"You wanted the best and you got the best.. The hottest band in the world, KISS!!!"  I remember those words introducing the band in the first ever rock concert I went to with my friend Santos at the Pontiac Silverdome some 35 years ago back in 1979.  I was 14 years old at the time!  And, about 5 years ago, my wife and I as well as our friend Valerie unleashed our inner 14 year olds one more time to see KISS here in Austin!  They were still great and put on a spectacular show!  Tomorrow, KISS gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Well-deserved, especially for their shows, if not for their music.  I must admit, they aren't the most musically gifted rock and roll band, but they know how to put on a show and I think their biggest strength is the way they market themselves!  Gene Simmons is the head of their business and the master marketeer.  I mean KISS coffins and a KISS mini-golf course and Chapel in Vegas?  And now they have an arena football team in California called the "L.A. KISS".  Unbelievable!

So, to commemorate their induction, I thought I'd post a few shots of the show we went to back in 2009.  I used my little Lumix point and shoot for these and the quality isn't the best, but I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out anyway.  They turned out a lot better than the shots I took with my little Kodak Instamatic film camera that I sneaked into the old 1979 show for sure!  Of course it would've been much better to be in the first row with a full-frame DSLR and really fast glass, but since we sat pretty far in the back, I'm pretty happy with what this little camera did.

One other thing I'd like to add is that times sure have changed.  I remember cameras used to be banned at all concerts.  Bands had exclusive photographers and press people that shot their concerts so they really did not like people using their own equipment to get pictures.  These days with the proliferation of good quality compact digital cameras and phones, bands are now thinking, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  They don't seem to mind at all and the venues for the most part are OK with it.  As long as you don't have a camera system that is so big it interferes with others' enjoyment of the show.  That's awesome!  So, on to the pics!