Maiden At The O2 This August?

The Sunday show was fantastic, with the exception of some drunk idiots in our section starting a fight with each other and security. It's a Maiden show. I was there to enjoy the music. Maiden fans shouldn't be punching each other out, or beating each other up at gigs. It's so stupid. I left before the encores, I was so annoyed with all the disruptions and it sort of ruined the night a little for me. Only takes a couple of idiots to cock it up for everyone else.
 
I personally found the Saturday show absolutely phenomenal, I was about 7 rows back in the rough centre of the stage and the sound quality was very good; I could hear each of the instruments very distinctly however Bruce was occasionally a bit quiet. The band were very energetic and definitely looked to be enjoying themselves. I didn't have any complaints about the setlist, my top two songs of the night were
Phantom of the Opera and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, neither of which I have had the pleasure of hearing live on previous tours.

EDIT: My apologies for initially forgetting to include spoilers, I will not make that mistake again.
 
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Again, again and again, USE SPOILER TAGS UNTIL THE TOUR IS OVER.
 
How were the support bands at the weekend? I missed Voodoo Six because I was at St. James' Park watching the start of the cycling and then had to make my way across London on the Tube.
 
I loved the Saturday show, sound problems or no - even if I had known it would sound like that I would still have gone. It was my first Maiden show and it was something special just to be there. And whatever the issues with the sound I don't think anyone would seriously dispute that Maiden put on a great show. I didn't even really care what the setlist was going to be, they could have played
"my old man's a dustman"
and I would have remained rivetted. Anything they want to play is fine by me, and let's face it they have a lot to choose from so someone's favourite is always bound to get left out.

It often seems that the reality of something you are really looking forward to doesn't quite live up to your anticipation. Not with Maiden. When they were about to come on I was actually thinking "I just want this to be over" because the suspense was almost unbearable by then. But when they got stuck into their set I was thinking "I don't want this to end - ever".
 
Eh... not really sure what to make of some of the comments; particularly in regard to the sound :confused:.

Is the basic truth of all these discussions (not just in this thread) that the sound can be quite hit & miss in these indoor arenas depending on where your standing? Or are we saying Maiden really, really don't set up as well as some other bands do? I really don't see enough gigs (multiple times, with different tickets --standing/sitting etc) to really be able to cut through the heated discussion here & decide which it is...
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Is the basic truth of all these discussions (not just in this thread) that the sound can be quite hit & miss in these indoor arenas depending on where your standing?
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I suspect there is a good chance you are correct. I'm sure they put on the best show they possibly could in the circumstances, because we know Maiden don't do anything by halves. So there was a bit of buzz on the speakers? Big deal. It was still Maiden, they still put on a cracking show and I was still glad to be there. I'm quite surprised how upset some other people are getting about the whole thing.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Eh... not really sure what to make of some of the comments; particularly in regard to the sound :confused:.

Is the basic truth of all these discussions (not just in this thread) that the sound can be quite hit & miss in these indoor arenas depending on where your standing? Or are we saying Maiden really, really don't set up as well as some other bands do? I really don't see enough gigs (multiple times, with different tickets --standing/sitting etc) to really be able to cut through the heated discussion here & decide which it is...
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The 02 has always been really good for sound whenever I've been there before, for everything from Rush and Maiden (both nights in '11) down to In The Night Garden with 10.000 screaming kids to contend with. We moved around the standing area on Saturday, even trying to get as close to the sound desk as possible, and found it no better wherever we stood. Usually there's a better sound in the 02 even than in places like Brixton Academy and the old Kentish Town Forum, which were always good venues for sound quality.

The old Wembley Arena was notoriously hit and miss though. Neil Peart's drum solo on the Roll The Bones tour there sounded like a 30's jazz fill on repeat...

One question might be whether Maiden have been using their own PA on this tour or just using the local systems; we know from Flight 666 and the En Vivo extras that this is what they do when they're flying everything from gig to gig, but not when road-touring in the past. Rush had 19 trucks on their last tour here (according to Neil Peart's excellent website), as they bring pretty much everything they need themselves.

My limited knowledge of PA's, (from when I used to be local crew at Portsmouth Guildhall), is that bands like Slayer needed a different PA set-up to pop acts because Slayer's guitar sound was 'scooped' (i.e. low treble and bass but boosted mid-range frequencies), and most pop acts are the reverse of this; if Maiden used a bog standard PA this might explain why Nicko's hi-hat , bass drums and cymbals were clear as a bell but the guitars were muddy and indistinct.

Maybe I'm spoilt, as I have seen Maiden play better gigs, and certainly heard much, much, much better sound quality gigs from them. I'm sure if it had been my first time it wouldn't have mattered to me, but I've become accustomed to a certain standard from them over the years...
 
Maiden's long-term sound engineer, Doug Hall, stopped working with the band at the end of the Final Frontier Tour. For the duration of the Maiden England tour they've had a new sound guy and on the official forums a lot of people are blaming him for the apparently frequent sound problems over the past year or so. It's worth remembering that a lot of what is posted on the fanclub forums is utter drivel but this however could be genuine, having said that I didn't personally have any issues with the sound during the O2 concert.
 
rolpol said:
He did it over one of Adrian's solos, which is just bloody rude. It was intrusive, and he was gooning around when he didn't need to be noticed. An attention-seeking frontman trying to steal the limelight from band members is hardly like suffering a warm white wine at an apres-ski.
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Actually I think that had more to do with over-exuberence than attention-seeking. They all seemed to be in very high spirits.
At the time I wondered briefly if Janick appreciated having that flag draped over his face while he was trying to play, but I'm pretty sure Bruce has done that before so Janick would presumably have said by now if he minded.
I think it actually demonstrates how much confidence they have in each other - Bruce is too much of a professional to compromise the whole performance for the sake of having us scream for him a few more times.
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
At the time I wondered briefly if Janick appreciated having that flag draped over his face while he was trying to play, but I'm pretty sure Bruce has done that before so Janick would presumably have said by now if he minded.
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Yeah, he did that at every show on this leg of the tour, as far as I know.
 
As I said it was just a fleeting thought - I wasn't trying to suggest that Bruce was out of line. They must know each other well enough by now to all know what they can get away with without rocking the boat. It was great to see them all so happy and enjoying themselves.
 
Yeh, I noted you said briefly; fleeting thought as you say. I just wanted to point out (just to anyone) how much Janick did seem to enjoy that little moment at Donington.
 
Glad to hear people generally enjoyed the two O2 shows, sound issues and punch ups aside.
 
Not at all! I'm the least likely person to "throw a few", but that does sound like a classic Glasgow night out, or your trip to Glasgow on Good Friday!
 
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