Retroview- Queensryche/ Kiss @ Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI on December 8, 1984

Retroview- Queensryche/ Kiss @ Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI on December 8, 1984

This is something that I have toyed with doing for a while now. Retro reviews of shows that I went to in the past...and what better place to start than the very beginning? My first concert, age 11. No, I have no idea why my Mom thought that letting me go to a concert with my older brother and his burnout friends was a good idea. Notice how the ticket says Cobo Theatre rather than Arena? That is because they used to do what were called “half set-ups” for bands that couldn't fill out 12,000 seats. By the time the show came around our seats, which were supposed to be the first section in lower bowl, were actually three sections back from the stage. That was because Cobo didn't allow the half set up to sell out, they just kept adding more seats as they sold, from the middle to the front. The place was pretty close to being sold out as a full size arena. Cobo Arena is gone, knocked down within the past few years in order to expand convention center space at Cobo Hall.

Little did I know at the time, but this show was taped for a MTV special and was later released as the Animalize Live Uncensored home video, which I have on VHS somewhere. It is pretty cool that my very first concert was documented so well for posterity. What was amazing to me as an 11 year old was Kiss hamming it up big time for the camera when I watched it years later as an adult.

Back in 1984 the smell of cigarette smoke, pot, and beer was like incense for the concertgoing set, a matter of fact of the experience. Going to concerts in today's politically correct world makes it feels like something is missing...namely the contact buzz that was free with every ticket purchase. This ticket cost a whopping $12.00, or $27.42 in today's dollars. Makes those arena concert ticket prices of today seem a bit inflated, eh?

I did buy a shirt at the show, which I think cost $14 at that time but can't remember for sure. This was a weird one, a sort of elbow length football sleeve cut. I haven't seen another one of these at the concerts that I went to over the years. Most of them were the ones with the same design but short white sleeves. I still own the shirt to this day. 

The opening band was some nobody named Queensryche. They of course went on to become a fairly popular band toward the end of the decade, but this was their first major tour. Then Kiss came on and blew my 11 year old mind. I don't remember much about the show other than that I loved it. The live Rock and Roll experience was my first step into a much larger world. I could not believe how loud it was. I had never heard music that loud in my entire life. I remember the lighting truss coming down to the stage and the band (minus Eric Carr) going up to the top of the building playing Black Diamond.

Setlist:

Detroit Rock City

Cold Gin

Creatures Of The Night

Fits Like A Glove

Heaven's On Fire

Thrills In The Night

Guitar solo

Under The Gun

War Machine

Drum solo

Young And Wasted

Bass solo

I Love It Loud

I Still Love You

Love Gun

Lick It Up

Black Diamond

encore

Rock And Roll All Nite

The beginning...

Review- The Black Crowes w/The Blind Boys of Alabama @ Terminal 5 in New York City, NY, on October 26, 2013

The Black Crowes w/The Blind Boys of Alabama @ Terminal 5 in New York City, NY, on October 26, 2013.

My wife and I celebrated 10 years of marriage with a weekend trip to New York, with the main event being The Black Crowes. Terminal 5 is a nondescript building without so much as a marquee on it. Indeed, if not for seeing the line going in, one wouldn't even know it was a concert hall. New York's infamous Hell's Kitchen didn't scare me one bit...at least the watered down 21^st century version that I saw. By Detroit standards it was Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

The venue is a narrow, cavernous beast with three levels. We were really close, being 9-10 rows from the stage if there were seats. The sound was incredible from where we were. I normally like to poke around venues and see how it sounds in different spots, but we got there before the openers and didn't want to lose our spot. Various Yelp users seem to hate the place, citing sound quality as the #1 complaint. It was great from where we were...in the front. This place holds 3,000 people, and I did walk around all three floors when we arrived. Looks like the third floor would blow if you were stuck up there.

