Tunescribe

I wrote the following review which appears in the next issue of my magazine, Progression (www.progressionmagazine.com), now at the printer. Enjoy!

IRON MAIDEN: Live at Agganis Arena, Boston, Mass.; Oct. 6, 2006.
Ever since a diagnostic post-accident X-ray revealed narrowing disc space between my C3-C6 vertebrae from what the doctor described as “normal aging-related wear and tear,” I knew my headbanging days were over. Well, literally, at least. I still enjoy a little vicarious participation.
I've always liked Iron Maiden, ever since singer Bruce Dickinson acknowledged Jethro Tull as an influence and proved it by recording a cover of “Cross-Eyed Mary.” Maiden is big, loud, bombastic, epic and theatrical. Definitively “metallic,” often symphonic, this classic group gets as close as you can imagine to bona fide progressive metal without entirely crossing over. But if you don't mind bringing your inner adolescent along for the ride, a diehard progger will find ample guilty pleasure at a Maiden concert.
This music centers on the busy bass work of Steve Harris underlying triple harmonic leads from guitarists Janick Gers, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith -- source of the band's abiding symphonic ambiance. Not particularly great players individually, together they establish a formidable wall of sound more technically complex than is readily apparent. (Some of that musicality is obscured by sheer volume; these guys play loud.) Melodic harmonies intricately bob and weave through lengthy songs possessing more meter shifts than your typical metal performance. The Wagnerian scope furthered by Nicko McBrain's power drumming and Dickinson's frenetic sprinting/leaping about the stage - he must log more miles than Mick Jagger - makes for quite a spectacle.
For this show before 6,500 at a sold-out Agganis Arena on the Boston University campus, Iron Maiden took an unconventional approach by playing its new album A Matter of Life and Death from start to finish. That was followed by a brace of classic tunes to close the concert - “Fear of the Dark,” “The Iron Maiden,” plus an encore consisting of “Two Minutes to Midnight,” “The Evil That Men Do,” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
Befitting the new disc's World War II theme, the stage had a military motif with sandbags, camouflage netting, and a tattered parachute draped from the lighting rig. Huge, curtain-style mural paintings comprised a backdrop that changed with the songs, including a newspaper front page from 1944 chronicling the allied invasion of Normandy for “The Longest Day.” Nothing like a little history lesson with your heavy metal!
Proving that the folks at Disney have nothing on these guys when it comes to jaw-dropping visuals, band mascot “Eddie,” the cartoon zombie-corpse depicted in various guises on Maiden's album covers, made two appearances: He popped out of a giant tank turret that arose during “The Iron Maiden,” then ambled onstage as a 20-foot-tall robotic British soldier amidst “The Evil That Men Do.”
The crowd responded enthusiastically to A Matter of Life and Death, released just a few weeks prior. This would seem to indicate -- as printed on the T-shirt Dickinson wore bearing the image of an outer space alien - that when it comes to Iron Maiden live, “Resistance Is Futile.”

shirtsleeve

Nice review. Wish I could've gone to the show. Couldn't use your link though.....

Tunescribe

Weird. It should work, but it didn't go for me either. Maybe http://progressionmagazine.com ... Yeah, that works.

taltos

I do like Iron Maiden but possibly since I am in my mid-fifties, I prefer Tull and Black Sabbath to them. By the way, excellent review and a nice writing style. Hope to read more. Paul

__________________
The 9 most dangerous words in the English language are: I am from the government and I can help. Ronald Reagan

BelichickFan

I saw the L.A. show last week. You can take your attendance of 6,500 and wince at our sold out 16,000

It was the 6th Maiden show I've seen since 2000 and it was a good one. I love the new CD so I was fine with the unusual plan of starting a show with a new CD from start to finish. Everyone sounded great, the only little irritation is as the show clocked in at just under 2 hours, I really wish they could have pushed it an extra 5 minutes to get Number of the Beast in.

Regardless, an excellent show and I plan to see them 2 or 3 times (however many Southern California shows they do) when they go on their longer tour next year.

BTW, although you got the horrible "Bullet for My Valentine" opening, we got the very cool "3 Inches of Blood". I like them a lot and it was a cool opening band (not as good as the awesome Arch Enemy from 2004 though).

BelichickFan

I should add, by the way, that Iron Maiden is my favorite band. It's a shame that they have such a cult following in this country. Why they never broke through to monster popularity I'm not quite sure.

I was thinking about it the other day and I think that I could survive my life if I had no more music that the entire discographies of Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and Therion. I have 1,500 CDs or so, and I would miss a lot of stuff with just the discographies of those three, but they are so good I think I could survive.

chunkypony

I would consider myself a huge Maiden fan, and I also do not understand why they aren't as popular as other bands in this country, because they are very popular in Europe, and pretty much every other civilized nation in the world (Brazil for example, on their Rock In Rio version of Fear of the Dark, everyone in the crowd not only nows the words, but they also sing along with the guitar parts, which i think is amazing).

Terry Glenn is a cowgirl

Add me to being a huge fan.

Not the biggest fan...

I kind of tapered off when they released Fear of the Dark.

After that one... I really never followed them that much.

My favorite albums are in this order:

Killers

Piece of Mind

Somewhere In Time

Iron Maiden (with Paul DiAnno as the singer)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

America really never plays the really great bands in my opinion.

All they care about is

AC DC

Aerosmith

KISS

Guns N Roses

Metallica

Van Halen

Bon Jovi

Ozzy

...and other tripe.

I guess the old Metallica IS very good, so I'll take some of that back.

Ozzy is alright (I thought the Jake E Lee years were his best).

Some of the GNR songs are good as well.

Even some of the old Van Halen (with DLR) is good.

I don't much care for the rest of the list though.

Iron Maiden deserves to be on the top of the list.

BelichickFan

Well the one before FotD, "No Prayer for the Dying" flat out blew chunks. FotD was a marginal return to form - much better but a far cry from their previous stuff.

The three newest ones, since Bruce came back, Brave New World, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death are very good and well worth investigating.

Not sure about my order, it would be along these lines (just the Bruce CDs) :

Number of the Beast
Piece of Mind
Powerslave
7th Son of a 7th Son
A Matter of Life and Death
Brave New World
Dance of Death
Somewhere in Time
Fear of the Dark
No Prayer for the Dying

Something like that, anyway.

HAMMERMILL

Nice write up TUNE-
I'm embarresed to say I liked their older stuff(number of the beast,piece of mind,killers and now that TG reminded me, Iron maiden with the other singer,
but am not familar with their newer stuff.
Liked Iron Maiden as a kid but was a bigger Sabbeth fan.
Also liked the usual Thin lizzy,AC DC,KISS,GNR ETC..
NICE WORK TUNE!