(continuous guitar riff) (Dee Snider Shouting) GOOD EVENING! WELCOME TO OUR SHOW! IF YOU GOT THAT PROBLEM YEAH....WELL I THINK THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW.... One would recognize this as the intro to the song What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You) as well as the famous intro to almost all concerts of the legendary Twisted Sister and even more legendary Dee Snider, the main vocalist of Twisted Sister, one of the, or probably, the best front-man in Rock and Heavy Metal music As a kid I listened to NWOBHM bands (if you don't know what NWOBHM means, Dee would publicly address you right away and yell "Get the F*** Out! So better stop reading now!) and upcoming San Francisco Bay Area Thrash bands. I wasn't too much into glamor, and hair bands except for KISS. Then I came across the EP I AM (I'm ME) with live versions of Tear It Loose, Destroyer and It's Only Rock 'N Roll (But I Like It)...I was blasted away, flabbergasted and left for dead behind my turntable. And so started a long and prosperous (live and on CD) relationship with TS. Up to the point where I lost track of the band and legend became a part of my Heavy Metal history.
So, now somewhat years later with the introduction of social media I got back into following Dee Snider and TS on Twitter and Facebook. TS did some major festivals in The Netherlands and Belgium and they didn't lost too much of the dynamics from the early days live on stage. Twisted Sister Live At Wacken The Reunion is proof of one hell of a return on a major stage!
So now the Twisted Sister documentary was announced and the waiting began. As to my surprise and excitement the world premiere would be in Amsterdam at the IDFA Festival on November 23rd 2014 and Jay Jay French and the director Andrew Horn would be there too, how awesome is that! What I didn't know, and I assume a lot of fans outside the New York area didn't, was the hard and long way TS took to get to where the wanted to be, the biggest and rawest bad ass band in the world. The documentary is about that hard and long struggle to become a huge record selling band. There is a lot of tales to tell and Jay Jay and Dee Snider are very willing to tell it. Their storytelling is humorous as it is fascinating and authentic. It gives you a glimpse of a the person behind the icons Dee Snider and Jay Jay French. The director and his team had lots of early days video material from the TS archives, which gives you an interesting look on how the club days were, and more interestingly how much of an organizer Jay Jay was/ is. In those days he did all the work which is normally divided over 3 roles (guitarist, manager, tour manager) in a 4 to 6 days a week performing band! As an amateur musician I can only have the utter respect for the man. The most positive message of the movie that struck me the most was the determination of three people in this story; of course Jay Jay and Dee, but also the former CEO of Atlantic Records, who's name I can't recall, deserves to be mentioned at the least. This guy, not a CEO yet, believed in TS where other so called visionary record label managers said to go and F*** yourself when given a heads up, again and again, on this new band Twisted Sister who had sold out this major club downtown Manhattan. It even came to a point where this guy spoiled his credits with the CEO at the time. The CEO got very angry every time this guy even mentioned TS. To me it is a demonstration of having a vision on something, the determination of getting the result and really holding the believe it can be successful.
The movie is like I mentioned entertaining and humorous. The storytelling is great. One thing of criticism is the what abruptly ending of the movie. I'd recommend this documentary to anyone with interest in Rock and Heavy Metal music, or just like to see a great documentary. I would give a All Hail To Andrew and his team for this film and of course to Jay Jay French, A.J. Pero, Mark "The Animal" Mendoza, Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda and last but certainly not least: All Hail To Dee!
So, now somewhat years later with the introduction of social media I got back into following Dee Snider and TS on Twitter and Facebook. TS did some major festivals in The Netherlands and Belgium and they didn't lost too much of the dynamics from the early days live on stage. Twisted Sister Live At Wacken The Reunion is proof of one hell of a return on a major stage!
So now the Twisted Sister documentary was announced and the waiting began. As to my surprise and excitement the world premiere would be in Amsterdam at the IDFA Festival on November 23rd 2014 and Jay Jay French and the director Andrew Horn would be there too, how awesome is that! What I didn't know, and I assume a lot of fans outside the New York area didn't, was the hard and long way TS took to get to where the wanted to be, the biggest and rawest bad ass band in the world. The documentary is about that hard and long struggle to become a huge record selling band. There is a lot of tales to tell and Jay Jay and Dee Snider are very willing to tell it. Their storytelling is humorous as it is fascinating and authentic. It gives you a glimpse of a the person behind the icons Dee Snider and Jay Jay French. The director and his team had lots of early days video material from the TS archives, which gives you an interesting look on how the club days were, and more interestingly how much of an organizer Jay Jay was/ is. In those days he did all the work which is normally divided over 3 roles (guitarist, manager, tour manager) in a 4 to 6 days a week performing band! As an amateur musician I can only have the utter respect for the man. The most positive message of the movie that struck me the most was the determination of three people in this story; of course Jay Jay and Dee, but also the former CEO of Atlantic Records, who's name I can't recall, deserves to be mentioned at the least. This guy, not a CEO yet, believed in TS where other so called visionary record label managers said to go and F*** yourself when given a heads up, again and again, on this new band Twisted Sister who had sold out this major club downtown Manhattan. It even came to a point where this guy spoiled his credits with the CEO at the time. The CEO got very angry every time this guy even mentioned TS. To me it is a demonstration of having a vision on something, the determination of getting the result and really holding the believe it can be successful.
The movie is like I mentioned entertaining and humorous. The storytelling is great. One thing of criticism is the what abruptly ending of the movie. I'd recommend this documentary to anyone with interest in Rock and Heavy Metal music, or just like to see a great documentary. I would give a All Hail To Andrew and his team for this film and of course to Jay Jay French, A.J. Pero, Mark "The Animal" Mendoza, Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda and last but certainly not least: All Hail To Dee!