Mon 2 Jun – Iron Maiden, Lauren Harris
Quasi-religious experiences and Iron Maiden shows don't happen every day, but when they do, they're moments you remember every day for the rest of your life.
Getting to the show was an event in and of itself. Everybody, their best friend, and people as far away as Alberta, Canada, came to Seattle for Iron Maiden's stop here on their epic Somewhere Back In Time World Tour. Traffic was so bad that a forty-five minute journey took two hours. As annoying as it was, I placated myself with the knowledge that the wait would be oh so worth it.
The traffic meant that I missed the start of opener Lauren Harris' set. She was by far not the worst opener I've ever seen, and I wouldn't mind checking more of her material out at some point in the future. That said, opening before Iron Maiden is an unenviable task, no matter who you're related to. Her music was catchy, but every time she started a new song, you could hear the collective, if silent and restrained, groan from the rapidly building crowd.
Her set eventually finished, and as she departed, the tension began to build, as did the crowd. As every song playing over the PA ended, the crowd roared and clapped, only to boo as yet another song started.
But then the moment - The Moment, if you will - arrived. The song playing over the PA stopped. The house lights went out. On the giant video screens erected on either side of the stage, a video aired, showing the band (and Ed Force One) flying from city to city on this tour.
Then as that video ended, another one started - this one a grainy black and white video showing pilots in World War II flying uniforms running for their planes. As the crowd roared in approval, the voice intoned:
"... We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender ..."
With that, the curtain covering the stage backdrop fell to reveal the Powerslave pyramids (with Eddie carved for all eternity onto the main structure), and Nicko McBrain's drumkit in the center of the stage. As the opening notes of Aces High played, it was not easy to believe that there stood Nicko, waving his arms and pumping the crowd up, knowing that in a few seconds, the rest of the band would join him.
And with a flash of pyro, they did. Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Dave Murray and Bruce Dickinson stormed the stage with a torrent of energy that did not let up for the rest of the show. Iron Maiden have played hundreds of shows to hundreds of thousands of fans, but they attacked every song they played with such ferocity, such precision and such life, that you would have thought this was their first gig, only with the self-confidence and assuredness of having done this many, many times over.
Setlist (taken from Wikipedia's entry on the tour):
Intro: Churchill's Speech
Aces High
2 Minutes to Midnight
Revelations
The Trooper
Wasted Years
The Number of The Beast
Can I Play with Madness
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Heaven Can Wait
Run to the Hills
Fear of The Dark
Iron Maiden
Moonchild
The Clairvoyant
Hallowed Be Thy Name
No surprises, as you can tell, but plenty of highlights:
Bruce with the Union Jacks and redcoat uniform, and Eddie backdrop, during The Trooper
Awesome stage effects and pryo for The Number of the Beast
Pyro galore for Rime of the Ancient Mariner!
Pyro and pharaoh death mask for Powerslave!
Fans on-stage singing the chant during Heaven Can Wait
Mummified Eddie with sparks shooting out of his eyes for Iron Maiden!
Cyborg Eddie (with laser gun!) for The Clairvoyant!
Bruce saying "Scream for me Seattle!" and the crowd screaming in reply
Bruce screaming "SCREAM FOR ME SEATTLE!" and the crowd screaming even LOUDER in reply
Bruce singing "And I'll make Seattle fucking burn!" during The Number of the Beast
Singing the guitar lines to Fear of the Dark
The final chorus of Hallowed Be Thy Name
I've often said that I was put on this planet to do one thing, and one thing only - sing the chorus of
Run To The Hills at an Iron Maiden concert. And on Monday, June 2nd, 2008, at 25 years of age, in Seattle, Washington, with my Master's degree graduation less than a week away, I did what I came here to do. I sung the chorus of "Run To The Hills" at an Iron Maiden show, with 20,000 other people around me doing the same. Well, to be fair, at that juncture, all I could do was croak - my voice was absolutely gone from screaming and singing the lyrics and guitar lines from all the songs that preceded Run To The Hills, and the effort to scream "RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIFE" when I could barely talk was such that I almost keeled over. But I made it somehow.
