Las Vegas Weekly

With Snider at the helm, Monster Circus arrives at LV Hilton

Monster Circus, with Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider holding court, runs through the hits at the LV Hilton.

Photo: Rick Gould/ICP

Everyone has to face their fears at some point – even Dee Snider.

After years at the helm of Twisted Sister, Snider has seen and done a lot of scary stuff. Still, he admits clowns creep him out.

“Clowns are scary and creepy,” the frontman said.

Yet the heavy metal heavyweight faced his fears at the Hilton this week as he began a six-night engagement with Monster Circus.

And, as with any other circus, Monster Circus has its fair share of (hard-rocking) clowns.

“We’ve got some clowns in there, and they’re scary clowns, (but) they’re not friendly, happy phony clowns,” Snider said.

He still remembers the frightening faces of the circus clowns that he encountered as a child.

“I could totally see behind the face they had painted on and they were very angry old men back there, and it really disturbed me,” he said.

Along with demented clowns, Monster Circus is a hard-hitting, 75-minute showcase of sexy dancers, aerialists, freaks and classic rock.

“Las Vegas has never seen a show like this,” Las Vegas Hilton executive vice president, Ken Ciancimino, said.

Snider joins Rudy Sarzo (former Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake; current Dio bassist) John Corabi (former Mötley Crüe, Ratt guitarist), Fred Coury (Cinderella drummer), Bruce Kulick (former KISS guitarist), and Tony Montana (former Great White guitarist) for the first installment of Monster Circus, March 19 - 21 and 26 -28.

Photo: Las Vegas Hilton

Dee Snider of Twisted Sister.

Two additional, six-night engagements are planned for April 16 – 18 and 23-25; and May 21-23 and 28-30. The additional installments will both feature other Snider-sized rock legends at center stage who have yet to be announced.

“It’s an all-star band,” Snider said, of the collection of musicians with whom he shares the inaugural Monster Circus stage.

“I’ve toured with a lot of these guys, I’ve played with some of these guys before on other projects, so it’s being onstage with a lot of friends,” he said. “We’re playing the greatest hits of all the members of the band and everybody who is on that stage has been in a platinum-selling band, so it’s nothing but hit after hit after hit after hit.”

Though the set list changes every night, it’s pretty safe to assume certain hits – Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Going to Take It;” Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train;” and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” for example – will be played every night.

Snider calls the show “a speedball of rock and roll.”

The twisted circus show takes place in the same Hilton showroom that houses Barry Manilow’s much mellower performances.

Snider finds this rather “interesting” and suggests Monster Circus is a better fit for Sin City.

“Musically, Barry Manilow doesn’t equal the Vegas image, nor does Bette Midler or Cher or any of these people,” he said.

“Vegas is sex, drugs, rock and roll, women, party and built-in rebellion because it’s like a city that says, we don’t care what you think, we’re doing what we want,” he said. “(And) '80s rock is sex, drugs, rock and roll, women, party and rebellion. … Monster Circus is the ultimate marriage of music and Vegas.”

(Despite Snider’s objections, however, it should still be noted that Midler and Cher, along with Elton John, are among the top-selling performers on The Strip.)

Coincidentally enough, Vegas’ most iconic performer, Elvis Presley, used to perform on the same stage that Snider and his circus show dominate this week.

So what would the King think of the show?

“I think Elvis would be repulsed and disgusted,” Snider said. “I’d have to shake him and remind him that, dude, there was a time that people were repulsed and disgusted by you.”

Snider knows all about both disgusting people and changing public perceptions. He has been arrested for obscenity, and, in the mid-'80s, testified in front of Congress during proceedings that eventually led to the implementation of explicit content labels on music.

He says time has changed him, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has mellowed him.

“I’m definitely way more well-adjusted than I was,” he said. “Playing rock and roll, proving that I was somebody, that was very cathartic for me, so I’m a happier person – but still, inside, I’m the same sick (expletive) I always was.”

Instead of leaving it to the regulators, however, Snider has now learned the art of self-censorship. The father of four said it’s all about knowing your time and place.

“Twisted Sister just released a new DVD, “Live in London,” and there are 257 f-bombs on the DVD – and that’s in 90 minutes,” he said. “That didn’t include A-words, S-words, and a couple of C-words, because it’s London.

“That said, we just did a Christmas show on Broadway and I didn’t curse once. … you can’t be dropping F-bombs in front of the kids. … So I do have a certain degree of self-control,” he said. “I have a lot of self-control.”

Still, he admits even he is surprised by his potty mouth at times. He “was stunned” when producers told him how many swear words were on the DVD, for instance.

“That beats Scarface and … Chris Rock, Richard Prior, a lot of the pros,” he said, joking, “I think I actually hold the men’s indoor freestyle record.”

While some perceptions have mellowed over time, others have not.

“Visually … you get away with a lot more today than you used to,” Snider said, noting people are generally all right with “a lot more gesturing, a lot more suggestive words” than they used to be, but, “there’s still those seven dirty words, (and) you still can’t say them on the radio, you still can’t say them on TV.”

After all this time and practice with the so-called forbidden seven, Snider has a clear favorite.

“Of course it’s (an expletive beginning with the letter F)!” he proclaimed, visibly pleased with the way the cussword rolled off his tongue.

“It’s just so multifaceted,” he gushed. “You can do so many things with it.”

“Again, (there were) 257 F-bombs (on the DVD and) it wasn’t just, oh, (expletive) you. I was really creative,” he said proudly.

Beyond music and swear words, Snider expresses himself through his highly-successful, syndicated radio show and, later this year, he will further express his admittedly disturbing sense of creativity when the follow-up to his 1998 cult horror release, “Strangeland,” finally goes into production.

“’Strangeland,’ after so many years of struggling with legalities on getting the sequel made, is finally coming together,” Snider said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

“Initially it’s going to be a NC-17, limited release film,” he said. “(But) once we go to theaters we’re going to cut it to an R so it’s a little more accessible.”

Snider wrote both of the gritty, gory and extreme “Strangeland” scripts.

He grins widely as he tells the story of how his wife confronted him after reading the first “Strangeland” script.

“She came down from the bedroom after she read it and said, ‘Is there something you want to tell me?’ and I said, ‘No, why?’ and she said, ‘What the (expletive) is this?! I’ve been with you for 20 years! What the (expletive)?!”

“I said, ‘Nah, it’s my nightmares, not my dreams, honey.’,” he said.

Snider likes both shocking and scaring people.

“I view myself as the creator of torture films,” he says, more matter-of-fact than boastful.

He says his work within the genre comes naturally to him.

“I don’t scare easily, I don’t get disturbed easily, so I tried to write something that would disturb me, and if it disturbed me, it would disturb everybody, including my wife,” Snider said.

“I’m not making a movie for little kids, I’m making a movie for adults,” he explained. “This movie comes out very hard, very intense. I’m reclaiming the crown.”

In addition to “Strangeland Disciple,” Snider’s diversified portfolio of upcoming projects include a full-length, family-friendly Christmas album, and a possible reality TV show.

“Some major meetings going on about a Snider reality show,” he said. “There’s, like, six major meetings going on this week,” he said.

It’s not hard to understand Snider’s small screen appeal: Even after decades in the spotlight, his life remains a wildly entertaining, media-friendly, monster circus in and of itself.