Kiss Debut at Madison Square Garden – 40 Years Later

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Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977.

Sometime in 1974 my friends and I learned about a new band that was about to release their debut album: Kiss. As with all teenagers, it was extremely important for us to be the “first” to discover and love a new band, and we were hooked very early on Kiss – way before the rest of the world discovered them after their “Alive” album.

A couple of my friends were lucky enough to score tickets to their show at the Beacon Theater in New York on March 21, 1975 (remarkably the concert was recorded and can be heard in its entirety on YouTube). I was quite jealous, so a couple of years later when Kiss announced their debut concert at Madison Square Garden, I decided to go all in.

Growing up just outside New York City, my friends and I were always frustrated with not being able to get decent tickets to the big concerts. For Kiss, I wanted to change that. One of our friends had a cousin who lived in New Jersey where the tickets brokers resided. With some finagling, we were able to score seats on the floor in the front, middle section. I still remember the chills I got as I walked to my seat and looked back – and up – at the rest of the arena. Madison Square Garden is big – seated 19,600 according to TheSpotlight for this show – so I knew how special it was to be on the floor.

Ticket Stub for Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977Ticket Stub for Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977.

I brought my Dad’s Pentax with a 50mm lens – my “go to” camera. Actually, it was my only camera, but I used it extensively over the years for yearbook pictures, covering sporting events for the local newspaper, and, of course, concerts. For film I had two rolls of Tri-X and one roll of Vericolor. Even though the Vericolor was slow, I really loved its color response – something that looked more natural than the other, faster films from Kodak at the time.

Sammy Hagar opened the show and was quite unremarkable. I don’t remember seeing it, but Hagar was so frustrated with the crowd that he exposed himself and then smashed his vintage ’61 Fender Statocaster (see UltimateClassicRock.com). During his show I was sitting on the aisle seat and, lo and behold, a drum stick came bouncing down and stopped at my feat. I pocketed it but due some events later in the show, never got it home.

Rushing the Stage

When the lights went down and Kiss took the stage, lots of people rushed to the front – including me. I spent at least half the show parked in the aisle about three rows back. I can’t imagine getting away with that today. Security would be all over the people in the aisle and would toss them back. However, talk about having a blast. What an experience! Through magazine articles and TV appearances I was intimately aware of Kiss’s choreography and knew their songs in and out, so I was patient with my shot selection. One of the shots I was dying to get was Gene Simmons spitting fire at the end of “Firehouse.” As luck would have it, I ran out of film at that precise moment.

At the end of the song I took a shot of Gene as he held the torch up towards the crowd (which turned out to be blurry because I was nudged just as I took the shot), then I couldn’t advance the film to the next frame – I had hit the end of the roll. I even tried to rip the film so I could cock the shutter to at least get a partial shot and maybe double expose part of the previous image, but couldn’t do it. Then Gene blew the fire and the moment was gone. Oh well.

Ace Frehley at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977Ace Frehley at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977 playing the solo in “Firehouse.”

When the band finished “Rock and Roll All Night,” Paul Stanley smashed his guitar on stage and tossed the pieces into the audience. One of the pieces came right to me. Everyone was standing on their chairs and I honestly don’t remember quite what happened, but I wound up on the ground right on top of the piece of guitar. I knew if I came up and showed it off that the crowd would over power me and take it, so I stuffed it down my pants. When I finally got up off the floor, a girl started pulling my camera stating emphatically that it was hers. We were yelling at each other. She said “It’s either the camera or the piece of guitar.” I held my ground and claimed I didn’t have the piece of guitar and that I was NOT going to let go of my Dad’s camera. She backed off. Thankfully.

I didn’t dare take out the guitar piece until we were walking back to the train station, so it was only then that I discovered that Paul smashed a fake guitar. That was when I also realized I lost the drum stick. What I had was one side of the guitar body and you could see the pre-cuts that were made to make the guitar easily brake apart. It was a little bit disappointing, but I could understand why. Many years later, I discovered that my Mom threw it away while I was at college thinking it was just a piece of scrap wood. I could understand that too. I never even took a photo of it. Today I would have taken several selfies and posted them on social media. Times have indeed changed.

Fairly recently I was able to find the audio for the full concert on line (audio of Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977) and even some of the show on video (video of Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977) – isn’t the Internet wonderful! In watching the video I realized the moment I took this picture of Ace Frehley. It’s at the 12:40 mark in the video during “Firehouse.” You can even see the video camera right in front of me!

Poor Negative Handling

When I realized the 40th anniversary of the concert was coming up, I decided to scan in a bunch of the photos to share on line. What I was horrified to discover was that they were scratched very badly. I thought I was good at maintaining the health of my old negatives, but these were clearly pulled in and out of the negative sleeves often and not handled with enough care. Consequently, I had to pour in a lot of hours in Photoshop to get these images back to something descent. Very disappointing. I looked at some of the original prints I made right after the show – some 16×20’s – and they look awesome.

Kiss at Madison Square Garden February 18, 1977Before and after shots showing the negative restoration.”

Below are the best shots that I thought were worth restoring. It would have been awesome to have a telephoto lens. The 50mm from one location has the images looking a bit redundant. That’s probably why I brought a 200mm lens to Led Zeppelin concert a few months later. When I juxtapose these shots versus the ones I took of Peter Gabriel and Sting this past summer, I realize I’ve come a very long way as a concert photographer.

