| Concert Tour Name: | Creatures of the Night/10th Anniversary Tour |
| Artist: | Kiss |
| Album: | Creatures of the Night |
| Start Date: | December 29, 1982 |
| End Date: | June 25, 1983 |
| Number Of Legs: | 2 |
| Number Of Shows: | 56 played |
| Last Tour: | Unmasked Tour (1980) |
| This Tour: | Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour (1982–1983) |
| Next Tour: | Lick It Up World Tour (1983–1984) |
The Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour was a concert tour by the hard rock group Kiss in support of their album of the same title. It was the second tour with drummer Eric Carr, his first in the United States, and the first tour with guitarist Vinnie Vincent, (née Vincent Cusano) who replaced Ace Frehley.
In June 1982, Frehley told Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons that he was leaving Kiss, although it would take 12 months for lawyers to negotiate the lead guitarist's complete departure.[1] In an effort to prolong their lucrative recording contract, Frehley agreed to participate in a press conference on October 22, 1982 and to travel to Europe for a promotional tour in late November. Meanwhile Stanley designed a new persona for Frehley's replacement, Vincent Cusano. Wearing a makeup design of an Egyptian "ankh", Cusano adopted the stage name "Vinnie 'The Wiz' Vincent," who was "even weirder than we are" in the tour's press release. The groups' lucrative record contract with PolyGram required Kiss to be composed of founders Stanley (vocals/rhythm guitar), Simmons (bass/vocals) and Frehley.[2] The release did not say Frehley had quit, but instead stated Frehley was too injured from a recent car crash to tour, but might make appearances onstage when able. The band used group photos containing Ace Frehley for the tour's press kits and ad material during early dates; these were used by promoters for advertising, so many fans did not realize Frehley was replaced until they came to the venues. Before Vincent was announced, new photos were taken and later dates featured the band with Vincent in show ads.[2]
Attendance in North America was abysmal; even though the band had returned to its signature hard rock after a couple of years of pop and disco-influenced music, very few people showed up at the concerts on the tour. Even worse was the fact that the band couldn't drum up interest despite it being their 10th anniversary and their first tour of the US in over three years, an unprecedented amount of time for them during that era. Frontman Paul Stanley recalled a show in Lexington, Kentucky where he threw a guitar pick that went over the entire audience of 2,500 and hit the floor. On March 11, they decided not to book dates beyond April 3, although they accepted a short tour of Brazil in June. Kiss played to the biggest crowd of their career at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with 137,000 people in the audience.[1] According to the band management, promoters were actually interested in booking Kiss in smaller venues such as large nightclubs and smaller theatres where they would have had an easier time selling out shows. The band, however, refused to play anything except arenas and large theatres.
During their North American tour, Kiss was met with accusations from religious groups of promoting Satanism through their music and image, and several protests were held by such groups outside concert venues; however, Kiss politely denied the accusations and the tour continued.[3]
This tour is the only tour to feature live performances of "Rock and Roll Hell" and "Keep Me Comin" from the Creatures of the Night LP, although both would be dropped from the set almost immediately. "I Want You" returned to the setlist for the first time since the Alive II Tour in 1978. The band sang the chant that opened and closed their new main single "I Love It Loud", but by the tour's end, this was changed and only Simmons sang it.
The Plasmatics were the opening act in the middle of the tour while heavy metal band Mötley Crüe opened for Kiss on the final dates of the North American leg after Kiss noticed their notoriety growing.[4] Molly Hatchet, Night Ranger and Zebra were also the opening acts for several concerts on the tour. The Headpins, from Vancouver, BC, opened all four shows in Canada.[1]
In the tour program for the band's final tour, both Simmons and Stanley reflected on the tour:
Simmons described the tour's visual effects: "There's some fire-breathing and blood-spitting into the air and we give birth on stage and there's some fire balls that go thirty feet up into the air. And it rains fire and also some rockets take off on stage, and the stage looks like a tank sixty feet wide. You actually feel it in your chest when the tank moves. And then the drum riser, which is on top of the tank, goes forward, moves left and right, and actually fires like a real tank."[5]
Encore
| Date | City | Country | Venue | Opening Act(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | ||||
| December 29, 1982 | United States | Bismarck Civic Center | Hotz | |
| December 30, 1982 | Sioux City Municipal Auditorium | Dare Force | ||
