Flight 666 on VH1 Classic TONIGHT!!!!!!!!

Will

"You're done, once you're a surfer you're done. You're in. It's like the mob or something. You're not getting out." - Kelly Slater

The Luau Cinders

So awesome!!! That was such a well done doc. VH1 Classic showed a lot of the performance portions of it last night, titled "Somewhere Back in Time." I just can't get over the amount of energy/motivation that Bruce Dickinson has. That guy is just unreal. The DVD comes out on Tuesday. Get it!!

Up the Irons!!

Ryan
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moondevil
I can't remember who opened those shows, Motorhead and VoiVod?

Let's see ... Maiden touring for Powerslave, Voivod supporting War and Pain and the then-brand-new four-piece Motorhead would have just released the "Killed By Death" single and the No Remorse best-of. Too good to be true, unfortunately - apparently the openers for the World Slavery Tour were W.A.S.P., Accept, Motley Crue, Queensryche, Warrior, Ratt & Mamas Boys.

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

moondevil
Geez, maybe we blew off the openers!?

With that list I certainly don't blame you if that was the case.

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

A little over a year ago I took my nephew and friends to see Lamb Of God at Long Beach Arena, the singer of one of the opening bands DevilDriver noted that "one of the greatest live albums ever was recorded here". He also said "I would never ask yo u to scream for me".
I wasn't sure if that was a jab or not.
(OT sort of) Incidentally I bore witness to another live album. My first real concert ever was KISS at The Forum when they recorded Alive II.
Cheap Trick opened. Great show, Gene's hair caught fire.

Dean(aka Moondevil)
deanmatherly.com

moondevil
W.A.S.P. sounds about right, I'm pretty sure Crue, Ratt and Mama's Boys weren't on the bill either.
Damn....all I remember is the Maiden show and partying on my friend's dad's boat at the Marina.
Geez, maybe we blew off the openers!?

WASP! I was in Wasp for two weeks pre Blackie. They fired me for a cat with long hair and two bass drums. The two rehearsals I did was fun!

Jeff Utterback

BoardwalkerJeff
WASP! I was in Wasp for two weeks pre Blackie. They fired me for a cat with long hair and two bass drums. The two rehearsals I did was fun!

I was into them for a couple weeks too, and I sure as hell don't mean I was in their band either. Wow. I thought Jackie Balless formed the band or something, didn't know that.

Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio

A new video for the title track of the upcoming Maiden album "The Final Frontier".

Ivan
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(Maybe a few of you might be interested....)

I had the thrill of seeing Iron Maiden last night - my fourth time since '03. Every show I've seen so far has been great, and last night's certainly did not disappoint in any way, in fact, it possibly was the best of them all in some ways!

First of all, it was held at DTE Energy Music Theater in Detroit, which is one of those standard pavillion/amphitheater places. As far as I could tell, the place was full. It was packed, including the lawn. I checked today and it holds over 15,000 people, so I think it's a fair estimate that's how many people were there. Amazing! I saw them at that same place in '03 (with Dio and Motorhead opening!!!), and there were probably half as many people - well, maybe not quite, but a lot less for sure. Bruce talked about that in the middle of the set, actually. He said this is the most people they've EVER played to in Detroit. And he also mentioned that this North American tour, which has been going on for about a month now, has been their biggest NA tour ever! (Don't know if he meant in terms of attendance or money.) He also said that it's quite interesting that Maiden is doing better than ever given that there are MANY tours out there now that are dying (I've seen several articles talking about how tour revenues are way down from last year)!

The audience response was phenomenal, which was really interesting given that for the first hour and 20 minutes of their set they played only post-2000 songs (so, only the stuff from their last three albums) - with one exception (Wrathchild). Personally, being a big fan of their last three albums, I LOVED it! It was very emotional hearing many of those songs, and in fact if they did not do ANY pre-2000 songs for the entire set, I would have been totally fine with it. But towards the end they did wrap it up with the old standards: Fear of the Dark, Iron Maiden, and then an encore of Number of the Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Running Free.

One of the emotional highpoints was when Bruce talked about Ronnie Dio in a truly heartfelt manner, what a huge influence he was on him and what an amazing guy he was, etc. He dedicated the song "Blood Brothers" (from 2000's Brave New World album) to Dio - which was completely goose-bumps time for me, since i really really love that song!

One of the fun highlights is that Nicko screwed up and started a wrong song at one point. He was supposed to play "These Colours Don't Run" but did not. Anyway, in the middle of the song, it sounded like he went too early into another part, but then at the end, it turned out that something broke in his drumkit. So, he came down and sat on the stage while his tech fixed it, giving Bruce a chance to chat us up in his usual style, mixing charm and bravado!

What I truly loved about this show is that the band demanded relevance - and it got it! I really hate the tendency of people to just want to hear the old stuff and to want to box in artists (in a broad sense) to their past accomplishments. This is something that Maiden has been fighting for the past 10 years, ever since Bruce and Adrian returned to the fold. They refused to be a nostalgia act, despite everyone telling them "Americans only want to hear the '80s stuff". Their response was "f@#$ that", to the extent that they played their last album (2006's A Matter of Life or Death) in its entirety on the whole tour! Supposedly a suicidal move - and yet the next time they came around, the audiences got bigger, and then this time around they're even bigger. Yes, their '08 tour (Somewhere Back in Time) was a retrospective tour, giving the fans what they wanted, but it almost felt like they were somewhat ashamed of giving in, so this tour was them unequivocally stating: we are NOT a nostalgia act, we're a creative and ongoing concern that will not compromise, and our new music, though different, is every bit as good as the old stuff! And God bless 'em for it - I think they're completely right. It really takes guts to do something like that, and judging by yesterday's show, they emerged victorious in every possible way! What it also shows is that sometimes you really have to believe in your new material and push it hard, forcing the audiences to admit that, yep, the new stuff IS good - many are reluctant to do that. They want bands to remain frozen in time and not allow them to change, locked into their own nostalgia and inability to change. Maiden shows us how to deal with that problem with grace and confidence.

They have two more shows in the States (Chicago and DC) before the tour goes to Europe. Their new album, "Final Frontier" comes out in a month. The new song (downloadable free on their website) "Eldorado" sounded truly amazing last night, too. I can't wait for this album!

Up the irons!!!!

Ivan
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Hell, yeah, Bob! There's an incredible version of Blood Brothers on the Rock in Rio DVD, which is still my favorite all-time Maiden concert video, even better than Live After Death, I think. (It helps that there are 200,000 Brazilians going totally insane and that the stage is larger than most skyscrapers!!! Truly astounding.)

This was roughly the setlist, though I'm not 100% of the order of the songs in the middle:

The Wicker Man
Ghost of the Navigator
Wrathchild
Dance of Death
The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg
El Dorado
These Colours Don't Run
Wildest Dreams
Blood Brothers
Brave New World
No More Lies
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden

Encore:
Number of the Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Running Free

Ivan
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