Did Kiss play Duluth twice in 1974?

Paul Lundgren Nov 03, 2024 1 Comment

Fifty years ago today — Nov. 3, 1974 — Kiss played the Duluth Arena in what is believed to be the band’s first of eight Duluth shows spanning five decades.

But the documentary TV series Biography released a two-part episode on Kiss in 2021 that briefly shows a handwritten 1974 tour schedule with the band slotted to play Duluth on March 27. Did Kiss play Duluth twice in 1974? Or does the documentary use a fake schedule scribbled together to create imagery for an interview cutaway shot? Or was there a canceled Kiss show before the real one seven months later?

We might never know for sure, but the evidence seems to point to Kiss rearranging its March 1974 tour dates.

The scene with the tour schedule pops up at the 36-minute mark of the Biography episode titled KISStory Part 1.

Savoy Brown and Argent are listed as also on the bill for the Duluth show that presumably never happened. The Kiss Tour Wikipedia page has 1974 tour dates that indeed show several performances with Savoy Brown and with Ardent (though not together). There are no Duluth shows listed, nor is there any March 27 show listed. The February and April shows on the sheet shown in the documentary seem to match Wikipedia’s listings pretty closely, but the March shows are completely different.

Duluth does appear on the Hotter Than Hell Tour Wikipedia list, verifying the Nov. 3, 1974 show.

The book Rock on Duluth! Arena Rock 1973-1978 dedicates several pages to Kiss, noting that the Nov. 3, 1974 show is believed to be the first time Kiss played as the closing slot on an arena concert. Dr. John was the headliner, but he didn’t want to follow the up-and-coming band known for it’s explosive stage shows.

“Doctor John was wise in his young age,” author James Wiita wrote, “Somewhere shortly before show time, he understood the impact in the theatrics of Kiss, and bowed out as the headline act.”

Though Kiss played the closing slot, Dr. John still got the headliner money. Wiita reports in his book that Dr. John was paid $4,000 and Kiss made $2,000. The Raspberries were supposed to open the show, but canceled the night before, which led to local act Easy Steam opening. Local promoter Yanqui Productions lost $3,786.67 on the show, which had an attendance of 2,193 according to the book.

The tables turned in 1977, when Kiss drew 8,114 at its second Duluth Arena show.

List of Kiss Shows at the Duluth Arena
Nov. 3, 1974 with Dr. John and Easy Steam
Jan. 18, 1977 with Uriah Heep
Oct. 6, 1979 with John Cougar
Feb. 17, 1983 with Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics
March 13, 1985 with Dokken
March 15, 1986 with King Kobra
May 27, 1990 with Faster Pussycat and Slaughter
Aug. 3, 2016 with Caleb Johnson

Note: Kiss was scheduled to play the Duluth Arena on March 28, 1975 with J. Geils Band and Joe Vitali and His Mad Men. The show was canceled because, according to a letter from the booking company, members of the J. Geils Band wanted to attend Passover services with their families.

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1 Comment

Matthew James

about 2 weeks ago 

The original plan for this March 27, 1974 Duluth show seems pretty easy to verify, at least if we trust the Kiss fan site kissconcerthistory.com. It lists a schedule that aligns with the screenshot in this post, including both the canceled shows and where they actually ended up playing . 

And in the write-up describing 1974, it gives a very detailed description of the likely factors leading to the canceling of some March shows, including the one scheduled for Duluth. The summary version is:

(1) Canada raised its taxes on concert tickets and lot of promoters canceled Canadian shows around that time. Duluth was the next stop after a scheduled-but-then-canceled show in Winnipeg. As the two shows were just a day apart, the Winnipeg cancelation may have led to the Duluth cancelation. 

(2) Kiss planned on touring with Argent, as noted. Argent's lead singer had just announced plans to quit and the band delayed a number of performances early in the concert schedule as the implications of that decision were sorted out. Kiss did end up performing with Argent, but not until May 2.

(3) The oil embargo ended in March 1974 and economic recovery in the United States was slow. The promoters may have guessed that working-class people in Duluth did not have a lot of extra money lying around for Kiss tickets in March 1974. 

Likely all three factors played a role. The exact reasons may never be known, but at least according the site, Kiss did have a show scheduled for March 27, 1974 and that show was canceled.

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