Iron Maiden has been my favorite band for about 7 years now. I was bored my first year of college, and decided that I needed a new band to be into. I started looking into some heavier stuff than what I was used to at the time, which was Styx, Queen, Aerosmith, Van Halen… mainly classic rock stuff. Well, I came across the Maiden album covers and decided I needed to hear them. I downloaded some music videos, (No Youtube back then folks!), and they are still my favorite band today. I first saw them live two years ago on the Somewhere Back In Time Tour. That tour was a “classics” tour with most of the songs being from the 1980s. (All but one, which was the setlist staple, “Fear of The Dark” from 1992.) That was the best concert I’d ever been to. It had pyro, lots of dry ice, a great stage design, and of course classic songs. The concert this year, which was for the Final Frontier World Tour was about as different from that as you can get…
The Set:
This North American leg of the tour is just a sort of fling for the band before the Final Frontier album comes out on August 17th. They are trying to get the album as high on the charts as they can. (The last album, “A Matter of Life and Death”, made it to #9 in 2006.) They will be coming back to tour for the actual album next year. As the album isn’t out yet, they are playing only one song from the new album this time around, and that’s a song they released for free on the internet last month called “El Dorado.” There are also not many 80s songs in the set. In fact, most of the songs are from the last 3 Iron Maiden albums! In the horrible concert climate right now, that takes balls, and yet whilst American Idol has cancelled 8 days, Iron Maiden came filled the seats of almost every show. They played to 80,000 people in Ottawa this tour, and they’ve broken their own records for crowds at most every show. Sure, there’s been some complaining about the setlist. You won’t hear “The Trooper”, “Run To The Hills”, or “2 Minutes To Midnight”. My response? Who cares?! Iron Maiden is one of the few bands that their new stuff is just as good as their classics. Now yes, it’s a different type of metal now, more progressive and dark, but it’s just as catchy and you can still sing along pretty well. Those classics will be there again. The band and the hardcore fans just wanted to do the new stuff for a bit.
Setlist was as follows.
1. The Wicker Man (from Brave New World, 2000)
2. Ghost of the Navigator (from BNW)
3. Wrathchild (from Killers, 1981)
4. El Dorado (from The Final Frontier, 2010)
5. Dance of Death (from Dance of Death, 2003)
6. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg (from A Matter of Life and Death, 2006)
7. These Colours Don’t Run (from AMOLAD, 2006)
8. Blood Brothers (from BNW, 2000)
9. Wildest Dreams (from DOD, 2003)
10. No More Lies (from DOD, 2003)
11. Brave New World (from BNW, 2000)
12. Fear of The Dark (from Fear of The Dark, 1992)
13. Iron Maiden (from Iron Maiden, 1980)
Encore:
14. The Number of The Beast (from The Number of The Beast, 1982)
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name (from TNOTB, 1982)
16. Running Free (From IM, 1980)
Notice that there are no songs from the true “classic” Maiden period, which was the four album stretch between 1983-1988. Now the setlist did change a bit from the first couple of shows. There was in fact, one more newer song in the set. It was a longer song from their last album called “Brighter Than A Thousand Suns”. It was replaced after the first date of the tour with the much shorter early 80s number, “Wrathchild,” which is not one of my favorites. Also, in the first part of the tour, they were alternating between “Paschendale” and “Dance of Death”, which are the two main epics from the “Dance of Death” album (2003). After a while, they just stuck with “Dance of Death.” Both songs are excellent, but “Paschendale” is harder to play by a long shot. They just couldn’t get it right and apparently one of the backdrops failed or something.
The Production:
The show had a much smaller production than the ones on the last tour. There was no big inflatable Eddie rising behind the drum set, there was no pyro… Eddie still did his walk on appearance, even miming playing a guitar! There was still some dry ice as well. The show on the whole just felt a lot more intimate as a result. I don’t know if it was because I sat a bit closer this time or if it was the minimal production though. The stage set was also not as complex, looking a bit like a derelict landing pad or something. All of this did not really detract from the show though. It was nice that it was more intimate. Also the light effects were much better. The last tour had a yellow, white, and red color scheme for the lights, as it was Egypt themed. This one was mainly red, blue, green and white. It was darker on the whole. It was subtly space themed, and so those lights worked. The light programs were more complex as well, and the lighting rig was… interesting to look at.
The Crowd:
Here’s the one aspect of the show I’m kind of saddened about. The last tour the audience was really into it. They knew every song, they were jumping up and down, head banging, fists in the air the whole show. This time… I felt I was the only one in my area doing anything. Sure, the pit was still pretty active, but as I looked around me, most people had their arms crossed… few knew the words… there was too much texting going on. Do you really go to concerts to text nowadays? That’s almost worse than doing it in the movies! What a waste of money! Anyway, the crowd got better about five songs in. I guess they realized that this was not a classics tour and that they should just enjoy themselves. More people started banging their fists along with the music and head banging, and by the end of the concert, it was pretty wild.
It was a great show. Very different from my first, but almost as good! I will be sure to see them on the proper album tour, even if the closest they come in New York. Maiden are playing better than they ever have. Even better than the 80s! Bruce can still hit the notes, even while he’s running all over the stage and jumping over monitors. I very much recommend an Iron Maiden show to anyone. Even if you don’t know the songs, they always put on a hell of a show for ya.
Oh, and just a few words about the opening act, Dream Theater. I just recently got into Dream Theater big about six months ago. Before that I only owned two of their earlier albums. They’ve gone through a big change in the past 10 years towards a more metal direction, away from their progressive rock sound. I’m not too happy with that, and most of the songs they played were from this period. They played 6 songs, only 2 of them being from the 90s. Even the songs they played from their newer albums were the “hits”. Constant Motion and Panic Attack are both Rock Band 2 songs, even. Still, the band was entertaining. The highlight was Mike Portnoy’s drum solo, which incorporated parts of four Maiden songs. (Run To The Hills, The Trooper, Where Eagles Dare, and The Prisoner.) For The Prisoner part, the guitarist, John Petrucci, was out of tune a little, and out walks one of Maiden’s guitarists, Adrian Smith. He looks at him weird and walks offstage smiling as Petrucci tries to hand him the guitar. Other than that moment, the only parts that real caught my interest were the end song, Pull Me Under, and Home, the other 90s song. When it comes to Dream Theater, you really need to see one of their 3 hour concerts.
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