This was my third Crowes show this year, and like the one we caught in August, they opened with Under A Mountain. I've got to say that the fellas were on fire right out of the gate. Chris was wearing a Neil Young and Crazy Horse ¾ sleeve baseball jersey with a black body and white sleeves. Awesome. Gone was a great one to hear live, as I've never heard them play it before. Exit...shit, what can you say other than wow? I mean, seriously, if you want to dig deep, then this is holy grail shit. I have this one on the bootleg from the Tall sessions, but I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that they would dust this off live. Never. It's a really hard funk type of song that I can't figure out why they've never used on an album before. 

No Use Lying was The Crowes at their darkest live. The eerie guitar effect on the intro, the red lights...Chris looked and sounded positively evil, like some evil wizard. He sounded incredible tonight, easily his best vocal performance out of however many Crowes/solo shows I've been to. His voice was clean and he was singing high with no cracks or clipping notes. Everyone was singing good tonight, and the band was mighty fierce. My favorite Crowes gig has always been the February 1999 show at the State Theatre in Detroit, and this was really close to matching it. 

Black Moon Creeping was up next. Virtue And Vice is always great to hear live. By Your Side is an underrated album that seems to be overlooked live, so I was happy to hear it. Again, Chris Robinson's vocals were great. He was really working the stage tonight. He always does, but he was like a caged panther or something, really into it. The whole band seemed really, really into it. They seemed to have tapped into something really cool this year and it bums me out that they are going back on hiatus after this tour wraps in December. I would love to hear a new album with their spirits this high.

They did Sister Luck at the August Detroit area show, and this was only the second time that I have heard them do this one live. Everything about tonight had a point, like the band was really going for the throat. Even the jammy intro to Thorn In My Pride had a sense of urgency to it. Whatever it was that they were into tonight, bottle that shit up. It worked. 

Nonfiction is always done in different arrangements live, and I've seen it go from cool to maddeningly dull. Tonight's version was cool. Isn't It About Time was tonight's Rich Robinson lead vocal spot cover tune. Then we got Soul Singing. The crowd loves it. My wife loves it. Obviously the band loves it, because I can't get away from it live. It is the only song in their entire catalog that I would classify as getting on my nerves. I can't put my finger on why, but I just can't dig on this song. It has become a running gag between my wife and I whenever they launch into it. 

Sting Me, Twice As Hard, and the Hard To Handle/Hush/Hard To Handle medley gave the crowd the one-two-three punch that the band has been doing for this tour. The songs change every night, but they tend to do a few songs in a row, usually singles, to bring it home for the more casual fans in the crowd. I can dig it.

The encore was monumental. I love every album that the band has done, and dig hearing stuff live from all of them. I knew something was up when Chris slung a guitar around his neck. He was a surprisingly good lead player on Wee Who See The Deep. While that song was great, the next song is what really blew my mind. The Led Zeppelin B-side Hey, Hey What Can I Do capped off a great night. My wife was bummed that we didn't get Remedy, but I can live with that tradeoff. Seriously, go back and peek at that setlist and tell me you wouldn't have been happy with this show.

Like the other two shows that I caught on this tour, they played a tight 2 hour set that left the crowd begging for more. I've seen The Crowes do three plus hour shows that have left the audience begging for mercy. Better to leave everyone wanting more. I'm bummed that this is it for who knows how long. Two years? Ten years? Hopefully sooner than later. 

On the walk back to our hotel room we saw the work crew put up the Christmas decorations at Radio City Music Hall. We walked by it on the way to the show and none of that stuff was up yet. Crazy. My Mom always wanted to see this city, especially Radio City Music Hall. It kind of bummed me out but we had a great trip overall. 

Review- Wolfman Band/ The Go/ Redd Kross @ PJ's Lager House on Friday, April 12, 2013 in Detroit, MI

Wolfman Band/ The Go/ Redd Kross @ PJ's Lager House on Friday, April 12, 2013 in Detroit, MI

PJ's Lager House is a fascinating place. The building itself is over 100 years old and it has that awesome ceiling work from the 1930s found in many buildings in Detroit. Tonight was sold out, and the body heat makes things heat up pretty quick in there. Those with a fear of rubbing elbows with strangers would do well to stay away. Those of us who like stiff drinks and Rock and Roll quickly feel right at home. 

