Kiss Misses

Kiss has had a long, lucrative run as the Ringling Brothers of rock. But at the Pacific Amphitheatre on Saturday, the band’s heavy-metal circus was more like a stale old animal act than the greatest show on Earth.

As always, Paul Stanley cussed and showed off his chest hair. Gene Simmons wagged his tongue at everyone, did his fire-breathing routine and shot fireworks out of a bass guitar shaped like a battle ax. Behind the stage, the band’s name flashed in lights. If the tricks were predictable, the beasts at least managed to show their fangs from time to time. Kiss roared convincingly at the start with 20 minutes of animated, hard-pounding rock.

But “Crazy, Crazy Nights,” an anthem that should have taken the show higher, slowed it to a plodding pace while laying bare the frayed, stringy thing that Stanley is trying to pass off as a singing voice these days. Kiss showed signs of stirring again toward the end, but adjourned for the night after playing only 13 bona fide songs in 75 minutes--a skimpy show for a band that boasts of its longevity.

In a pairing that ought to be called the Communicable Disease Tour, Anthrax opened with high-octane speed metal in which manic energy and humorous antics couldn’t quite compensate for an utter lack of melody.