This week guys and gals I have brought you something special since it's the beginning of the season of ghouls and spooks...I found you a special spook that has been a famous mascot for years know as "Eddie"! This week I took a field trip to the heart of country music in Nashville, Tennessee at the Bridgestone Arena to watch the best metal I've ever seen in my life (and trust me I seen quite a few) the Iron Maiden show!
Now I'm sure you're asking yourself what about Megadeth since their name is up on that marquee too! Honestly I missed the entire Megadeth show which was the only opener that went on before Maiden and they hit the stage super early... and were completely done by 8:00 pm. I could kick myself for not getting to see them! Please don't make my mistake if you already have tickets for the tour get there early! I've seen Megadeth twice in the past and they are amazing so I repeat GET THERE EARLY!
Now back to the headliner Iron Maiden!
This band has been around as long as I've been alive! I can remember listening to the them when I was an angsty teenager and my "cares" would all seem to fade away back then...(haha what cares did we really have back then...no bills, no taxes, no psycho dates!) This tour the band didn't reinvent the wheel trying to create a new sound to keep up with the times, but instead they decided to do what they do great and present you with their best hits and perform the shit out of them! They played a lot of songs off of the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album and my cares of today were also melted away at the show!
The stage show was equally as amazing as the musical show at this event! My pictures are kind of shotty due to the lighting and my quality of camera. Regardless of my photos there wasn't a bad seat in the house! When there was an explosion on stage or fire you felt it all the way up to the nose bleeds! The sound even though it was an arena venue was incredible all the way down to the most intricate tap on the guitar!
The Eddie's (yes that's plural) at the show got snuck throughout in all forms sometimes on the backdrop some in animatronic form. My personal favorite to watch was Bruce Dickinson (as I've always wanted to secretly front a metal band) throughout the show! This cat was the most agile front man I've ever seen on an arena sized stage! I could hardly catch him on film because he moved so fast from the top on the stage to the front monitors in the matter of seconds...at one time he was standing on the front monitors with his arms out to his side and pretended to fall forward straight bodied and stepped out of it and never missed a beat!
As you can barely seen in the above image Bruce is standing at the top of the built up portion of the stage above drummer Nicko McBrain. On the backdrop you may also get a little glimpse of Eddie.
This show the band really reached out and connected to their audience and played all of their crowd favorites such as "The Trooper" (my personal favorite), "Run to the Hills", and "2 Minutes to Midnight" along with other surprises! The music sounded as crisp as the recordings and there was no mistaking what song you were listening to throughout the show! Another thing that wow'd me was the total change of backdrop between every song a new mural was presented to reset the stage to capture the feel of each and every song. There were also so many people there that night and the comradery for the love of metal was something I haven't experienced in a long time!
This show definitely will leave you wanting more and then some as all of the performer were amazing which also included Steve Harris- bass Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers- guitars! Maybe at some point in the future I can snap a glimpse of Ed Force One to document as this band is still unparalleled by any modern rock band and their ingenuity keeps them moving forward!
Long Live Metal!
With all that said I'm leaving you with a Monster Tune of the week to set you back on the right track for your work week!
"The Trooper"
I strongly urge you to not miss this tour as you can see I'm still on cloud 9!
til next time dearies...sweet dreams- Kat
