It seems like Twisted Sister's final performance in Canada was one they'd rather forget.
In a profanity-fuelled tirade posted on the band's website on June 30, Twisted Sister's tour blogger Armadillo Terry says the Amnesia Rockfest — or "shitfest," as he called it — in Montebello, Que. was the "WORST. FESTIVAL. EVER."
The post was taken down on Tuesday but a cached version is available here.
Terry, who writes the band's road report and also assists in its tours, says the festival "sucked donkey balls. Big hairy brown donkey balls."
"In short, they sucked balls."
His post trashes the festival for giving the band and its team one small dressing room — when they are accustomed to several — that didn't even have mirrors or "enough furniture for all five band members to sit down."
Terry says festival organizers even got the band's name wrong.
At one point, Terry had to take a boat to get to the stage. He also detailed how the band's truck was forced to drive through hordes of drunken fans.
"I can personally attest that this was the drunkest, most stoned crowd I’ve ever seen.” He described the marijuana smoke to be “so thick it would have choked Cheech & Chong,"
‘We had nowhere to set up’
Terry also says the festival did not stick to the band's rider, the agreement that details what the artists need before and after a show.
"We had nowhere to set up….nowhere to store our gear…nowhere to work. And from what I saw and experienced personally, some of their local crew treated us as if we were just the neighbor’s kids playing air guitar on tennis rackets. In the six years that I have apprenticed with the crew, I have never experienced such a lack of respect," he writes.
"In short, they sucked balls."
Things didn't get better when the band saw the stage it was performing on. Terry says the band had to play at the "TEENY TINY Jagermeister stage, aptly named, because it made me want to throw up." Twisted Sister was given 45 minutes to perform, he says, and the band was cut off before playing "S.M.F."
"We’re sorry the douchecanoe twatwaffles of Amnesia shitfest wouldn’t even let us play two more stinkin’ minutes of SMF to say THANK YOU Canada on the farewell tour," Terry writes.
He adds that the band's frontman, Dee Snider, was cut off while he was saying “Thank you and good night!”
"I have never experienced such a lack of respect."
"We can put up with terrible production. We can put up with lousy catering. We can put up with shitty dressing rooms, dirty toilets, small stages and poor treatment of us, the crew. But to disrespect the band by pulling the plug on the last single note without even letting them say the words, ‘good night!’ is unbelievable," Terry says.
He ends his post calling on rock fans to go to another festival, Heavy Montreal, instead.
"Fuck your boat, fuck your tiny-ass stage, fuck your forty-five minutes and fuck your five bags of chips," he says. "We’re going back to Europe and playing the real festivals! Canadians rockers…go to Heavy Montreal next year instead–this festival doesn’t deserve your attendance."
In a statement to The Huffington Post Canada, festival founder Alex Martel says he was "extremely disappointed" to read Terry's letter.
"In the 11 years of the festival, I have never seen anything like this. No member of the Twisted Sister camp contacted me at any point during or after the festival to express any concerns -- we are always open to constructive criticism and improvement," said Martel.
Read Martel's full statement below:
“I was extremely disappointed earlier today to read the comments made by Twister Sister’s blogger after their show at Amnesia Rockfest 2016. We contacted the band’s team as soon as we became aware of these comments, and they immediately decided to remove the blog post outlining their dissatisfaction.
However, I think it’s important that we set the record straight to prevent misunderstandings. In the 11 years of the festival, I have never seen anything like this. No member of the Twisted Sister camp contacted me at any point during or after the festival to express any concerns -- we are always open to constructive criticism and improvement. I could tell the other side of the story.
I could explain how running a festival with 130 bands over two days works and how our entire team makes serious efforts to accommodate them all, rather than giving priority to a single band. I could mention that all the logistical information was sent to performers weeks prior to the event to ensure there would be no surprises about our hospitality, production or the site’s geographic location.
I could also name the hundreds of bands who are satisfied with their experience at Rockfest year after year. Even though I strongly disagree with their claims and the way they chose to share their views, I still have tremendous respect for this legendary band and I wish them the best in their future endeavours.”
In 2013, HuffPost Music contributor Jonathan Cummins detailed his own trials and tribulations at the festival. Check out his blog post here.
With files from Zi-Ann Lum
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