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I adore werewolves. Sure, I likes my vampires, but only the old school ones, not those Twilight ones. Werewolves are untainted by poseurs and soccer moms. One of my dreams is to see the '70s Horror comic book Werewolf By Night made into a movie. Until then, I have the Wolfman Band. Not one werewolf, but an entire band of werewolves. This made perfect sense to me for some reason. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy watching werewolves play instruments and sing songs? I recognized snippets of songs played, such as Is It My Body? by Alice Cooper. If the band had offered shirts with werewolves on them for sale they probably would have gotten a drunken T-shirt purchase out of me by the time they were done. 

It's been years since The Go played a show for the general populace of Detroit. While many in the building were here to see headliners Redd Kross, my wife and I came for The Go. My kids are early risers and so I have become accustomed to going to bed early. Luckily I was off today and managed to get a good nap in so I could go the long haul. They came on around 11 and played for roughly 30 minutes, with everything played tonight coming off of the new album Fiesta. The songs were all played at 78 speed with little or no breaks between them. Voices Rant On seamlessly shifted gears into Beyond the Beyond, ditto Live Inside A Hole and So Let's Pinch. It Always Happens To You was a lot of fun live. I'm A Dot In Place seemed to lose it's snarl when sped up but was still very cool. I love the lyric Girl I'll never live without it, try it now you'll dream about it. 

The Go is once again a five piece, and I noticed that they also had a new drummer. I'm thinking that the new guitarist and bass player were from Magic Jake and the Power Crystals but I am not certain.

For Me Alone and Can't Rely On It were both great at 78 speed. The latter lost some of it's bubblegum sound at that tempo but still worked. Tease My Ears is one of my favorites off of the new album. Ya Gimme That Feelin' was my favorite of the night, hitting that magical hypnotic space in the brain that makes you involuntarily move to it. I've even watched my 3 year old daughter do it. In The Go's home dimension on Parallel Earth, the band appeared on an episode of the '60s Batman TV series. They use the song's hypnotic groove to entrance people, making them dance uncontrollably and commit crimes while they are helpless. They played pied piper villains that crash some society ball, with all of the fat cats dropping their watches and jewelry into sacks as the band plays the song while wearing bandit eye masks and black and white striped shirts. Hilarity ensues as Batman and Robin crash the scene and are forced to do the Batusi while The Go steal the Batmobile. 

During Dirty Room I noticed that the horn parts were played as twin harmonies on guitar. They sounded like the original Alice Cooper band's harmonies when played that way. After Last To Know Bobby Harlow shouted “Fiesta!” (as heard on the opening of the LP) and that was it. I wanted more more more but them's the breaks. It's better to be left begging for more than screaming for mercy at a show's length.

I hung out for a while, catching the first few songs by Redd Kross. They were fast and punchy and the kids seemed to love them. By kids I mean folks my age and older. There were many an old school Punk in the room, crawling out of the woodwork and out from under rocks to catch the band's first Detroit gig since 1997. One guy was even carrying around his personalized license plate that read RDKRSS or something similar.

My wife was tired because she worked, and so we ended up leaving during them. The room was so packed that we couldn't see it very well anyways. I did feel bad leaving during them, because I know how many folks were unable to get tickets to this show. It sold out pretty quick.

Review- Soundgarden @ The Fillmore Detroit on January 27, 2013 in Detroit, MI

 Soundgarden @ The Fillmore Detroit on January 27, 2013 in Detroit, MI

The snowstorm caused our drive to the venue to take twice as long, but when they announced that they were coming to our godforsaken city in the month of January I expected as much. I went with my friend who saw them with me the last time Soundgarden rolled through town. I love ye olde State Theatre. I love the ornate wall carvings and it has great acoustics. Live Nation bought the venue in 2007 and renamed it The Fillmore Detroit. Whatever, it will always be the State to me. Or Clubland, which is what it was called the first time I saw a concert there.

