Shows & Show Schedule

"You wanted the best, and you got it — the hottest band in the land!" From that swaggering intro all the way through guitarist Paul Stanley's banter about audience members' preferred beverages, Alive! neatly summarized Kiss's gritty early-Seventies catalog and extremely outsized charm — in turn, the 1975 double LP wound up being the band's first Top 10 album. Muscular takes on white-knuckle glam classics like "Strutter" and "Cold Gin" reveal just how much sweat seeped into the band members' makeup on any given night. Chatter over just how much of the album was sweetened in the studio persists to this day, but that hasn't dimmed its legacy. Not only has Alive! spawned multiple sequels, the 2015 lineup of Kiss will recreate it in full on this fall's sailing of the Kiss Kruise. Maura Johnston