By RICHARD KING
When I was growing up, there were many bands that I hadn’t heard of before I saw them opening for someone I wanted to see.
When I saw Heart I had never heard of Boston. In July of 1983, I went to see Blackfoot, a criminally underrated southern rock band. Opening for them were Krokus and Twisted Sister. I knew who Krokus were but had no idea who Twisted Sister were.
This was a general admission show so my friends Brett and Mark and I made sure we were at the venue early enough to be some of the first through the doors. I ended up on the second row, right in the center. Since I wasn’t authorized to shoot pictures I preferred to be a couple of rows away from the security guards right in front of the stage. Usually they had their hands full with people trying to jump on the stage so I was relatively safe.
Like I said, I had no idea who or what Twisted Sister were. The lights went down, the crowd rose in anticipation and Dee Snyder, in all his costume, heels and makeup ran right to the edge of the stage about eight feet from me. That definitely left an impression. After the first song, Dee talked to the audience. He said that show was the first show on their first U.S. tour. I’m thinking “Yeah, right. He probably says that in every town.”
It wasn’t until I saw the Twisted Sister documentary 34 years later, in which they mention that show, that I found out it really was the first show of the first U.S. tour.
The tour was for their second album You Can’t Stop Rock N Roll. They put on a really good show full of energy and spectacle. They acted like they were the headliner when they were the first of a triple-header. It was a great night of rock n roll, Krokus delivered and Blackfoot didn’t disappoint (they never did). It took another year for Twisted Sister to really get noticed but by the time I saw them with Iron Maiden in the winter of ’84 everybody declared “I Wanna Rock!”