I hope everyone enjoys them!

Showing 30 comments
  • Alan Mooney
    Reply

    Absolutely freaking love these pictures! Glad you were there to take them, and so glad you took the time to scan and restore them. These are important. Great story too. Thanx again 🙂

    • admin
      Reply

      Thanks Alan! You might enjoy my Led Zeppelin photos from the Garden as well. Really appreciate the nice words.

    • Joseph
      Reply

      I was at that concert too! Remember Billy Squire’s band Piper playing warm-up. I say next to Simmons G.F. she was very nice to me. I’m a bit taken back about the fake guitar, I saw Paul pas it to you. Small world!

  • Eric
    Reply

    Wonderful recollection of a historic gig and brilliant photos as well.
    If ever you decide to sell photo sets from your negatives I would be interested for sure.

    • admin
      Reply

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks for the kind words. I would definitely be interested in selling some photos. Send me an e-mail via my contact form on this website and we’ll figure it out.

      • James Tierney
        Reply

        Kiss March 18th 1977 M.S.G.

  • Dave Marshall
    Reply

    Loved the restored pics of KISS in MSG back in 1977.It brought a breath of fresh air
    to the KISS community.I would like to think you have many more.Many thanks for sharing your pics to the fans.
    Please get in contact with me regarding your photos.

    • admin
      Reply

      Hi Dave.

      Thanks for the wonderful words. My hope was that the folks would enjoy them – no sense in keeping them private.

      | Please get in contact with me regarding your photos.

      I will send a private e-mail on this.

      Regards.

  • Mr. Marcelo Romero
    Reply

    Excellent! Glad you shared this story. I grew up in Manhattan and was there at the show. My school buddy Henry Behn was also luck enough to get a piece of the guitar. Thanks!

    • admin
      Reply

      That’s awesome about your buddy Henry! I wish I still had my piece…oh, well.

  • Mike Wren
    Reply

    This is a great read and the photos are fantastic! Thank you for sharing!!

    • admin
      Reply

      Thanks Mike! Glad you found them.

  • Andrew
    Reply

    These are incredible!

    • admin
      Reply

      Thanks Andrew!

  • Ace Steele
    Reply

    Absolutely Fabulous pics of KISS’s debut at MSG! Great story to go with!

    • admin
      Reply

      Thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked the photos!

  • Evan Antonini
    Reply

    I was right there with you in section A Row 8 12th Seat. What a great show!! $7.50 for the ticket WOW

    • admin
      Reply

      How awesome! Glad you found the photos.

  • Michael Haller
    Reply

    I was last row section C floor. Great show.

    • admin
      Reply

      Awesome!

  • David J. Marnell
    Reply

    What is at the bottom third of the Ace picture?

    • admin
      Reply

      The very bottom is a person. Above them is a large video camera. Part of this concert is available on YouTube.

  • Doug Seemann
    Reply

    I was there! My very first concert. I went with my buddies Tony and Michael. At the time, they were still living in the Bronx and I had moved to CT in 1975. Now I am 61 and have seen kiss 7 times over the years as we have all aged together. Me Gene and Paul!

  • Ryan
    Reply

    I still have my dads ticket stub from that show, I recently got it signed by ace. My dad has since passed but he would be ecstatic to know that I got it signed.

    • admin
      Reply

      Very cool! Thanks for sharing your connection to the concert.

  • Larry Doerr
    Reply

    My Dad took me and my brother to this concert. It was our first KISS Concert. We had come down from Poughkeepsie NY on the train to see the show. Our tickets were behind the stage. I being 13 and my brother being 12. We decided were weren’t going to see the show from behind the stage, so we scrambled around to the section right above the floor on Genes side and we got ourselves right to the front of the railing. For some reason, we were in an area that didn’t block anyone’s view and we weren’t that big at our age. The security guard let us stay there the entire show, and I remember the first time the flames went up we could feel the heat! It was amazing. Thank you for posting these pics! They are some of the best I’ve ever seen of that night! Great memories!

    • admin
      Reply

      Thanks Larry for sharing your story. We were probably on the same train going home that night. Thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked the photos.

      • Joe Fields
        Reply

        I was there also still have my stub. I was lucky enough at 16 to workb@ Aucoin Management 1977-summer part time job then went full time-78-79 & 80. I was there to get PRESS KITS & I met the whole band MO MAKE UP. I was walking out and the guy that worked in the mail room asked me if I wanted a job. Aparently I didn’t go crazy fan on them & they liked that about me.I remember so many things from doing this job but one of MY favorite things was, I was going back & fourth to Radio City Music Hall bringing stuff to ACE while he was in the studio PLAZA SOUND STUDIOS were he recorded his solo album He was really stressed under the gun because the release date was coming up fast on September 18th 1978. I liked hanging out there listening to the songs that would be going on his record.I got to hear all the records BEFORE they came out & I got first printings of them PROMO COPIES. I had a HUGE KISS collection. I SOLD Mostly ALL of it, I kept some really special stuff that mattered to me. And ALL of my PETER CRISS items. Peter was,is and always will be MY favorite member.I have a lot of great memories & it is fun remembering all the good old days working with the AUCOIN BANDS & when I do see Peter now, it has been a few years. It was when his book came out. I have to say he looks great.

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