As I said, twenty thousand people, and the place was full to the rafters. I was in the lawn section, and everybody in the lawn & everybody in the general seating area was on their feet for the whole duration of the show. Not a single empty space, not a single bored expression, not a single person who wasn't into every second of the performance.
One thing that (pleasantly) surprised me about the people in attendance was the wide range of ages present. Iron Maiden aren't new, by any means, and it showed - you had people who brought young kids (and what looked like grandkids, in a couple of places), you had kids who came on their own, you had people who were probably on the older side of the crowd during the World Slavery Tour of 1988, and every one of them was into the show. It was almost like a family concert, with the family next to me bringing a picnic rug and refreshments to keep them going before the show started. Bruce even remarked that a few of the songs being performed were older than some of the audience members.
Ah, Bruce. I've heard Bruce say many times that his style of performing is based on the theory that as a frontman, it's his responsibility to reach everybody in the audience, from the lunatics in the moshpit to the more demure lot way way way in the back (like moi). And he did it. You didn't need the huge video screens on either side of the stage to see the man throw himself into the performance (sometimes literally). Every wave of his arms, every kick of his feet, was perfectly telegraphed to the 20,000 people in attendance. His banter between songs (including saying that Iron Maiden didn't need a reality television show to promote a tour, a not-so-veiled jab at Eggfest '05, which took place right after they had played in Seattle) was funny and sharp (replete with a compliment to Seattle saying that the crowd here was "cooler" than some places they've played in before).
He even referenced Seattle being the home of grunge music, saying how the music press had heralded grunge as the end of heavy metal. He took issue with two things: firstly, as he put it, "Soundgarden are a fucking heavy metal band" (which, not being a Soundgarden fan, I have no opinion on), and two, whatever the music press may have said, heavy metal is alive and fucking well.
And on June 2nd, 2008, in Seattle, Washington, the band that has come to define what millions of people the world over see in heavy metal, was very much alive.
Quasi-religious experiences and Iron Maiden shows don't happen every day, but when they do, they're moments you remember every day for the rest of your life.
Getting to the show was an event in and of itself. Everybody, their best friend, and people as far away as Alberta, Canada, came to Seattle for Iron Maiden's stop here on their epic Somewhere Back In Time World Tour. Traffic was so bad that a forty-five minute journey took two hours. As annoying as it was, I placated myself with the knowledge that the wait would be oh so worth it.
The traffic meant that I missed the start of opener Lauren Harris' set. She was by far not the worst opener I've ever seen, and I wouldn't mind checking more of her material out at some point in the future. That said, opening before Iron Maiden is an unenviable task, no matter who you're related to. Her music was catchy, but every time she started a new song, you could hear the collective, if silent and restrained, groan from the rapidly building crowd.
Her set eventually finished, and as she departed, the tension began to build, as did the crowd. As every song playing over the PA ended, the crowd roared and clapped, only to boo as yet another song started.
But then the moment - The Moment, if you will - arrived. The song playing over the PA stopped. The house lights went out. On the giant video screens erected on either side of the stage, a video aired, showing the band (and Ed Force One) flying from city to city on this tour.
Then as that video ended, another one started - this one a grainy black and white video showing pilots in World War II flying uniforms running for their planes. As the crowd roared in approval, the voice intoned:
"... We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender ..."
With that, the curtain covering the stage backdrop fell to reveal the Powerslave pyramids (with Eddie carved for all eternity onto the main structure), and Nicko McBrain's drumkit in the center of the stage. As the opening notes of Aces High played, it was not easy to believe that there stood Nicko, waving his arms and pumping the crowd up, knowing that in a few seconds, the rest of the band would join him.
And with a flash of pyro, they did. Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Dave Murray and Bruce Dickinson stormed the stage with a torrent of energy that did not let up for the rest of the show. Iron Maiden have played hundreds of shows to hundreds of thousands of fans, but they attacked every song they played with such ferocity, such precision and such life, that you would have thought this was their first gig, only with the self-confidence and assuredness of having done this many, many times over.
