Twisted Sister live footage is a rare thing to find post Stay Hungry tour. There is only one known bootleg video from the Come Out and Play tour shot by a fan at the Fox Theater in Detroit on January 30th, 1986. The grainy video is the only glimpse of one of the biggest touring productions at the time. While it was an amazing spectacle and an incredible live performance, the tour didn’t do well with attendance and ended up had Twisted Sister losing money. In 1987, Twisted Sister released their fifth and final original studio album, Love is For Suckers. Originally planned to be a Dee Snider solo album, the label (Atlantic Records) pushed for it to be released under the Twisted Sister name instead.
The tour for the Love is For Suckers album lasted just over one month and ended in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 10, 1987. There was no professional video footage from this tour but for years there has been a soundboard audio recording from their tour stop in Merrillville, Indiana on October 8, 1987 at the Holiday Star Music Theater. Just recently, video footage from this performance surfaced on YouTube. The video appears to have been recording from a tripod at the soundboard featuring soundboard sourced audio. The show itself appears to be bigger than the venue could actually contain. A double tiered stage with ramps and stairs and a huge set of lights that seemed to be no more than six feet over the head of drummer Joey Franco.
It’s a bummer that Twisted Sister was on the decline at this point because honestly, this is one of the best performances I’ve seen from Twisted Sister. The band sounded amazing and the energy of the performance was off the charts. It’s too bad we couldn’t have seen more from Twisted Sister on this tour but at least the band can say they went out on top of their game before reuniting in 2001.
Twisted Sister Setlist:
Tonight
Wake Up The Sleeping Giant
You Can’t Stop Rock n’ Roll
I Believe in Rock N’ Roll
Stay Hungry
I’m So Hot For You
Under the Blade
Hot Love
The Price
Love Is for Suckers
Joe Franco Drum Solo
We’re Not Gonna Take It
I Wanna Rock
One Bad Habit
S.M.F
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