Paul Stanley: One Live Kiss

This will be a controversial opinion, I'm sure, but I'm going to put it out there nonetheless: the music of KISS has never sounded better than it does on this 2008 concert film with Paul Stanley backed by the superb House Band from the Rockstar: INXS and Rockstar: Supernova shows, and who have gone on to be a crucial part of The Voice's continued success. Paul Mirkovich, Jim McGorman, Rafael Moreira, Sasha Krivtsov and Nate Morton are - as referenced by their work on the Rockstar shows that led Stanley to calling up and inviting them to be his backing band for the Live to Win tour - are as tight a music outfit as there is in the world. With Stanley out front vocally flawless, they breathe new textured life (especially with Mirkovich's keyboards) into KISS songs.

Sure, there isn't the same theatrics as you get at a KISS show, but if musicianship is what counts, then you're taking Sasha K over Gene S, Nate M over Peter Criss/Eric Singer...and you get my point. These guys can - as Duck Dunn so aptly said in The Blues Brothers - turn goat piss into gasoline. So many brilliant versions of KISS songs that are both hits and more obscure album cuts. I was fortunate to see an iteration of this tour in Australia in 2007 and it was sensational. I've seen at least one show on every KISS tour in Australia since. Non compare to the musical product I saw with Stanley and the House Band.