Friday Flashback - Twisted Sister

Twisted Sister will be in Oklahoma City headlining on Friday July 23rd date of the Rock N America festival and in honor of that I thought I would make them the subjects of my Friday Flashback. The band was originally formed all the way back in 1972 and had their highest level of fame in 1984 with the release of their 3rd album Stay Hungry. Our first two videos came from that album and shot them to stardom mainly due to their humor coupled with their anti-authority messages (what teen boy didn't want to rebel back then?) and their heavy sound.



Current members
Dee Snider – lead vocals (1976–1987, 1997–present)
Eddie Ojeda – lead guitars (1975–1987, 1997–present)
Jay Jay French – lead guitars, backing vocals (1972–1987, 1997–present)
Mark Mendoza – bass, backing vocals (1978–1987, 1997–present)
A. J. Pero – drums, percussion (1982–1986, 1997–present)



The band broke up from 1987 to 1997 and then re-formed to perform various gigs over the years. They were at the inaugural Rocklahoma festival in 2007 performing in full makeup in the Oklahoma summer heat but I couldn't see them because they played on Sunday and I was only able to go to the Friday edition of the lineup. Hey, my son wasn't even 2 months old then and some things are more important in life. They returned the following year but in my opinion the festival had already started going downhill and I never went back due to what I considered overall poor daily lineups. Now I don't know if I'll be able to see them this year either because my main focus is seeing the Scorpions on their goodbye tour and it's doubtful I'll be able to afford to go to more than one day of the festival. Times are hard and money is in short supply. Maybe one of the local radio stations (they do still exist) will have some tickets to give away. If not we'll just have to see what can be done.

Ratt & Scorpions 80s Metal

Both metal groups Ratt and Scorpions are releasing new material next month. Ratt has been bolstered by the addition of Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot) to the band and is putting out an album of new music for the first time since 1999. Classic lineup members Stephen Pearcy (vocals), Warren DeMartini (guitar) and Bobby Blotzer (drums) are in as well as bassist Robbie Crane who has been with the group since 1996. This song has the classic Ratt sound and stands out to me so I am looking forward to the new album Infestation. I had a chance to see Ratt at Rocklahoma in 2007 (John Corabi was on guitar then) and frankly while the band sounded great Pearcy sounded horrible. I'm sure that they will be touring to support this new album so we'll see how he sounds live this time around. Yes I'll go if they come around here.



Scorpions have announced that they are calling it quits after 45 years (!?!) of playing music. They will release their new album Sting In The Tail next month and will follow with a massive world tour that will last until 2012 or 2013 and then go their seperate ways. The band has continuously released new music since their heyday in the 80s most notably with their album Humanity: Hour 1 in 2007 and still play to huge audiences in Europe and South America. With such a large your planned I can only pray that they will come around here once or dare I hope even twice? It'd be nice to see them again in Tulsa.