by If a person had never seen Iron Maiden perform live before, or never heard their music, it might be hard to convince them that this band has been around since Christmas Day in 1975. Let me get this out of the way right now. Iron Maiden is still the best metal band on the planet, bar none.
Led by one of the most dynamic frontmen in the business, Bruce Dickinson, looking as spry as ever I might add ,these British Metal Titans rumbled into Tacoma, Washington on Monday April 11 and absolutely blew some minds and rattled the rafters of the Tacoma Dome. For a guy 57 years of age Dickinson sure gets around good.
He of course also doubles as pilot of Ed Force One. the big old jet airliner that is carrying that band all over the world on the Book of Souls Tour. Let’s face it, how many bands have their own jet and a kickass frontman that flies it for them? Yeah, that’s what I thought. None.
After the intermission, with UFO’s classic “Doctor, Doctor” blasting from the speakers the anticipation was high as most people knew what was coming next. And what that was a two hour plus face melting dose of the kind of metal that just isn’t being made anymore, although some of the songs from “Book of Souls” rival some of the classic stuff. Namely the title track from the album. It really is as epic as you can get these days and it’s almost hard to believe it came out only last year.
The show featured plenty of music from that album with enough legacy tunes to please the Grit City crowd. Smoking versions of “The Trooper, Hallowed Be The Name and the first song of the encore, “The Number of the Beast” were definitely crowd favorites. The band was extremely tight with bass badass Steve Harris(who’s son was in the opening band The Raven Age) laying down his signature lower end. Guitarists Dave Murray, Janick Gers, Adrian Smith and drummer Niko McBrain all brought their “A” games and left it all on stage during the 120 minute molten onslaught.
Of course no Maiden concert would be complete with out a killer stage and this one certainly did not disappoint. Dickinson had his trademark runways set up on both sides and behind the stage and he made good use of them, running from one end to the other all night long. The band seems to be having an absolute blast, goofing off with a massive version of Eddie that found guitarist Janick Gers hilariously running through the 12 foot tall monster’s legs.
Eddie himself got into the fun when he turned his backside to the crowd in the pit and grabbed his rump in a suggestive way. His fun was somewaht short lived though as his heart was ripped of the front of his chest by Dickinson, who then tossed it into the crowd. Later on there massive animatronics employer behind the stage. A larger that life bust of Eddie and then during “Number of the Beast”, a huge version of Lucifer appeared arms folded behind the stage.
In a somberest moment of this night of metal, Dickinson dedicated “Tears of a Clown” to the late Robin Williams.
For the second song of the encore, the band played “Blood Brothers” from the 2000 Dickinson comeback album Brave New World. Dickinson expalined that all empires, no matter how strong they are, come to an end eventually. He quipped, “if you have yourself a little empire built, you better be nice to the people on the way up, because you’ll need them to be nice to YOU on the way back down” – or something like that.
I’ve been fortunate enough to catch many of the best metal bands that have ever taken the stage but there is nothing like seeing Iron Maiden live. And Monday night in Tacoma was no exception, they blew our minds.
Tacoma Setlist
1. If Eternity Should Fail
2. Speed of Light
3. Children of the Damned
4. Tears of a Clown
5. The Red and the Black
6. The Trooper
7. Powerslave
8. Death or Glory
9. The Book of Souls
10. Hallowed Be Thy Name
11. Fear of the Dark
12. Iron Maiden
Encore:
13. The Number of the Beast
14. Blood Brothers
15. Wasted Years
Cover photo courtesy of Bill Bungard
