This show was a warm up club show before Twisted Sister hits the festival circuit to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of "Stay Hungry." Yep I remember being a young lad and loving when TS showed up on MTV with "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It!" (The two most licensed songs from the 1980's according to lead singer Dee Snider and as he further pointed out how impressive it was they were both from the same album). So 30 years later I have to be there to hear them play the whole album live...something they have only done a very rare handful of times in their long career.
About 45 min after Stephen Pearcy's opening set ended (read that review and see pics by clicking here), the lights went down at 10:25 and the boys came roaring out of the gate with the title track of the album being celebrated.
It was a killer one two three punch right into "The Kids Are Back" and "Shoot 'Em Down." Before going into the next song, Dee announced how the band would indeed be playing all of "Stay Hungry" on this night, but not in order as they went into "The Beast."
Next up was the classic "You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll" followed by another of the very rarely played tracks, "Don't Let Me Down."
We then got our only taste from Twisted Sister's fourth album "Come Out and Play" with "I Believe In Rock 'n' Roll."
The rest of the main set was all from the album being celebrated starting with that MTV classic "We're Not Gonna Take It."
This led into the last rarity of the night. The "Horror-Teria" suite of songs: "Captain Howdy" (Which Dee would later use as the basis for his film "Strangeland") and "Street Justice." The main set finished with a trio of classics starting with the lighters held high anthem "The Price".
The lights then went out and a demonic red light shown on a now shirtless Dee for "Burn In Hell". It has to be said, Dee looks like a damn super hero! Check out the photos, I think he has a 12 pack! "Burn in Hell" included a full on drum solo by A.J. Pero.
When the solo ended he joined again by Dee, J.J. French, Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda and Mark "The Animal" Mendoza for the other MTV anthem "I Wanna Rock!"
There was a very short encore break and the boys came back out to the "Twisted Sister...Come out and play" recording, but instead of that title track, they launched into a cover of Motorhead's "Born To Raise Hell" which Dee dedicated to Lemmy who he said is doing great and Motorhead are back live and kicking ass.
Next was one of the PMRC's filthy fifteen. The song that led to Dee testifying in front of Congress back in '85, the medical terror of "Under the Blade."
We knew there was only one more song to end the night. The one that was about the fans that jam packed Starland Ballroom on this night and the one from "Stay Hungry" that had yet to be played. "S.M.F." closed out the night.
Twister Sister are better now than ever. Tight, energetic and all original. Dee stated how bands need to stop their bitching and give the people what they want. How there shouldn't be bands touring where the only original member is the drummer ("Imagine Ringo touring and calling himself the fucking Beatles?!") and how some bands like Foreigner have no original members ("That's Gene's dream" Dee joked as he gave Kiss a ribbing). TS live those words and on this night we all left drained, happy and feeling like that 13 year old that first heard these tunes 30 years ago.
Check out the pictures from the show below. Click on any of them to supersize them. If you dig this blog, please follow the twitter account for more cool posts and feel free to comment and share. Enjoy!
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