Australia's Full Throttle Rock recently caught up with KISS guitarits Tommy Thayer during the band's current tour down under. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: How much influence do you and Eric Singer have in contributing to what the setlist will be on any given tour?

Tommy Thayer: "You know Eric and I, believe it or not, have a lot more say in that than people probably imagine. If anything we might make more suggestions than the other guys in the band as far as that goes (laughs). Sometimes we like to push Paul (Stanley) and Gene (Simmons) to try different songs and stuff that hasn’t been played as much, and usually we are the ones who do that. You know, just because of our backgrounds and being KISS fans growing up in a sense gives us a slightly different perception on it and perspective on it. Paul and Gene, they know it is tried and true and know better than anybody what works, but sometimes it is good to push them a little bit and pull out something that hasn’t been done as much. Some of the fans get a kick out of hearing other things sometimes; especially when we do the KISS Kruise which is a deal we do every year now for the last five years on a big cruise ship with 3,000 of the most dedicated KISS fans. We try to pull things out for that that are more obscure and unusual because that particular group of fans appreciate that more."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

KISS kicked off the Australian leg of their world tour on October 3rd in Perth. News.com.au remarked that the band “spared no effort or energy in pulling out all their signature gimmicks just as big and as loud as ever.” A complete photo gallery can be found at News.com.au.

KISS’ Perth setlist:

“Detroit Rock City”
“Deuce”
“Psycho Circus”
“Creatures of the Night”
“I Love It Loud”
“War Machine”
“Do You Love Me”
“Hell or Hallelujah”
- guitar and drum solos -
“Calling Dr. Love”
“Lick It Up”
- bass solo -
“God of Thunder"
“Shandi”
“Cold Gin”
“Love Gun”
“Black Diamond”

Encore:
“Shout It Out Loud”
“I Was Made for Lovin' You”
“Rock and Roll All Nite”

Check out fan-filmed video below: