Kiss, "Comin' Home"

20 Days to Find a Home



I love Kiss Unplugged. In as dazzling a stunt as any they ever pulled, Kiss latched onto the MTV Unplugged trend and not only didn't embarrass themselves, but came up with their best album since Alive II (and at this rate, their last great new album). Taking cues from the best MTV Unplugged appearances, like Nirvana and Alice in Chains, Kiss eschewed a greatest hits set to focus on their songs that sounded best on acoustics. One wouldn't think that any of their songs (save for "Hard Luck Woman," which they don't even play here) would sound best unplugged, but Kiss took the opportunity to show how suprisingly rich and diverse their catalogue is, from the bizarre, tender and creepy "Goin' Blind" to the relaxed "Sure Know Something" to a song from the concept album everyone wanted to forget ("A World Without Heroes", co-written by Bob Ezrin and Lou Reed??). Kiss didn't have much to prove in 1995, but they were still hungry, and they proved that they didn't need fire, blood, flying, grease paint or explosions to put on a great show.

They opened with "Comin' Home", a deep cut from Hotter than Hell, which probably seemed strange at the time but now looks prescient. Kiss were comin' home to their place as being the biggest band in the universe. A few minutes after "Comin' Home," Ace and Peter would be back onstage with Gene and Paul, each singing their own verse of "Rock and Roll All Nite," and over the next two years they'd be back onstage together, headlining the highest-grossing world tour of 1996 and 1997. The underdogs on Kiss Unplugged evaporated, but thankfully we got a great picture of them on "Comin' Home."