Leon, the stage main character and the nickname given to the sphinx found on the band's 1989 "Hot in the Shade" album cover. A giant version of Leon dominated the tour's new stage design, taking the spot traditionally occupied by a lighted version of the band's logo. The Leon stage didn't arrive in Europe until 1992. Allegedly Leon is now spending his days in a L.A warehouse.
Considering the fact that the "Hot In The Shade" tour was an enormous success, it's really odd, that so few good pictures from the tour exists!! In fact KISS almost did not go on tour with Hot in the shade. The album was not doing that well at the beginning when it came out in September 1989, but when "Forever" became a TOP 10 hit in early 1990, the interest was there and they went on tour in May 1990 with 2 opening acts (Slaughter (US) and Faster Pussycat.
The new stage set were the most amazing thing KISS had used since the '70's. The stage was dominated by a large Sphinx that was nicknamed Leon The Sphinx.
As the houselights dimmed, the humming sound would be heard from the speakers, while Leon opened his mouth, and let hundreds of thin laser beams out. The laser curtain had already been developed for the Dynasty show, but it had not worked properly, and was discarded after the first show. On this tour it worked perfectly. As Leon's mouth opened fully, KISS would be revealed standing in silhouette, in the mist of laser beams!
There was no "You wanted the best, you got the best" introduction on this tour; KISS would just walk down on the stage and open the show with "I Stole Your Love" and an amazing firework display.
KISS sounded better than they had for years on this tour. It helped a great deal that there were no solo's this time around... well, not at first that was. Eric was so unhappy about this decision, that he eventually got permission to do a solo. And he didn't disappoint this time. The solo has to be heard, but I'll do my best to describe it: The solo came in the middle of "God of Thunder", just like in the good old days, and started with Eric playing along to some Egyptian themed choir (played via the electronic drum pads). It sounded awesome. This was followed by his usual drum/electronic tune drum part, and then ended with Eric playing some disco styled stuff, which actually sounded good, too! But as I said, it has to be heard!
Just before the solo, Leon's eyes had lit up, and searched the crowd, and just as KISS kicked into the song again after the solo, he would shoot rockets from his eyes, just like Ace and Gene had done on previous tours. And then came the biggest surprise: Leon sang the verse that came after! The effect was done, by having the laser cannon displaying the vocals as an oscilloscope readout on a small screen inside Leon's mouth. It might sound silly, but it really looked like Leon was singing!
At the end of the last song, Detroit Rock City, Leon would collapse, amidst a giant fireworks display. The first encore would be I Want You, which started with Paul and Bruce playing the intro while a big mirror ball was hanging over the stage bathing the entire arena in thin purple light beams. As the heavy part of the song started, a big, metallic KISS logo would come up. The logo looked a lot like the one used from 1976 to 1984, but it was not the same. Look carefully at the K, and you will see it had a wrong shape. This version of the logo was last seen in the concert segment of the "Detroit Rock City" movie!
Aside from this most of the signature things were missing from the show... Gene didn't breathe fire, there was no confetti in Rock And Roll All Nite, and Paul didn't break his guitar. The latter was probably because Paul for the most part of the tour played a Gibson Les Paul model, which are rather expensive... certainly too expensive to break. Instead Paul misjudged a jump one night and ran into a metal barrier, and broke a couple of ribs.
Above text is mainly from KissFanShop, with additional information by me and some parts removed.
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