Twisted Sister -- 'Live at the Astoria' CD/DVD [review]

Twisted Sister - Live at the Astoria [CD/DVD]
Demolition Records (11/18/08)
Hard rock / Metal (Glam)

While never the most prolific metal band out there, Twisted Sister has somehow become one of those bands from the '80s that is regarded as somewhat legendary on the strength of a handful of popular tracks.

Live at the Astoria plays out as a greatest-hits collection, with a solid sampling from the group's back catalogue. The recording is fairly crisp, with hardly any crowd interference (which you'll either like or dislike depending on what you're looking for in a live album).

And for the fans, there's little missing from this set. The band cranks out particularly rousing versions of "The Price", "Ride to Live (Live to Ride)" and "Under the Blade", closing out the festivities with a killer version of "I Wanna Rock" before a somewhat lackluster encore. Ending things with "S.M.F." is one thing, but the two-song set starts with the questionable "Come Out and Play" purely in an attempt to get the crowd to chant along with the Warriors-inspired "Twisted Sister ... Come out and play!", which, judging from the crowd noise, never quite takes off as the band might have hoped.

The rest of the set is pretty straight-forward. "The Fire Still Burns" ... "Like a Knife in the Back" ... "The Kids are Back" ... "Shoot ‘Em Down" ... the hits keep coming hard and heavy. The biggest surprise is that the band seems to sleepwalk through its biggest hit, "We're Not Gonna Take It", which lacks that certain spark that you'd expect from a live version.

This package includes a DVD of the same performance that, except for possible nuances, is pretty much a video translation of the concert—I say nuances because at least during "We're Not Gonna Take It" the band stops mid-song as Dee Snider goes off on a rant about an "unnamed" record executive that dismissed the song after it was recorded and prior to release. Post-rant, the band kicks back into the song for another minute for a crowd sing-along. You could appreciate the sentiment, except the audio is badly chopped (read: censored) to protect the identity of said executive Snider refers to by name. This entire exchange is happily missing from the CD.

The show was recorded back in 2004, but there's no clear reason as to the four-year delay in release since there are no bells and/or whistles to accompany the show. So, what you ultimately have is a bare-bones glimpse at a rock band doing what it does best—more than 20 years since its inception—rocking an audience into a frenzy.