June 8, 2002 brought the first ever KISS Expo to Evansville by way of Allen Tate. The Holiday Inn at the airport in Evansville was the scene. Kind of cool how the place was setup. There was a open sunroom type conference area. The only drawback was the hotel swimming pool on the other side of a four foot divider wall. So if you stood up and looked over the wall you got to see all of the people with more wrinkles than the band in nothing but their spandex fitting swimsuits. I'm still having nightmares. :)

The fans at this Expo, just really didn't seem to be into it. Maybe its just me. I am used to going to these in Indy and so I am a little spoiled about how loud and into it that the crowd gets. It was almost as if they just came to shop. What a travisty! KISS Expos are about getting pumped up about our favorite band. There wasn't a bunch of merchandise tables. It was a little more intimate than the usual Expo. There was just enough merchandise tables to take your hard earned KISS money. I was MC for the day. Usually I am so busy I don't get to enjoy much of the Expo. Evansville was the exception. I got to talk with a lot of fans. Which is my favorite part.

As part of the day's activities I interviewed Founder of the KISS Army Bill Starkey. Bill shed some light on a few memories from the early days of KISS and their visits to Evansville. Bill was very honest as always. Several fans stopped by our table afterward for pictures, autographs and more stories.

Scheduled guest Andre Augustine for some reason did not arrive in Evansville for the Expo.

Bruce Kulick held a guitar clinic and Q/A session. The fans responded the loudest of the day when Bruce was onstage. He got the normal questions, "if you wore makeup, what character", etc. He is always very polite when answering these questions at what seems to be every Expo. Bruce played some songs from his KISS days as well as stuff from his Audiodog cd. His guitar playing was excellent as always.

Usually I miss out on the bands. I must say I have seen them at the Expos a lot, but rarely had time to listen to them. This time I got to see quite a bit of SSG. They are actually very good. They played a lot of Ace related tunes. They are pretty good from what I can tell. I'm not a musician though, I just know what I think sounds good.

KISS Alive ended the day. I really didn't get to listen to much of them. I left a little early for my trek back to Indy. One note Bill Starkey ran the siren for them during Firehouse. Pretty cool! I think he should have sang instead. Maybe next time.

Special thanks to my wife Michelle & Ted Wilson for helping me out throughout the day. As always hanging out with Bill Starkey is a blast. We usually can't stop laughing throughout the day at each other at the Expos.

Overall I think Allen did a great job putting the first ever Evansville KISS Expo together. It was in a really nice hotel. The guests that came were good. The only drawback of the day was the fans. They just didn't seem to get really excited about anything. Hopefully if Allen does this again, he can attract some more rabid KISS fans from Evansville to give the Expo a boost. Nonetheless a nice day hanging with other KISS fans.