We arrived around 8, and the line for the sold out show had dissipated. We walked in, got a drink and the band came on around 8:15 with no opening act. Spoonman was the song that they kicked off with the last time that they rolled through town. The band sounds great and looked little worse for the wear all these years later.

Jesus Christ Pose was the final song that they played at that 1996 show. Chris Cornell's voice still sounds great and he can still hit the high notes. Gun sounded great, ditto Let Me Drown. 

By Crooked Steps is my favorite song off of the new album after dozens of spins, and it sounds incredible live. The stage set consisted of a rear viewscreen which had different video displays throughout the show. I guess the days of bands having a tarp for a backdrop are long gone.

Before Rhinosaur Chris Cornell told a story about the last time they were here and how he stepped out onto the crowd and they held him over their heads as he walked out, holding him solid. He said he thought that would be “his new thing” and tried it the next night in a city he wouldn't name and they couldn't hold him up. He praised Detroit for our iron strength. Rhinosaur is a jam live. 

Hands All Over is another oldie that I never got to see them do live. For whatever reason I always missed these guys live and only caught them the one time in 1996, and they didn't do anything earlier than Badmotorfinger on that tour. You know a band's new album measures up when they go from an old fan favorite to a brand new song like Taree and the crowd is equally enthusiastic afterward. Matt Cameron pounded the Hell out of his skins throughout the night and seemed to be having a blast during My Wave. He is a part of two of the most successful Rock bands of the '90s, having joined Pearl Jam after Soundgarden broke up. 

The Day I Tried To Live sounded good, and I was paying close attention to Cornell's vocals and pleased to hear him hit the highs. It is forgivable when musicians get older for them to not live up to their past, but Soundgarden was ever bit as vital tonight as they were in their prime. Been Away Too Long was the third new song of the night. I wouldn't have minded if they did the whole new album live. Instead we got Hunted Down off of the Screaming Life EP. I found the mix between old deep cuts, new songs, and singles to be perfect. 

The thing that first drew me to this band on Badmotorfinger was how they sounded like a freight train that could go off of the rails at any moment. Drawing Flies is one of those songs, and it was sped up a notch, adding to that effect. The fourth new song of the night was Non-State Actor. During Blow Up The Outside World my friend made a crack how the last time we saw them there was a sea of lighters in the crowd. Now we have a sea of cellphone lights. This got me thinking about a lot of things that have happened between then and now. I was 23 the last time I saw the band. I'm now 39. The biggest problem that this country faced the last time the band rolled through town was a President who smoked pot and got blowjobs. Now...heh. Fell On Black Days indeed. 

Ugly Truth was another oldie. The band played a song tonight that they stated they had never performed live before, and that we were going to get to see them butcher it. Tighter & Tighter was a treat. These guys change their setlist up every night, which makes watching their setlists online a lot of fun. Zero Chance is another great song off of that same album. Born without a friend and bound to die to alone. 1996 was a point in time where I felt that way. Flower was another obscure one from Ultramega OK. 

I chuckled during Outshined. Not because of the performance, but because of the crowd. Gen X-ers were a fairly pretentious lot, eschewing live concert traditions back in the day. The backwards baseball hat, flannel and shorts wearing crowd would have never sang along to the chorus like they did last night. The crowd was mostly us oldsters, still cynical after all of these years. 

 Bones of Birds- The backdrop screen had images of snow and wrecked building, and it could have very well been shot in Detroit.

The band did a lot of songs off of Down On The Upside tonight, such as Burden In My Hand and Pretty Noose. Five total by my count. Mailman is a personal favorite of mine. Rowing sounded a bit different live and rounded out the set proper. 

At some point during these songs some idiot climbed up onto the ledge where there are suits of knight armor on each side of the stage. These are old, ornamental touches that go back to the mid 1920s when the venue was built. This asshat almost fell and broke the axe off of the knight. Cornell got a hold of it and proceeded to use it as a stage prop. I laughed and thought of that ridiculous Robert Plant segment in The Song Remains The Same where he's riding a horse with a sword. 

