The Hot in the Shade Tour (also dubbed the H.I.T.S. Tour) was a concert tour by Kiss. It was the last tour with drummer Eric Carr, who died of cancer on November 24, 1991. It was the first Kiss tour since the Asylum Tour to stay inside of North America.
One notable event on this tour occurred on August 26, 1990 while Kiss was performing at the Bicentennial Center in Salina, Kansas. During the show, the enormous stage set overloaded the arena's power supply, causing a transformer to explode outside the building and cutting electricity inside the arena. This abruptly ended the show prematurely. A short time later, Paul Stanley phoned a local radio station and promised to return to Salina to make up for the shortened show. The phone call was recorded and played on the air. Despite this, Kiss has not since performed in Salina. Slaughter was the opening act for most of the shows on the US leg of the tour. Slaughter, Little Caesar, Faster Pussycat, Danger Danger and Winger were the opening bands. This is the only Kiss tour where Gene Simmons did not perform his fire-breathing routine.
The June 15 show in Toronto also featured Whitesnake, who headlined the entire show with Kiss, Slaughter and Faster Pussycat. Paul Stanley and David Coverdale exchanged barbs on stage, stemming from Whitesnake not allowing Kiss to bring their full complement of pyrotechnics on stage with them. After Kiss finished their set and Whitesnake came on, the stadium crowd left in droves.
On October 10, in War Memorial Arena, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Paul Stanley ran into the guardrail on stage and cracked his ribs, which caused the cancellation of the Sydney, Halifax and Moncton dates later in the month.[1]
Stage setup
The stage was dominated by a large sphinx nicknamed Leon, mirroring the cover of Hot in the Shade. As the houselights dimmed, a humming sound would be heard from the speakers, while Leon opened his mouth and let hundreds of thin laser beams out. The laser curtain concept had originally been developed for the Dynasty Tour, but it had not worked properly and was discarded after the first show of that tour.
As Leon's mouth opened fully, Kiss would be revealed standing in silhouette, in the midst of laser beams. There was no "You wanted the best, you got the best" introduction on this tour; Kiss would emerge from directly beneath the Sphinx to dramatic entrance music, walk down onto the stage and open the show with "I Stole Your Love" and a fireworks display. However, for the first few shows of the tour in Texas, Stanley would say "What do you say we kick some ass?!" before launching into the opening song. This intro was dropped by the Kansas City, Kansas show.
Leon would open his eyes and mouth and "sing" the final verse of "God Of Thunder". This effect was accomplished by offstage keyboardist Gary Corbett singing the part through a synthesizer and the voice being represented within Leon's mouth by a large oscilloscope.
The sphinx would disintegrate during the extended outro ending of "Detroit Rock City," marking the end of the main set. The band would return to the stage for encores playing "I Want You." Upon band entry following the song intro, a reconstruction of the classic Kiss stage logo would rise behind Eric Carr's drum kit where the sphinx previously sat. Later shows would accent the sign's arrival with explosions.
All of the laser effects and sequences were designed by Steve Jander and his Dallas-based Showlasers Inc. Showlasers would continue to provide laser effects for Kiss through the Kiss My Ass Tour in 1994. The set featured many songs from the band's 1970's heyday that hadn't been performed in years
"Betrayed" was played twice on the tour, "Little Caesar" was played once on the tour and "Under The Gun" was played early on the tour then was replaced by "I Was Made for Lovin' You"
"C'mon and Love Me" and "Hell or High Water" were played at the beginning of the tour before being abandoned
