Few heavy metal bands have ever prowled the stage with the ferocity and intensity of Twisted Sister, the New York bar band that conquered the world in the 1980s. But that was after years and years of slogging away in tiny clubs and faraway venues. Those challenging shows, however, sharpened the band’s edge, and showed them they could survive whatever fate — and fans — threw their way, sometimes literally. The remastered version of their first CD, “Under The Blade,” includes a DVD of the band’s performance at the 1982 Reading Festival in England, where the costumed glam rockers at first didn’t exactly enthrall the crowd of bikers, leatherheads and assorted headbangers, who catapulted a veritable farmer’s market of produce, beer cups and unmentionables at the band members as they performed.
Yet Dee Snider, brandishing a real machine gun and firing it into the air, showed the crowd Twisted Sister was not intimidated, challenging anyone who was so inclined to meet him next to the stage after the show for a fight.
