IRON MAIDEN- Live: Vancouver (Sept 3rd 2019)

 

Last November or so Iron Maiden announced a 2019 North American leg of there Legacy of the Beast tour after it had sold out all across Europe in the summer of 2018.

My very good pal Metal Todd invited me out as he scored tickets! I was psyched, to say the least, to see Maiden for a third consecutive tour after Maiden England(2012), Book of Souls Tour(2017) which were phenomenal shows to have seen. ( Two of the best concerts I have ever seen in my almost 40 years of attending Live Arena Shows)

Septemeber 3rd was the day of the show which is ironically the 35th Anniversary of the release of Maidens fantastic Powerslave record which as you all know is an Impact Album in my world.

As we were walking towards Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver (Metal Todd’s two good friends Emerson and Graham came along as well) I asked Todd where our seats were. Todd told me he got 4 General Admission Tickets which is the floor area!

WHUT?

Todd told me that he joined Maidens Fan Club to get an early shot at tickets but as he said the ‘Bots’ snapped up the seats quickly and getting 4-floor tickets was the quickest and easiest way to score. I’m glad this was the case actually as we could control how close or far away we wanted to be from the stage!

SHOWTIME!

Maiden on the video screens had an animated Legacy video of mascot Eddie going through all the various incarnations of the certain periods of the band’s history while Transylvania from Maidens debut played underneath.

Then it was onto UFO’s Doctor Doctor which only means one thing! T-Minus 5 minutes to the show. As Doctor Doctor was pumped through the bins. On the left and right side of the stage were two Military Men dressed in camo and once Doctor Doctor got towards the end they took off the huge canvas that was covering the stage which revealed a wartime set!

With the intro tape of Churchills Speech being cranked through the Arena came the intro of Ace’s High and then Bam…

Maiden hit the stage flying literally with an actual Spitfire hanging above their heads. What a screamer of an opener. ( check out the video posted below as to see how you open a show!)

1. “Aces High”
2. “Where Eagles Dare”
3. “2 Minutes To Midnight”
4. “The Clansman”
5. “The Trooper”
6. “Revelations”
7. “For The Greater Good Of God”
8. “The Wicker Man”
9. “Sign Of The Cross”
10. ‘Flight Of Icarus”
11. “Fear Of The Dark”
12. “The Number Of The Beast”
13. “Iron Maiden”

Encore:

1. “The Evil That Men Do”
2. “Hallowed Be They Name”
3. “Run To The Hills”

Actually, Maiden didn’t fool around as they kept the momentum coming fast and furious with Where Eagles Dare and 2 Minutes to Midnight! Hit us hard and Maiden delivered.

4 Tracks from Piece of Mind were played and if your keeping score at home all of Side 1 from 1985s double Live After Death was heard as well!

Bruce Dickinson, I mean what can you say about this guy and his voice. Still giving it his all onstage going all over the place no stage space is untouched by Bruce along with his various wardrobe changes/brandishing a sword during The Clansman and The Trooper or donning a cape during Sign of the Cross. No one works crowd participation harder than Bruce. All night making the crowd roar along with his trademark ‘Scream For Me Vancouver’ and ‘Scream For Me Canada.’ The man is simply brilliant!

The energy coming from the stage was crazy. None of the Maiden guys stand around. Steve Harris galloping those Bass lines running miles (like Bruce) onstage mowing down the front row as if his Bass was a shotgun is insane.  Nicko McBrain as well. What a beast on the drums close your eyes and when you hear him drumming you would think it’s 1983-84 he’s still that good!

Now the 3 Amigos on Guitars. How many classic solos have Guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith put down on tape together since 1981? Yeah too many to count. I will add that the solo Adrian plays in Number of the Beast gives me chills every time I hear it. Talk about an Impact Solo if anything. Dave as well man. I can’t count that high. The Trooper and Where Eagles Dare come to my mind quick. Janick Gers puts on an athletic rock workout with his six-string. Whether it be his leg kicks/flinging the guitar around all over the place/wrestling with his guitar cord  Janick, as well as tosses in some brilliant solo’s as well(Fear of the Dark/The Clansman ) You don’t get bored watching and how could you! 3 of the best at there game.

As a fan ( 38 years and counting) I really enjoyed this setlist!

I totally dug it all but to hear for the first time live in person Where Eagles Dare/The Clansman/Revelations/For The Greater Good of God/The Wicker Man/Sign of the Cross/Flight of Icarus and Hallowed Be Thy Name was a mind blower!

Speaking of The Clansman and Sign of the Cross. These were two tunes that were from the Blaze Bayley years and Bruce delivers them vocally like he was on the original versions. It’s amazing and awesome to see that he has no ego in doing songs that he was not originally part of.

Sign of the Cross I have to add has Maiden taking you on a sonic journey of twist and turns and the stage production is crazy with pyro and all the trimmings that keep the flow considering its an 11-minute track!

The place was packed and rocking for Maiden.  We were about 40 feet back from the stage. So close you could feel the fire that went off like crazy during The Number of the Beast. I posted another clip of the Vancouver show. Watch it and you will see what I mean!

I have read a ton of reviews for this tour and they all have been great. One thing that all these paid people that review shows don’t notice is Maiden is having fun. Hell, even Harris and Dickinson had a couple of laughs together as they all seem to enjoy what there doing. That comes across huge. Sure the payday is sweet for them but they deliver on all fronts!

Nothing fazes these guys as some knucklehead from the crowd got up on stage(during Hallowed Be Thy Name) and was quickly taken out by security during one of the songs. Maiden being the pros went on like nothing happened as Harris and Gers just grinned. I mean what have they not seen?!

Maiden know how to do a stage presentation going from one theme to another(war look to a cathedral stained glass look) is simply amazing to see Live. Eddie, of course, showed up during The Trooper and as a huge prop behind Nicko (during Iron Maiden)

As any Maiden fan knows openers The Raven Agefeaturing Steve Harris son George on guitar who is a pretty damn good player and at a young age works the stage like his father(must be the genes).   The Raven Age was more of that current metal stuff. They are very good musicians mind you featuring at times some cool heavy melodic pieces that were quite good but where they lost me at times was some stuff sounded the same( I can do without the gruff satanic backing vocals at times) as the singer didn’t really introduce the songs except for a couple. A lot of “Hey Vancouver’ to stir the crowd up. Maybe they will figure it out or maybe I’m just getting senile!

Special mention must be made to the huge billow of BC Bud throughout the building as well as a ton of empty beer cups/water bottles/crowd surfers being tossed about through the air when on the ground level. Warfare indeed!

Thanks to Metal Todd not only for the invite out to Vancouver but for taking some awesome pictures that he took of the show!

Bruce sang during Number of the Beast that Maiden will return. So will we! Best arena show I have ever seen.

UP THE IRONS!