Iron F'ing Maiden
Older man, graying hair. Clean shaven. Glasses. Wearing a faded Iron Maiden tee-shirt so worn the black had become almost a light grey. Seven or eight year old girl sitting on his shoulders. She was wearing a brand new Iron Maiden shirt. Bright yellow earplugs hidden behind her curly blond hair. Her tiny arms outstretched attacking the air in unison with the crowd.
Dichotomy was the heart of the show. Old meets New in a mullet rich environment.
Saturday night in Camden NJ Iron Maiden rocked out to a full house. It was their “Matter of Life and Death tour.” The show was a traditional “big” metal show. Lights, lights and more freaking lights. The best “pure” light show I’ve ever seen. The set design was fantastic, sand bags and burnt out buildings. The stage designed to look like a city under siege. Even the floor was painted. Half destroyed structures were everywhere giving Dickenson ample room to jump from platform to platform to get the crowd excited.
… and the crowd was pumped.
So many mullets, but less then you would think for a 30 year old band. Heavy metal parents brought their kids. Next to us sat three high school girls on their own, belting out the lyrics to the classics. The environment was well mixed. I even saw a black lady.
The opening band, while not bad, was a bad stereotype of modern metal. It was if they had a “Be a Metal Band” check off list. Back to back guitar solos. Check. Ask the crowd to clap along. Check. Double bass every song. Check. Growl Lyrics. Double Check. Then there were their song titles. “Blood” “Four words to choke upon” and lets not forget “Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow.”
But no one was there for them.
We went to hear and see the legendary Iron Maiden. The band came out and woke up an otherwise dead audience. So much energy. My one complaint was the band, obviously proud of their first US top ten album, played A Matter of Life and Death from start to finish. While the music was top notch and well played, the unfamiliarity of the songs left about half the audience wanting.
It wasn’t until into the second hour that the crowd really exploded. The first notes of “Afraid of the Dark” had the entire building singing along. Although the encore was short and Maiden only played about 5 of their old songs the show was still top notch, despite wanting more. Maiden’s finishing song was “Hallowed be thy Name”… How tight is that.
Otter
Check out Ray's pictures from the same show...
Dichotomy was the heart of the show. Old meets New in a mullet rich environment.
Saturday night in Camden NJ Iron Maiden rocked out to a full house. It was their “Matter of Life and Death tour.” The show was a traditional “big” metal show. Lights, lights and more freaking lights. The best “pure” light show I’ve ever seen. The set design was fantastic, sand bags and burnt out buildings. The stage designed to look like a city under siege. Even the floor was painted. Half destroyed structures were everywhere giving Dickenson ample room to jump from platform to platform to get the crowd excited.
… and the crowd was pumped.
So many mullets, but less then you would think for a 30 year old band. Heavy metal parents brought their kids. Next to us sat three high school girls on their own, belting out the lyrics to the classics. The environment was well mixed. I even saw a black lady.
The opening band, while not bad, was a bad stereotype of modern metal. It was if they had a “Be a Metal Band” check off list. Back to back guitar solos. Check. Ask the crowd to clap along. Check. Double bass every song. Check. Growl Lyrics. Double Check. Then there were their song titles. “Blood” “Four words to choke upon” and lets not forget “Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow.”
But no one was there for them.
We went to hear and see the legendary Iron Maiden. The band came out and woke up an otherwise dead audience. So much energy. My one complaint was the band, obviously proud of their first US top ten album, played A Matter of Life and Death from start to finish. While the music was top notch and well played, the unfamiliarity of the songs left about half the audience wanting.
It wasn’t until into the second hour that the crowd really exploded. The first notes of “Afraid of the Dark” had the entire building singing along. Although the encore was short and Maiden only played about 5 of their old songs the show was still top notch, despite wanting more. Maiden’s finishing song was “Hallowed be thy Name”… How tight is that.
Otter
Check out Ray's pictures from the same show...
posted by The Management at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
My friend Ray was there too, but only for taking photos (long story, poor guy). Have a look at his Blog, a few of his photos are there.
http://rayvanhornjr.blogspot.com/
Post is titled: Stories from the Road:Iron Maiden.
Thought you might like to see the photos.
AWESOME! I remember seeing Maiden and Queensryche at some show out at the Verizion Amphitheater out here about 2001 or so. It was SO MUCH FUN.
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