Twisted Sister-A Twisted Christmas Live

Razor and Tie
2007

This DVD was recorded at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey. The concert has fourteen tracks with seven of them being classic Twisted Sister tunes and the other seven are from the “Twisted Christmas” album. So is it shocking for a hard rock band to perform so many Christmas songs? No more shocking than seeing a bunch of fifty-somethings slap on make-up, wigs and ripped up outfits so they can go out and perform twenty plus years after their prime. The Christmas songs are kind of goofy, but in an enjoyable way for the most part. The joke gets old kind of fast, but they largely pull those off. The classic songs by this band are the main draw here. I thought the biggest highlights were “Burn in hell”, “You can’t stop rock and roll”, “The Price” and a killer version of the often overlooked “Fire still burns”. They look silly and the stage seems odd with tinsel, candy canes, red ribbons and Christmas lights everywhere. Yet there is still that fourteen year old inside of me that has a soft spot for this band and their music. There is no doubt that Dee Snider is a fantastic frontman and I do instead use the word “is”. Twisted Sister have always been a band whose energy and presentation make up for lack of talent and creativity. Not an easy task, but I think they have and are still able to pull it off. This DVD also includes the two videos for “Come all ye faithful”, an in the studio version of “Heavy Metal Christmas”, brief interviews with Dee and Jay Jay plus some footage of Jay Jay and Mendoza leading the choir as they recorded the backing vocals for a few tracks. This costs around $10 and is a pretty good buy for what it is.