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."

Ten Metal Bands to See Before You Die: Metallica

Seeing Metallica in the flesh is like finding out that Batman is real. It's acrobatic, a little cartoonish and employs a few gadgets and explosions. But the most remarkable thing about Metallica might be that, like the Caped Crusader, they give you the sense that you're watching incredible acts performed by mortals. These don't seem like guys with Odin-given talents--there isn't an Axl in this band. Their everyman status may have disintegrated several platinum albums ago, but somehow they can still play it when they take the stage.



Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains once noted that with James Hetfield, you'll never see a bigger rock star with absolutely no sense of ego to him. There are no messianic poses, no world-saving or intellectual pretenses, no make up or costume changes (or even costumes, for that matter). No ostentatious act about how what torments him is deeper than what torments you. Just a devastating blend of energy and intensity, that rare performer who can pull off Ready to rock and You will probably get killed before this show is over in the same moment. His chemistry with Kirk Hammett is amplified by 25 years of experience prowling arena stages together, plus a supernatural ability to make each of those stages feel as intimate as at the 9:30 Club.

Much is made of how Metallica are a "guy's band," and anyone who ever waited in line for the bathroom at the Wherever We May Roam tour will attest that that's a fair claim. But in concert, Metallica walks that line better than maybe any other band. It's the most masculine show that you'll see without ever getting macho. Sure, they write songs about war, horror, Hemingway, monsters, nonconformity and repressed emotions, but they never fall into the kind of arrogance, chauvinism or lunkheadedness that people tend to stereotype with metalheads. I'd offer Metallica as exemplary metal show to anyone, whether I wanted to terrorize or win over a nonbeliever.

No matter how many missteps Metallica record and publicize, they will always have one of the greatest discographies in rock music. Maybe one night you'll get "Trapped Under Ice," or "Dyers Eve," or maybe even "Jump in the Fire." There are three bands left in this feature (and if Lars had practiced his drums at all since 1991, maybe there'd be none), but no band in metal, or even the last 30 years of rock, has a stronger, deeper playlist to choose from. At this point, maybe Metallica shouldn't be able to give those songs the performances that they deserve, either from aging or world-weariness. But even if Metallica has stopped fighting to be the world's greatest metal band on record, they are still owning that title onstage. Every time they tear through "Creeping Death" or "Master of Puppets," you can tell what "Nothing Else Matters" is really about. If you care at all about rock music, for recreational or historical purposes, you need to see Metallica.

Metalhead of the Day: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams is one of those annoying songwriters who would rather be prolific than good. His songs can be good, great even, but until he stops releasing two albums a year most of them will never make an impact. I'll recommend The Best of Ryan Adams in advance.

Despite his inability to tell his own good songs from his bad songs, Adams has enough of an ear to hear Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" as a folk ballad and Alice in Chains' "Down in a Hole" as alt-country.





His live covers of Danzig's "Mother" and Dio's "Holy Diver" also deserve listens. I'd risk a Hamilton for a Ryan Adams acoustic metal album.