The encore was the unstoppable Rusty Cage and Incessant Mace off of Ultramega OK. 28 songs, two and a half hours. I initially thought that the $75 main floor ticket price (including service rape fee) was a bit steep, but after the quality and length of the performance felt it was worth every penny. I hope that Soundgarden comes back to Detroit before 2029.

After the show the snow had turned into rain, resulting in a slushy mess. Sesame Street Live was at the Fox Theatre, which is right next to the State, just one block over on Woodward. In a moment of idiocy, I thought that it would be tits to have my picture taken with Big Bird. 

Review- The Smashing Pumpkins @ The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, MI on October 23, 2012

The Smashing Pumpkins w/Morning Parade @ The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, MI on October 23, 2012 (Detroit 10/23/12)

It's been just over a year since The Smashing Pumpkins v2.1 last played Detroit. The Palace is a basketball arena located 20 plus miles outside of the city proper in Auburn Hills. I love the building but hate the location and the $15 that they charge you to park there. I pulled into the parking lot around 7ish, and was able to score a sweet parking spot. I was disappointed at the turnout, with my best guesstimate being around 5,000 people in attendance. The upper bowl was curtained off and roughly half of the concession stands were shuttered. 

I snatched a pic of my ticket before they forced an upgrade on me

I was surprised to have my $75 lower bowl seat upgraded not once, but twice, ultimately winding up in the second row of lower bowl in the first section next to the stage. I was on Nicole's side, so stage right I'm guessing. I had the honor of ending up next to a middle aged drunken Gen X asshole who was there with his younger brother. He insisted in trying to bait Billy throughout the show, yelling BIIIIIIiiiiIIIIIIlllLLLLLLLyyyYYYYyyyyYYYYyyy over and over. And over. And over. The glares of everyone in the audience around him was lost upon him. I could hear him talk over the music on occasion, and he was telling his brother how he was trying to “recreate The Breslin Center show by having Billy throw a beer at him again”. Breslin Center? Was this guy trying to recreate his 1994 experience at being an asshole or something? He kept yelling for “BIIIIiiiiIILLLLLlllYYYyyyyYYY PLAY YOUR CLASSICS”. 

He criticized the crowd for “not being into it” or moshing enough during Bullet With Butterfly Wings. I wanted to spit on him for the longest time, but after a while I started feeling sorry for him. What a loser. The defining moment of his youth was purportedly pissing Billy Corgan off in 1994, and here he was 18 years later and still hasn't gotten the point. I can only imagine him being bitter, not really into music per se' but somehow found out about this show. This guy was every bit the cliché' that the Boston fans that I mocked in 1994 were. Stuck entirely in their youth, trying desperately to recapture it in drunken stupors, and blaming everyone else for their problems. Sad.

It was at this point that I realized what an impossible, uphill battle the band faces. I was always about the next album, the next B-side, the next show, looking ahead for the band. The rest of the old school fans seem to have become the classic Rock cliches that they mocked in the '90s. There's got to be irony in there somewhere, but I have been over irony for some time. Maybe irony jumped the shark or whatever the kids call it now. 

Roughly 20 minutes before the Pumpkins came on.

It filled in more when they came on, but come on, Detroit.

The lights went down and the globe/orb thing was revealed. The crowd was quiet, and I had a feeling of uneasiness. Oh geez, first attendance was sparse, now the crowd would be unreceptive. Billy played some odd sounding thing on the keyboard and then it was off to the races. Quasar and Panopticon saw the band in full Rock mode, while The Celestials and Violet Rays were slower and moodier. I kept looking around trying to gauge the audience's response to the new stuff. It seemed pretty uniform, regardless of which song off of Oceania was played. 

The globe was a giant projection screen, with the images dancing around the entire sphere. It was trippy, and the recurring themes were flowers and flying turtles, constellations and the moon. Trippy stuff. I loved it all. My Love Is Winter was next.

