Last night I saw one of my two favorite bands, Iron Maiden, for the third time. The show was an homage to the classic 1988 "Maiden England" tour, which was to support Maiden's seventh studio album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The album represented the pinnacle of the 1980's Maiden sound. It was epic in scope and production, with heavy layers of synthesizers augmenting the effects-saturated guitars. The album is not really a concept album in the traditional rock-opera sense, but it has a definite motif of an icy Himalayan landscape, and lyrical themes dealing with mystical prophecy and the collision of good and evil forces. The music itself is complex and daunting. When I was first getting into Iron Maiden, I asked some friends of mine who were very familiar with the band, what they thought the best Maiden album was, and they all chose Seventh Son. I have told people that this was the best album as well, but not for a few years. I really love the album, but Maiden have definitely produced better work in their later years. My only real criticism of Seventh Son is the fact that it's just not long enough. The last track, Only the Good Die Young, ends very abruptly, and it always seems to leave me less than satisfied.
The first time I saw Iron Maiden was in 2008 during their "Somewhere Back in Time" tour, which was another homage tour recalling the legendary 1984-85 "World Slavery" tour. You can read about that show here. The next time I saw them was two years ago during their "Final Frontier" tour, which supported the album by the same name (though the album hadn't been released yet). I also reviewed that show, which you can read here. What has been cool and unique about each of these shows is the fact that each show featured either almost exclusively old or exclusively (relatively) new music. I've had the pleasure of seeing my heroes play a wide variety of music spanning their entire catalog now, and, as a fan, that is very fulfilling.
The opening band for last night's show was Coheed and Cambria, a modern metal band with which I had no experience prior to last night. They were definitely the best band I've seen open for Iron Maiden. Their music is interesting and similar to Maiden, and I plan on checking them out a bit further. The highlight of their performance, however, was a cover of the Black Sabbath's classic, Heaven and Hell. It was a real treat to see these talented guys play this classic tune that I love, but it was also a bit tragic. Let me explain. I have had a hard time getting into much modern heavy metal, even though many critics consider it to be a revival of classic metal bands like Maiden and Judas Priest. It does have a lot of the same elements - intricate guitar riffs in a variety of keys (metal in the late nineties and throughout the 2000's seemed to only center on homogenous riffs in the key of D), and melodic, high-register vocals - but it still seemed, to me at least, to be lacking something important. When Coheed and Cambria played Heaven and Hell, it illustrated perfectly what that important missing element was. Black Sabbath, like Maiden and the other classic metal bands, were not afraid to take progressive risks with their arrangements. There is a lot of movement - tempo and mood changes within the songs that give them an epic feel. Modern metal bands, at least from what I've heard, are afraid to take these risks. The songs are concise and generally keep the same feel throughout. That's what keeps me from loving them the way I love Maiden. Coheed and Cambria's decision to throw Heaven and Hell into the set juxtaposed perfectly the quality of classic metal with the more immature modern stuff. Even so, I genuinely enjoyed their set.
For tradition and posterity's sake I'd like to continue now by running through Maiden's set and expounding on the highlights.
The show began with Moonchild, the opening track on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. This is definitely one of my favorites and it was awesome to hear it live again. It's high energy and ethereal synth layers set a great tone for the rest of the show. The stage was decorated in a similar fashion to the 1988 tour and in communion with the motif of the Seventh Son artwork. The amps and risers, and even the stage monitors were all draped with an icy blue/white fabric to give the appearance of a snowy Himalayan scene. The back of the stage featured huge rotating banners which were changed to depict the band's monstrous mascot, Eddie, in a different way for each song.
The next song was the biggest single from Seventh Son, the poppy rock anthem, Can I Play With Madness. This tune begins with a three-part vocal harmony, then erupts into a blistering inferno of galloping guitar. I describe it as poppy because of those three-part vocals, its short, relatively simple arrangement, and major key.
The Prisoner was next. This is a favorite of mine from the 1982 album The Number of the Beast. It is inspired by the 1960's British television series. The Number of the Beast was one of the first Maiden albums I ever owned and holds a very special place in my heart. The Prisoner is a very cool track with an anthemic chorus and a lot of interesting instrumental sections.
