Kiss thank Austrian fans by showing Australian flag

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By ( Classic Rock ) published

We've all done it

Kiss onstage
Kiss onstage in Bogota, Colombia, last month (Image credit: Juan Pablo Pino)

It's easily done. Another city, another arena, another sea of faces. Of course they all merge into one another after a while. 

It's why, when Guns N' Roses headed for the stage at of the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia in February 2017, you could forgive guitar tech McBob – whose job it is to announce the band every night – for greeting the crowd with a bellowed "Hellooooo Sydney!" The boos rang out loud and long. 

Now Kiss have joined the geographically inaccurate club. They've also upped the stakes considerably, seeing GN'R's 900km mistake and raising it to something closer to 14,000km.  

At the end of the band's set at the Stadhalle in Vienna at the weekend, the production people did what they normally do: they flashed up a message on the screens, thanking fans for their attendance: We Love You Vienna. Above was the band's logo, its letters set against the Austrian flag. 

Well, that was the plan. What they actually did was thank fans for their attendance, with the Kiss logo set against the Australian flag. That's the Australia that's on the other side of the world from Austria. Two extra letters, but so much distance. 

The mistake was pointed out by Twitter user Ben Nguyen, who shared the picture below.

Kiss's next show is at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, this evening. Fingers crossed they're double-checking that message. 

Kiss: Vienna Wiener Stadthalle setlist

Detroit Rock City
Shout It Out Loud
Deuce
War Machine
Heaven's on Fire
I Love It Loud
Say Yeah
Cold Gin
Guitar Solo
Lick It Up
Calling Dr. Love
Tears Are Falling
Psycho Circus
Drum Solo
100,000 Years
Bass Solo
God of Thunder
Love Gun
I Was Made for Lovin' You
Black Diamond

Encore
Beth
Do You Love Me
Rock and Roll All Nite

Fraser Lewry
Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.