There were three keyboards at the front of the stage, and Billy, bassist/vocalist Nicole Fiorentino and guitarist Jeff Schroeder all took turns playing various parts. One Diamond, One Heart and Pinwheels are two songs which showed why this was necessary. 

Oceania and Pale Horse are the highlights of the new album for me, but The Chimera was the star of the new album live. It really shines in a live setting, and I hope that it sticks around in the set in the future. Glissandra and Inkless were also great live. Wildflower was awesome live. The band was jamming a bit, and things started getting darker sounding. Their cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity was incredible. X.Y.U. …wow, I haven't seen them do that one live since 1997. Disarm was done in “band” mode, similar to the live arrangement on the Rock Invasion Tour ('93-94). 

 

Tonite Reprise was the rarity of the night. It was originally included on the triple-vinyl Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and then the Tonight, Tonight single. It led straight into a great rendition of Tonight, Tonight, a favorite of mine. The setlist leaned heavily on Mellon Collie, perhaps because that was the frame of mind Billy was in after prepping the 5 disc beast of a box set coming this December. Bullet With Butterfly Wings actually had a mosh pit. 

 

A Song For A Son was a welcome return to the set. Teargarden By Kaleidyscope doesn't get enough love. I wish that Spangled was in the set, too. Zero and Cherub Rock rounded out the set.

The encore was incredible. Jeff played the intro to Black Diamond with the violet lights that Paul Stanley uses. Billy sang the first verse, and I was shocked to see Mike Byrne take the lead vocals a la Peter Criss. He did a fine, fine job, and Billy and Jeff strangled the shit out of their guitars during the solos. If you were kid in Detroit in the '70s then Kiss is in your blood. Ava Adore was done in chugging mode, rocking similar to Here Is No Why. Muzzle was a pleasant surprise for the encore. Thank you, Smashing Pumpkins.

I hope that the disappointing turnout doesn't dissuade them from coming back to Detroit. Maybe the Fox Theatre would be a better choice, although I doubt that stage would fit in there. 

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Review- Iron Maiden w/ Alice Cooper @ DTE Energy Music Theatre, July 18, 2012, Clarkston, MI

It was the fall of 1985 when Live After Death came out. I was 12 years old. I had a meager allowance and a paper route, and was spending all of my money on comic books. Christmas was coming, and so I asked my Mom for the album. She said no. So I did what any resourceful lad would do...I went to my Grandma.

Fast forward to my family's annual X-Mas part the Saturday before the holiday. We are opening presents, and to my Mom's “delight”, I tore open my vinyl copy of Live After Death. When my Mom pressed my Grandma about why she would buy me something that looked like that, she said “I thought that it was like The Monster Mash”. My stoner Uncle Chad, eyes bloodshot and glassed over, was looking at the album, which stated on the back: running time 100 minutes. He said, in his faaaaaar out maaaaaan voice, Woah, that is one long record. Rest in peace, Grandma and Uncle Chad. Oh, and I still have that vinyl copy of Live After Death, right down to the T-shirt order forms. What does any of this have to do with anything? Nothing...and everything. It brings us to this...

Iron Maiden w/ Alice Cooper @ DTE Energy Music Theatre, July 18, 2012, Clarkston, MI

The T-shirts that I didn't buy.

Different merch stands had different designs.

It was strange seeing Alice in the daylight, and also strange seeing him going on first. His showtime was 7:30, and he was the opening act for this tour. Detroit has always been sacred ground for The Coop. He could sell out shows here when he was playing smaller venues across the country. In any case, I was happy to get an opening act of his caliber. 

The Vincent Price introduction was piped through the PA, and the band launched into The Black Widow. Alice now has a triple axe attack, including a female guitarist.

Brutal Planet, while not a favorite of mine, worked well for the Iron Maiden crowd. I'm Eighteen and No More Mr. Nice Guy are standards. They are great songs and need to be in the set, even if the faithful have seen them live time after time. 

Why on Earth would Alice do Hey Stoopid in 2012? Why not do something off of the new album? It makes no sense when you have an album less than a year old out there. An album which he was selling T-shirts for, for crying out loud. Instead, we got Hey Stoopid.

