E-Mail This Article to a Friend Mini to the max miniKISS plus a Neighborhoods reunion BY BRETT MILANO

Some experiences can’t be critiqued or even properly absorbed; you just have to throw up your hands and be grateful that you’re seeing it happen. Case in point: an all-dwarf Kiss cover band.

MiniKISS, as the NYC-based group are known, hit the Roxy for a, uh, short set Saturday night. And yes, they proved to be four "little people" in full Kiss drag. The concept and the pre-show announcement of "You wanted the littlest, you got the littlest!" (spoofing Kiss’s "You wanted the best . . . " intro) more than justified their presence on stage. The guitarist billed as Mini Ace was the tiniest of the bunch, and he did the Ace Frehley moves with more panache than the actual substitute in Kiss nowadays. It only got better when Mini Paul removed her Paul Stanley wig and revealed herself to be a quite attractive redhead. (Drummer Mini Peter also appeared to be female.)

So it hardly matters that the group weren’t that good even as tribute bands go. They relied heavily on backing tapes, doing just the lead vocals and some of the easier instrumental parts live. And they fudged matters by including Ozzy’s "Crazy Train." (I gather they used to mime the whole act and are now phasing in some real playing.) So was this a statement about small empowerment or just proof that everybody needs to rock-and-roll all night and party all day? I’m voting for the latter.

One question, though: what the heck was this doing at the Roxy? The show was part of a dance night at the club, and that earned the band confused looks from a crowd who wanted to get back to shaking their booty. Put miniKISS at the Abbey or T.T.’s or the Middle East, with Rock Bottom or Beefy DC opening, and they’d get the heroine’s welcome.

Maybe they can even be special guests the next time the Neighborhoods reunite. That legendary Boston trio held out for more than a decade without a reunion while frontman David Minehan moved into his current role as star local producer and proprietor of the Woolly Mammoth studio. But there have been stirrings in recent years. First Minehan played a mini-set of Hoods songs at a 50th birthday gig for Classic Ruins main man Frank Rowe in 2001. Then bassist/singer Lee Harrington (not an original but part of the longest-running line-up) came aboard for a couple of one-off benefit shows. And last Wednesday at Johnny D’s, another benefit for Right Turn, a substance-recovery foundation started by former Del Fuegos drummer Woody Geissman, found the classic Hoods line-up of Minehan, Harrington, and drummer Mike Quaglia on stage for the first time since 1992.

A little rust was to be expected since Quaglia (who played on two songs, with Avoid One Thing’s John Lynch doing the rest) hadn’t been behind a kit in years. But there was a good reason so many over-40 rockers were walking around with broad grins: the spirit of the Neighborhoods was always brash and exuberant, and here it came through intact. The eight songs they played included one about staring down depression ("The Man Who Dies Everyday") and a couple (including the inevitable "Prettiest Girl") about living down break-ups. Couple this with a sets by the Downbeat 5 and the reunited Fighting Cocks (who had the Black Crowes’ swagger a couple years before their time) plus a headline set by Willie Alexander’s reunited Boom Boom Band (who now combine the rock of old with the freewheeling improvs of Alexander’s last couple of bands) and you had big fun indeed for the whole family.

Brett Milano can be reached at muso@mindspring.net