:: Twisted Sister - Live At The Astoria (plus DVD)

Twisted Sister

Although they haven’t released anything new in the studio sense in some twenty years, hard rock act Twisted Sister still remain an active entity on the live circuit playing purely for the fans. Throughout the last twenty years there have been plenty of compilations, live albums and DVDs to tide fans over, and the latest effort to emerge from Twisted Sister is their live CD/DVD effort ‘Live At The Astoria’. Recorded primarily as a ‘pay-per-view’ special at London’s infamous The Astoria venue on August 1, 2004, ‘Live At The Astoria’ finally gets its long overdue release to fans via Demolition Records/DR2 Records, and captures the Long Island act at their best in front of a sold out crowd who waited more than eighteen years for the band’s inevitable return to U.K. shores. Although the band are looking a little older and heavier than they did back in their heyday, you would be hard pressed to fault their energy and commitment to putting their all in their performance based on the ninety-five minute performance on ‘Live At The Astoria’. All the band’s official hits are rolled out as expected (including ‘You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll’, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ and ‘I Wanna Rock’), but it’s the addition of classics such as ‘What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)’, ‘Under The Blade’, ‘Destroyer’, ‘Like A Knife In The Back’, ‘Burn In Hell’, ‘The Fire Still Burns’, ‘The Price’ and ‘I Am (I’m Me)’ where behind the make-up, Twisted Sister show they really were capable musicians and song writers in their own right.

On the visual side of things, the four cameras manage to capture the essence of the band in full flight on stage for the most part while audio wise, there’s little to fault throughout, with the band sounding great across the entire show. Although the seventy-four minute audio CD on this disc is a cool addition to the set, it’s the DVD that really is the must have for fans, as it includes both French and Snider’s onstage addresses with the audience in-between the songs, which at times steal the show. It may have been shot four years ago and feature no new material, but ‘Live At The Astoria’ is a definite must.