This concert was one of the most interesting concerts we’ve attended. Attendance started off slow but then picked up fast as people anticipated seeing Twisted Sister. There were tons of drunk people making complete fools out of themselves, and the crowd as a whole seemed to be comprised of “old school” kind of guys in their forties or fifties, although there were some children and a lot of women too. Aside from the bands, there was much excitement in the crowd. The police carried away one guy in a headlock, people jumped up on staged and dived off, everywhere you tried to go in the pit you got beer spilled on you.

As usual we arrived just as the first opening band finished, but we had a lot in store for us the rest of the night. Woodland Creatures was the first band we saw perform. They seemed to be a mix between Rage Against The Machine and The Beasie Boys. We enjoyed their music, and recognized their drummer as being very talented; he brought a lot of energy to the stage. That being said, it seemed like the crowd was divided between their view of the performance. Some people got really into it and were dancing and having a good time; it seemed that the older members of the crowd didn’t really know what to do and had no interest.

Next up was View of a Burning City, a metal/hardcore sort of band. They were also impressive, but once again we saw a sort of divide in the audience. It seemed, once again, that the older members of the crowd weren’t expecting the intense screaming vocals and couldn’t really get into the music, they just kind of stood around. Either way we took it for what it was. The bassist was expecially impressive, he played like a maniac and jumped around like one too, and seemed to have complete confidence in himself.

When Twisted Sister came on there was certainly no divide in the crowd. Their first appearance caused the crowd to erupt, and your good ol’ members at altrock to be crushed. They were dressed in the typical Twisted Sister sort of outfits, with makeup, flashy clothing, and crazy hair. They played many of their classic songs including We’re Not Gonna Take It, The Price, I Wanna Rock, S.M.F, and more. They seemed full of energy and it didn’t look like they lost any of their original style or performance skills. In the middle of their setlist drummer A.J. Pero performed a very impressive drum solo, during which at one point the lights were shut off and he played with blue light-up sticks. Singer Dee Snider, in between songs, strongly spoke about many things. He make it a point that theres “no school like the old school”, and he made a call to bring the horns back to rockers and headbangers everywhere, as he found it disgusting that county singers and pop diva’s were “throwing the horns”. He also talked about being an “S.M.F” and what it meant to him to be different and do what he wants and not follow everybody else. All in all we enjoyed their performance greatly.

And so now onto the score. The reasons it didn’t get a 10 include: An odd and conflicting mix of opening bands/genres that didn’t seem to play too well with the crowd, incredibly long wait times between bands, and it wasn’t particularly well suited to a younger crowd. Those issues aside we had a great time, and couldn’t get over the fact that we saw “I Wanna Rock” live, it was definately worth it.