Winterland show

Something I've always wondered about that Winterland performance: the band is introduced as "Our special guests, Kiss!". Usually, when a band is identified as "special guests", that means they're basically the opening band, or at least, not the headliners. Was this the case here, or what? I think it's Paul who mentions that The Tubes were the opening band at this show (and gripes about how The Tubes had a better dressing room than Kiss), but was there someone who had higher billing than Kiss? Or was this just another example of how the industry people in San Francisco were trying to mess with them?