Well I foreshadowed their set in my last post, just a few days before I would be blessed seeing Maiden a third time. Like fine wine, some things just get better with age. You can argue all you want about which albums are the best and why, and also whether or not the Paul Di'anno or Blaze Bayley material are worth owning. I'll be so bold and say I like ALL their material, and while some stuff is definitely lacking here and there and the band has had some slumps, you can't deny that there may well be no other band with a 30 year or plus history that has so much truly GREAT material. Rush? Nope. Aerosmith? They actually were a rock band once, right? The Rolling Stones? Do you even care that they still release new material when all you want to hear is the classics anyway? Judas Priest? Still has yet to come anywhere near topping "Painkiller" from almost 20 years ago. To make a tired point, these guys have been going at it longer than many of us have been alive, they don't show any signs of slowing down, and judging by the number of young people there (some with their parents, how cool is that!), their rabid fan base is ever-growing. As you may or may not know, this tour is dubbed "Somewhere Back in Time" with no material going beyond the "Fear of the Dark" album. Oddly, "Killers" and "No Prayer For the Dying" were skipped completely (I've griped about not hearing any "Killers" material live in the past).Opening up for around a half hour was Lauren Harris, Steve Harris's uber-smokin' hot daughter and her band. More rock and slightly poppy, she definitely had some stage presence and a ton of energy. Shame on me for not knowing any of her material, as I have tried my best through the years to keep up with the many branches on the Maiden family tree. With about a 30 thirty minute set change, the lights went dim and we were treated to some behind the scenes footage of the tour on giant video screens while "Transylvania" played. And then, just like the old music video, archival film footage of Churchill's Speech heralded "Aces High", about as good a song to kick off the night to as any. You can see the rest of the set list below. Of course the creepy spoken intro to radio and now Guitar Hero favorite "The Number of the Beast" (which even non-fans will often refer to as "the song that goes '666'", it's that recognizable) was present, and it was damn cool to hear "Revelations" live and strange at the same time, since it really is a more obscure song. A group of people, presumably local radio station contest winners or other VIPs, ran onstage to "WOAH-OH-OH, WOAH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH WOAH-OH-OH, WOAH-OH-OH-OH-OHHHH!", during "Heaven Can Wait", and literally ran off after that verse in the song. I have a special emotional attachment to "Fear of the Dark", the song that was basically my personal anthem through high school. A robotic Eddie mummy "Powerslave"-style peered through the pyramid chamber doors during "Iron Maiden" (seemingly always either the song before the encore or the absolute final song) and the walking Eddie graced the stage to an arena full of cheers during "The Clairvoyant", oddly in his "Somewhere in Time" getup with gun and all, seeing as to how that album differs from the one featuring the song that was playing. 16 songs overall, plenty of backdrop changes as always, and a packed house that I will confidently guess was 99% full. Much to my delight, I didn't see ONE SINGLE AC/DC shirt at all, a good sign that hopefully that plagued is dying off. Granted, I wasn't everywhere at once and there were most likely over 10,000 people attending, but not only did I not see the usual shirt on every third person, I didn't see a frickin' one! Thank hell for small favors! If this tour comes to your neck of the woods, do not dare miss it unless you actually want to kick yourself in the ass until the next time they come 'round! Gentlemen, may you tour, record, and raise hell for another 30 years! (FA)
http://www.ironmaiden.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ironmaid
www.myspace.com/laurenharrisuk
