criss
Gene Simmons - Bass & Vocals, Kiss
Joe Valentine - Guitar, Rags
Bill Aucoin - Kiss Manager 1973-1982
Excerpts from:
"Dressed to Kill" by Ken Sharp
Goldmine Magazine (04/11/08)
Paul Stanley: Coventry was a study in contrasts. The first time we played there, there was nobody there. The last time we played there, you could barely get in the door. It was very cool. It was the first place we played when we got a record deal.
Peter Criss: Even though hardly anyone was there at our first gig, when we eventually played there enough times, I remember pulling up one night in the car with the boys and there was a line down the block. We went, "Holy shit! Wow, this is cool!" We had to go through the crowd, and they were all patting us on the back, and we made it to the basement and we said, "F**k!" It was cool.
Lydia Criss: The all-girl band Isis opened for KISS that night. The Dolls were in the audience. It was a wild show. It was all starting to happen for them, and you could sense the momentum building. Spirits were high.
Gene Simmons: When we played [Coventry] in December of '73, there may have been 80 to 100 people. But, there was a special excitement within the band, because we had just signed to Casablanca Records, which was going to be a brand new label. We were the first artists on the label. For all we knew, we were about to become big stars. In the beginning, you dream big.
Joe Valentine: We played on the same bill with KISS at Coventry in December '73. I didn't quite understand the correlation between kabuki makeup and rock and roll, but hey, rock and roll has strange bedfellows. But, their music was so good. To be honest, I thought they didn't even need the makeup. I said to myself, "These guys are gonna be big!" The Dolls were struggling at the time; their asexual look was a tough sell to middle America. KISS were the next New York band in line poised to conquer the world.
Bill Aucoin: I shot the footage that night at Coventry on a half-inch Sony reel-to-reel recorder with a Sony black-and-white video camera. We shot the footage not to preserve a show per se, but more to see if they did anything wrong that we could fix before their big show on New Year's Eve at the Academy Of Music.
Unfortunately, that same reel of video tape held some wonderful moments in their rehearsals in this dungeon down in the Bowery, but I taped over it when I shot their Coventry show. I always knew I had the footage, and a few years back, I finally had it transferred. I came out to L.A. and showed Gene and Paul the Coventry footage, and they were both quite amazed. I don't think they remembered they were as good as they were.
Gene said, "Gee, we really were together then." At that point, they'd rehearsed so much they were really tight. They were thinking of themselves as not being that tight and focused, but the truth of the matter is yes, they were. Watching the video you can sense what I believed from the first moment that I worked with them: KISS were really on a mission. They were driven to make this happen, and a lot of artists aren't. They expect it to happen, or they dream about the money. But, they don't necessarily have the drive, but KISS had it. At that time, they were very excited. They had their album coming out. They were doing their first tour. This was a dream for any artist, and you can see the excitement in their performance at Coventry.