| December 31, 1982 | Rockford MetroCentre | Shoes | ||
| January 1, 1983 | Hulman Center | Why On Earth | ||
| January 4, 1983 | Charleston Civic Center | Defectors | ||
| January 6, 1983 | Rupp Arena | Night Ranger | ||
| January 7, 1983 | Wendler Arena | |||
| January 8, 1983 | Toledo Sports Arena | |||
| January 9, 1983 | University of Dayton Arena | |||
| January 12, 1983 | Canada | Colisée de Quebec | The Headpins | |
| January 13, 1983 | Montreal Forum | |||
| January 14, 1983 | Maple Leaf Gardens | |||
| January 15, 1983 | Ottawa Civic Centre | |||
| January 16, 1983 | United States | Night Ranger | ||
| January 18, 1983 | Onondaga County War Memorial | |||
| January 20, 1983 | Rochester Community War Memorial | |||
| January 21, 1983 | Cumberland County Civic Center | |||
| January 22, 1983 | The Centrum | |||
| January 25, 1983 | Norfolk Scope | |||
| January 27, 1983 | Von Braun Civic Center | |||
| January 28, 1983 | Boutwell Auditorium | |||
| January 29, 1983 | UTC Arena | |||
| January 30, 1983 | Nashville Municipal Auditorium | |||
| February 1, 1983 | Plasmatics | |||
| February 3, 1983 | West Palm Beach Auditorium | |||
| February 4, 1983 | Lakeland Civic Center | |||
| February 11, 1983 | Pine Bluff Convention Center | |||
| February 14, 1983 | Zebra | |||
| February 16, 1983 | Plasmatics | |||
| February 18, 1983 | Met Center | |||
| February 19, 1983 | Sioux Falls Arena | |||
| February 20, 1983 | La Crosse Center | |||
| February 22, 1983 | Richfield Coliseum | |||
| February 23, 1983 | Cobo Arena | |||
| February 24, 1983 | Market Square Arena | |||
| February 26, 1983 | Prairie Capital Convention Center | |||
| February 28, 1983 | Kiel Auditorium | |||
| March 1, 1983 | Molly Hatchet | |||
| March 9, 1983 | Plasmatics | |||
| March 10, 1983 | Sam Houston Coliseum | |||
| March 12, 1983 | HemisFair Arena | |||
| March 13, 1983 | Beaumont Civic Center | |||
| March 14, 1983 | Corpus Christi Memorial Coliseum | |||
| March 18, 1983 | Mississippi Coast Coliseum | |||
| March 19, 1983 | Hirsch Memorial Coliseum | |||
| March 21, 1983 | Lloyd Noble Center | |||
| March 23, 1983 | El Paso County Coliseum | |||
| March 26, 1983 | Mötley Crüe | |||
| March 27, 1983 | Universal Amphitheatre | |||
| March 28, 1983 | Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum | |||
| April 1, 1983 | Aladdin Theater | |||
| April 3, 1983 | San Francisco Civic Auditorium | |||
| Brazil | ||||
| June 18, 1983 | Maracanã Stadium | Herva Doce | ||
| June 23, 1983 | Mineirão Stadium | rowspan="2" | ||
| June 25, 1983 | Morumbi Stadium | |||
| Date | City | Country | Venue | Reasoning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 27, 1982 | Rapid City | United States | Rushmore Plaza Civic Center | Severe snow storm | |
| January 23, 1983 | Providence | Providence Civic Center | Poor ticket sales; tickets for this show were exchanged for the Worcester, Massachusetts, show. | ||
| February 6, 1983 | Charleston | Charleston County Hall | Tentative date on the schedule. The concert was not advertised and no tickets went on sale | ||
| February 8, 1983 | Asheville | Asheville Civic Center | Tentative date on the schedule. The concert was not advertised and no tickets went on sale | ||
| February 9, 1983 | Bristol, Tennessee | Viking Hall Civic Center | Tentative date on the schedule. The concert was not advertised and no tickets went on sale | ||
| February 17, 1983 | Duluth | Duluth Arena | Poor ticket sales | ||
| March 31, 1983 | San Diego | San Diego Sports Arena | Poor ticket sales | ||
| June 20, 1983 | Belo Horizonte | Brazil | Mineirão Stadium | Electrical outage during show, rescheduled for June 21; as a result only 30,000 of the expected 80,000 showed up. | |
| June 24, 1983 | São Paulo | Morumbi Stadium | Reserved on the schedule for a second Sāo Paulo show | ||
| August 19–21, 1983 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | Boca Juniors Stadium | Terrorist threat[6] |
| City | Venue | Attendance | Gross | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 29, 1982 | Bismarck, United States | Civic Center | 3,335 / 8,200 | $30,011 | [7] | |
| January 14, 1983 | Toronto, Canada | Maple Leaf Gardens | 9,565 / 10,000 | $124,100 | [8] | |
| January 15, 1983 | Ottawa, Canada | Civic Centre | 4,919 / 7,000 | $59,028 | ||
| January 21, 1983 | Portland, United States | Cumberland County Civic Center | 4,338 / 4,500 | $45,549 | [9] | |
| January 22, 1983 | Worcester, United States | The Centrum | 10,147 / 11,000 | $94,652 | ||
| January 27, 1983 | Huntsville, United States | Von Braun Civic Center | 5,025 / 10,106 | $49,959 | [10] | |
| January 29, 1983 | Chattanooga, United States | UTC Arena | 4,451 / 11,000 | $43,533 | ||
| January 30, 1983 | Nashville, United States | Municipal Auditorium | 8,936 / 9,900 | $92,841 | ||
| February 3, 1983 | West Palm Beach, United States | Auditorium | 5,202 / 6,200 | $58,588 | ||
| February 14, 1983 | New Orleans, United States | Louisiana Superdome | 10,421 / 15,000 | $107,866 | [11] | |
| February 22, 1983 | Richfield, United States | Coliseum | 10,212 / 10,212 | $10,120 | [12] |