The female guitar player played a solo, and the then full band came out and did Billion Dollar Babies. Alice did the money on a sword schtick as usual. Feed My Frankenstein was up next. At least this one had a prop, a guy in a costume on stilts.

Poison, off of Alice's last commercially successful album, Trash, made sense being in the set. While it is cheesy and schmaltzy, it was a big hit and Rock fans of the late '80s remember it. In a nostalgia tour setting like this, it's a case of “give the fans what they want”...even if it wasn't what I wanted. Ha!

Wicked Young Man was another I don't care for it but it makes sense for the Metal crowd inclusion. The band was in faux Nazi gear for this song, and it just smacked of Marilyn Manson. The album that this song is from, Brutal Planet, was pretty much a response to Marilyn Manson ripping Alice off in the first place, so I guess it makes sense in a roundabout way. 

Then we got the guillotine/ execution medley: the end snippet of Killer and end portion of I Love The Dead. Alice really crammed in a lot of production into a support act slot. 

The props for School's Out were used, which surprised me. What surprised me more is that Alice is still doing the Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 snippet towards the end of the song. That was it. 45 minutes, and no real crowd banter. No “gosh, we love Detroit, blah blah blah” wasting time, just 45 minutes of Rock. 

Sorry about the poor quality of this one, but the energy was there. This was seconds after they took the stage, and Bruce Dickinson was like the Flash.

It was twilight as the intro for Moon Child came over the PA and the band tore into the song. This tour leans heavily on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album and stage set from 1988. I was tired of Maiden by the time that this album was released, so there was no nostalgia for me here. Can I Play With Madness was next, and it is a pleasant song that works well live.

I have waited forever to hear The Prisoner live. The Number of the Beast was the first Maiden album that I bought. 2 Minutes To Midnight is great.

I haven't heard them play Afraid To Shoot Strangers live since 1992. When it came out that year, it was about the Gulf War. Now, it's lyrics can be applied to any number of wars that we have waged in the name of democracy. The more things change...

The Trooper is another classic that the diehards have heard countless times live. Ditto The Number of the Beast. I thought that the beast stage prop was great. This show was jam packed with pyro, bombs, smoke, lights, and props. The turnout for tonight's show was excellent, as the venue was over 90% full. 

I saw them do Phantom of the Opera in 1999. This song doesn't really work well live. I would have rather heard a song off of the new album, honestly. Maiden didn't do anything newer than 1992 tonight. Run To The Hills is not only one of the greatest Iron Maiden songs ever written, but one of the best songs ever written, period. The drum fills on this song just kill me. I never get tired of hearing this one live. 

Wasted Years was my piss break/ get a drink song. Somewhere In Time was such a huge disappointment to me when it came out. It wasn't until No Prayer For The Dying when I started to take the band seriously again. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son was a showstopper, but in a bad way. It is way too long and Prog-Rock-y for a live setting. The crowd just stood there. Maiden has always swayed between the head and the gut, and this is from their more progressive, cerebral era. I prefer the albums where they had more groove and punch. Give me Piece of Mind or Powerslave!

The Clairvoyant was another snoozer for me. Again, I didn't like this album upon it's release in 1988, and I don't like it now. I would have rather heard something off of one of the last few albums or an early deep cut. 

Fear of the Dark has become a live staple over the past 20 years. The song Iron Maiden...what's not to love? It's energetic and punchy. This was the end of the set proper.

The baby in the fetus moved. Awesome. I missed the shot where flames came out of Eddie's head.

The recorded intro Churchill's Speech led into Aces High. I saw them open with this one when Bruce Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999. 

The Evil That Men Do...copy and paste my comments about other songs off of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son here. 

Running Free ended things on a high note. It was nice to see Iron Maiden again. I hadn't seen them live since 2003, and it's always nice to stop in and see “old friends”, and see them still doing well, and looking fit, healthy, and energetic. I'll try not to be such a stranger in the future.

 

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