Next, from 1984's Powerslave, was 2 Minutes to Midnight. This is a Maiden concert staple that references the doomsday clock created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences. The live performance nowadays features some great guitar work from all three guitarists and is a lot of fun to watch.
At this point, I got to see live one of the first Maiden songs I ever heard, Afraid to Shoot Strangers from 1992's Fear of the Dark. This is a song inspired by the first Gulf War and is a very poignant look at the emotions felt by ordinary people who are sent as soldiers to go fight and kill people they don't know by politicians who never seem to get their own hands dirty. It was a treat to see it live because Maiden has only done it on one or two tours in the past, and it's a guitarists dream.
Another concert staple, The Trooper, was next. This song is inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Following this was the classic, The Number of the Beast. This performance featured 20-foot high pillars of fire, and was quite a spectacle to watch.
The next song was The Phantom of the Opera, which is a very difficult and complex track from Maiden's eponymous first album. This was another song that I haven't seen them play live before, so I was pretty excited about it.
Run to the Hills was next. I've seen them play this live before, and as is often the case with me when it comes to a band's most popular song, I wasn't too excited about it. This time, however, I got caught up in the magic of being in the middle of a crowd of thousands who are all screaming the chorus with the band.
Next was Wasted Years, from 1986's Somewhere in Time. This song did very well for Maiden as a single, and is an anthem in its own right. I have loved this song from the first time I ever heard it, and it features some amazing guitar work by my favorite of Maiden's three guitarists, Adrian Smith.
The highlight of each Maiden show, for me, is always whichever long, complicated, epic track they choose to throw in. In 2008, it was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In 2010, it was Pashendale. This year it was the title track from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. If I said before that Seventh Son was the pinnacle of the 1980's Maiden sound, this song is one of the biggest reasons for that. It has a formidable arrangement and a very brooding tone to it. The last few minutes of the song are a guitarist's tour de' force and the energy just builds to an incredible climax. It was amazing to watch.
The Clairvoyant followed, which is one of the most popular tracks from Seventh Son. After that was the perennial crowd favorite, Fear of the Dark, and after that, the set ended, as it always does, with Iron Maiden.
The encore consisted of Aces High, The Evil That Men Do, and Running Free. I hadn't seen The Evil That Men Do live before last night, so that was special.
One of the cool things about this trip was that I got to go with my friend Kevin, who was fairly unfamiliar with Iron Maiden, but who is always up for an adventure. In order to prepare Kevin a bit for the show, I went over to his house on Sunday and we watched the video of the 1988 tour together. Now, I remember watching this video over and over again back in the late 90's and wishing at that time that I could go and see my heroes play live. Back then, Bruce Dickinson (lead vocals) and Adrian Smith (as I mentioned earlier, my favorite Maiden guitarist), were out of the band, and the prospects of seeing Maiden play in the US were slim to none. I held on to the early live performances and loved them. When I watched the video on Sunday, however, after having seen the modern incarnation of Maiden live twice, I realized just how much better they've gotten with age. They are much tighter musically now, and, unlike most veteran rock frontmen, Bruce Dickinson is ten times the singer now than he was back then. In the 1988 film, he was often flat and seemed winded at times. Last night, as he was both other times I've seen him, he was on pitch all night - nailing more high notes than he ever did in his "hay day" - and he ran across the stage like a tornado.
The fact that Maiden are better now - after 32 years and fifteen studio albums - than they have ever been is truly inspiring. Apart from the music, which I have loved since the mid 90's, I have always respected Iron Maiden for their impeccable integrity. As I mentioned before, during the 90's, it seemed like they reeled a bit from the collapse of heavy metal at the hands of grunge and alternative rock in the U.S., but in reality, they did a very smart thing. Rather than changing their image, or bowing to U.S. record company demands in order to sell records in America, they decided to focus their efforts on countries in which metal was alive and well. To this day, they play to some unbelievably huge crowds (literally hundreds of thousands of fans) in South America and elsewhere. When Dickinson and Smith rejoined the band in 2000, they began to make a string of what I consider to be their best albums of all time. As a musician, I am thoroughly inspired by this integrity. I'm not a famous musician, and I probably never will be, but I make music that I am proud of regardless of my circumstances, which is exactly what Maiden has been doing for 32 years. I hope I get to see them many more times in the years to come.
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