Already dubbed "the best looking CD of all time" on the hallowed pages of Uber Rock, it was amazing that this die cut card ensemble was still in one piece by the time it reached URHQ, as a lone jiffy bag (with no inner card support) sent from the US to the UK is hardly the ideal way to package such a fragile work of pink tinged artistic beauty now is it?

Anyway once inside the package, and inside the (now slightly bent) die cut fold out TS logo card sleeve, what you will find is a CD containing sixteen live tracks of prime cut Twisted "Fucking" Sister recorded during two shows at London's Marquee Club on the 5^th and 6^th of March 1983.  Making this release the almost perfect partner to the superb 'Under The Blade CD/DVD' released earlier this year by Armoury Records (which we reviewed here back in June).

Some of you older Uber Rockers may already recognise or maybe even possess eight of these tracks as the versions of 'Destroyer', 'Tear It Loose' plus six others were all spread across the 7" and 12" versions of singles from the band's first album for Atlantic Records - the seminal 'You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll'. 

So what makes this release such a "must buy" item I hear you cry?

Well the answer to that is as plain as the nose on your face, because just like the excellent Reading '82 DVD that came with the aforementioned 'Under The Blade' reissue, what we are talking about here ladies and gentlemen is the sound of Dee and his 'Bad Boys Of Rock 'n' Roll' truly firing on all cylinders, and Twisted "Fucking" Sister in full flight is a joyous racket to behold, that's for sure.

Okay the recording of perennial set opener 'What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)' might be a bit "boot-leggy" sound quality wise, with some audience chatter plainly audible, but the phasing in and out of tune guitars that pepper an incendiary 'Bad Boys Of Rock 'n' Roll' is probably as much to do with the sauna like quality of that legendary old club on Wardour St as much as anything else. You can almost smell the sweat on this CD by the time a grinding 'Destroyer' slows things down nicely ahead of the first totally unreleased track of this set, an excellent rendition of The Shangri-Las' 'Leader Of The Pack'. This run through being much more in common with the 'Ruff Cuts' version rather than the metalled up later day single version available on 'Come Out And Play'. This track in particular highlighting just how fantastic a singer (as well as frontman) the one and only Dee Snider was/and still is to this very day.

I have to mention that on the back of this release there are some extensive sleeve notes from esteemed rock journalist Malcolm Dome, and he has done a particularly fine job in recapturing the spirit and buzz that surrounded Twisted Sister around this time making it perfect reading to accompany this release by bolstering the songs with facts and trivia that even a hardened "SMF" will be raising more than just a pencilled-on eyebrow to.

Back to the music and the white hot 'Tear It Loose' (which you may remember from the 12" of 'I Am I'm Me') adds a second ending to the song just because the first one wasn't ferocious enough.  Dee and the boys seemingly not happy that the SMF's didn't physically explode at the end of it first time around knowing that a recording mobile was capturing every single note for posterity. You could never question Twisted Sister's passion or commitment to the live cause (albeit maybe for the fact they only played Wales once in their heyday and then that was at a festival with Motorhead - in bloody Wrexham) and that is never more evident than on the previously unreleased 'Band Rap' and debut live outing for what would be their second album's title cut 'You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll'.  My blood is boiling sat here simply listening to this.

As the set passes the half way mark we then get back-to-back two of my favourite tunes from this era of the band, via the ruthless smash and grab rock of 'Run For Your Life' and 'Shoot 'em Down'.  Hooligan rock 'n' roll may have been pretty much invented by Slade in the mid seventies but Twisted Sister certainly gave it a good kick in the gonads with tunes like these just a decade or so later, and that obvious parallel to the music of Slade was certainly never lost on this scribe that's for sure.  So it's almost musical kismet to see it all come full circle via the set closing encore of Twisted's very own version of 'Let The Good Times Roll' an R&B standard Slade had also made their own back in their heyday. 

But wait I'm ahead of myself again here, as there is the nine minute plus pièce de résistance that is 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) to get through before the encore and here it comes complete with a Dee Snider rap that I would love to think Ricky Gervais heard before he wrote that immortal speech from 'The Office'.  The one where David Brent was looking to go and take on the world via "Staines, Slough, and Maidenhead", because that's just what Dee does here getting all the headbangers for the towns surrounding the City of London to unite as one and in turn make the main set finale of 'I Am I'm Me and 'Under The Blade' the almost perfect heavy metal anthems on which to close.

Twisted Sister changed my life (as they did many others lives) back in 1982/83 and this 'Live At The Marquee Club' CD along with the 'Under The Blade' CD/DVD reissue plus the brand new 'From The Bars To The Stars' DVD box set are the perfect way to remember and pay tribute to this still awesome live band.  So why not get them with some of those online vouchers you'll no doubt get for Xmas, and make yourselves some very sick motherfuckers indeed.

Me, I just wish they'd record a new studio album ... (Hmmm Dear Santa, can you make Twisted Sister.... blah, blah, blah)

http://www.twistedsister.com/

http://www.rhino.com/shop/product/twisted-sister-live-the-marquee-club