Review – Twisted Sister – We Are Twisted F*cking Sister

Review: Twisted Sister – We Are Twisted F*cking Sister  (DVD)

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Reviewer – Stephen Brophy

Twisted Sister have never been a band to shy away from controversy, hide in the shadows or bury their head in the sand, they have built their career and reputation on being brash, in your face and fun, it was all about entertainment and to last 40 years in a harsh business you have to have a lot more than just a gimmick of wearing make up. We Are Twisted F*cking Sister is a Documentary covering the bands early career from the fledgling days in New York in the 1970’s right through, the members that moved on in between and the finalising of the line up that most people would be familiar with,  to the Festivals and World Tours, the ups the downs everything.

In  between the interviews and spinning the threads of the Twisted Sister story are video clips from back in the day, gritty performances that as the story develops you can also see the band growing, improving and changing, this is excellent and you don’t always see this kind of thing, it adds a huge amount to telling you the history of the band.

Filling out information like the segregation and workings of the live scene in and around New York and New Jersey gives a greater understanding of the problems that can happen when a popular local band wants to expand their boundaries and grow, and sometimes the more unusual problem of a local band more popular than the clubs they would get offered in the bigger cities. Constant hard work, four shows a night six nights a week is just hard work. A lot of people in these times of advances in technology and bands taking advantage of recording from home and collaborating from different locations around the globe, that the life of a musician is somewhat easy, but the reality is that you still have to work damn hard to get your name out there, to learn your craft in the live arena and become more than just a studio project, this story gives a good glimpse into what is actually involved in getting there.

The knock-backs from Record Labels, even when A&R men are convinced you have what it takes, the difficulties involved when you do sign for a label and that company falls apart, you start to wonder is this normal or have these guys just been extremely unfortunate. Candid interviews from Jay Jay French, Mark Mendoza, Eddie Ojeda, AJ. Pero and Dee Snider, along with former bands members, crew, management, promoters and fans which is all brilliant, and all are able to talk about what happened, how it happened, good or bad and recounting the defining moments of their appearance on ‘The Tube‘ TV show on Channel 4 and their triumphant debut at the Reading Festival in 1982.

This is a really interesting piece of work from Director Andy Horn, told from the bands perspective which makes an enjoyable change, and it’s refreshing to see some warts in the mix too, leaving the viewer wondering “What If ?” in closing is a great way to leave this particular part of the story. Personally had the documentary covered the full history of the band it would have perhaps have been more rounded, but to fit the rest of the story into a reasonable amount of time that would fit a logical viewing time may not have been viable. A lot of this story from the Club days really wasn’t all that well known to the wider listening audience, the grinding work until the big break finally happened is a tale all aspiring Rock Stars should see and understand. Bloodstock 2016 will be the bands final UK date and I for one aim to be there to see Twisted F*cking Sister \m/