Setlist (taken from Wikipedia's entry on the tour):
Intro: Churchill's Speech
Aces High
2 Minutes to Midnight
Revelations
The Trooper
Wasted Years
The Number of The Beast
Can I Play with Madness
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Heaven Can Wait
Run to the Hills
Fear of The Dark
Iron Maiden
Moonchild
The Clairvoyant
Hallowed Be Thy Name
No surprises, as you can tell, but plenty of highlights:
Bruce with the Union Jacks and redcoat uniform, and Eddie backdrop, during The Trooper
Awesome stage effects and pryo for The Number of the Beast
Pyro galore for Rime of the Ancient Mariner!
Pyro and pharaoh death mask for Powerslave!
Fans on-stage singing the chant during Heaven Can Wait
Mummified Eddie with sparks shooting out of his eyes for Iron Maiden!
Cyborg Eddie (with laser gun!) for The Clairvoyant!
Bruce saying "Scream for me Seattle!" and the crowd screaming in reply
Bruce screaming "SCREAM FOR ME SEATTLE!" and the crowd screaming even LOUDER in reply
Bruce singing "And I'll make Seattle fucking burn!" during The Number of the Beast
Singing the guitar lines to Fear of the Dark
The final chorus of Hallowed Be Thy Name
I've often said that I was put on this planet to do one thing, and one thing only - sing the chorus of
Run To The Hills at an Iron Maiden concert. And on Monday, June 2nd, 2008, at 25 years of age, in Seattle, Washington, with my Master's degree graduation less than a week away, I did what I came here to do. I sung the chorus of "Run To The Hills" at an Iron Maiden show, with 20,000 other people around me doing the same. Well, to be fair, at that juncture, all I could do was croak - my voice was absolutely gone from screaming and singing the lyrics and guitar lines from all the songs that preceded Run To The Hills, and the effort to scream "RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIFE" when I could barely talk was such that I almost keeled over. But I made it somehow. As I said, twenty thousand people, and the place was full to the rafters. I was in the lawn section, and everybody in the lawn & everybody in the general seating area was on their feet for the whole duration of the show. Not a single empty space, not a single bored expression, not a single person who wasn't into every second of the performance.
One thing that (pleasantly) surprised me about the people in attendance was the wide range of ages present. Iron Maiden aren't new, by any means, and it showed - you had people who brought young kids (and what looked like grandkids, in a couple of places), you had kids who came on their own, you had people who were probably on the older side of the crowd during the World Slavery Tour of 1988, and every one of them was into the show. It was almost like a family concert, with the family next to me bringing a picnic rug and refreshments to keep them going before the show started. Bruce even remarked that a few of the songs being performed were older than some of the audience members.
Ah, Bruce. I've heard Bruce say many times that his style of performing is based on the theory that as a frontman, it's his responsibility to reach everybody in the audience, from the lunatics in the moshpit to the more demure lot way way way in the back (like moi). And he did it. You didn't need the huge video screens on either side of the stage to see the man throw himself into the performance (sometimes literally). Every wave of his arms, every kick of his feet, was perfectly telegraphed to the 20,000 people in attendance. His banter between songs (including saying that Iron Maiden didn't need a reality television show to promote a tour, a not-so-veiled jab at Eggfest '05, which took place right after they had played in Seattle) was funny and sharp (replete with a compliment to Seattle saying that the crowd here was "cooler" than some places they've played in before).
He even referenced Seattle being the home of grunge music, saying how the music press had heralded grunge as the end of heavy metal. He took issue with two things: firstly, as he put it, "Soundgarden are a fucking heavy metal band" (which, not being a Soundgarden fan, I have no opinion on), and two, whatever the music press may have said, heavy metal is alive and fucking well.
And on June 2nd, 2008, in Seattle, Washington, the band that has come to define what millions of people the world over see in heavy metal, was very much alive.
