Overall, Vol. 1 was enjoyable for what we get. By this, I mean, nothing is full and uncut when it comes to the concerts. Every concert thats been released by the band over the years is always edited. Sometimes drastically and other times a couple of songs.

In the case of Vol. 1 it falls into the later. We get alot of "Full concert" performances which is nice. But personally I would have been much happier to get more TV apperances and behind the scenes home movies. Alot of the stuff thats on Vol. 1 has been floating around for years as bootlegs. So there isn't a whole lot of surprises here.

A run down of whats on Vol.1:

Long Beach Auditorium, Long Beach, CA (February 17, 1974) - "Acrobat"
ABC's In Concert (recorded February 21, 1974, aired March 29) - "Nothing to Lose", "Firehouse", "Black Diamond"
The Mike Douglas Show (recorded April 29, 1974, aired May 21) - Gene Simmons Interview, "Firehouse"

Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (January 31, 1975) - "Full Concert"


The Midnight Special (April 1, 1975) - "She", "Black Diamond"
Alive! promotional videos (1975) - "C'mon and Love Me","Rock and Roll All Nite"
Documentary: Cadillac, Michigan (October 1975)

Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI (January 26, 1976) - "Full Concert"


So It Goes - Band Interview, "Black Diamond"
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (recorded October 19–20, 1976, aired October 31) - Band Interview, "King Of The Nightime World"

Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan (April 2, 1977) - "Full Concert"


Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (May 28, 1977) - "I Want You", "Hard Luck Woman", "Love 'Em And Leave 'Em"

The Summit, Houston, TX (September 2, 1977) - "Full Concert"


The Cobo Concert on Disc is the best concert in the set. The Budokan Concert was the first concert I saw of KISS when it premiered on HBO. Brought back alot of childhood memories.

The Winterland Concert is pretty good in that its the earliest, "complete" concert of KISS. And the quality is much better than what should be, given how old the film is. This "earliest" concert lasted until Vol. 3, where you get the 1973 Conventry Gig, which is in fact the earliest known footage of the band performing in concert.

The Summit Concert should have been so much better. It had a killer set list and the Love Gun stage. It loses points on the fact that after every song, it fades to black. We hear Paul and Gene bantering with the crowd but see nothing. This gets annoying after awhile.

Video and Audio is inconsistent thru-out, due to film age. Some parts look and sound great, while others are meh.

Easter Eggs...

SPOILER ALERT~~SPOILER ALERT~~SPOILER ALERT~~SPOILER ALERT~~SPOILER ALERT

Spoiler (hover to show)

On Disc 1, Main Menu, use up arrow to highlite the KISS logo to play "Deuce" at the Coventry 1973 (the earliest known footage of KISS performing).

On Disc 2, Main Menu, also highlite the KISS logo to play KISS playing at Ace Frehley's wedding 1976 without makeup. The video quality is horrible. Same goes for the audio. But its still a trip to see this.

Bonus Disc:

Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI (January 25, 1976) - Best Buy


This concert took place the day before the one thats part of the set. I made sure to pick up the Best Buy copy, as it had the Cobo Concert. I also made sure to call a couple of friends of mine that I knew would be picking up Vol.1 and to make sure both of them picked up the other Bonus Disc at Walmart and Target, so we could swap the disc and check them out ourselves.

The other two bonus disc are:
Madison Square Garden, New York City (February 18, 1977) - Best Buy
Capitol Centre, Largo, MD (December 20, 1977) - Wal Mart

Now I gotta head on over and pick these up so I can re-watch them and review.

This is definitely a Buy