San Diego 1998, The Best Blaze performance?

Blaze here absolutely rocks also on Bruce's tracks.
no-randy-jackson.gif
 
I love it. He’s clearly well out of his range, but so what? He’s still killing it and the whole band is just absolute fire.
 
I lived in San Diego for several years. Good (larger) city, largely suburban but with a little bit of the urban experience.

Metallica's San Diego show on the Live Sh*t Binge and Purge boxed set is supposed to be great as well.

I recently saw an Iron Maiden show in San Diego and it was phenomenal.

There must be something in the air in San Diego ....
 
our show was outdoors, but nevertheless the thick hang of SweetLeaf smoke did have its effects on me by mid-way through the show.

I can only imagine what havoc the thick hanging and lingering smoke wreaked on the boys at the indoor California shows.

I've seen my birth state go from nearly everyone smoking cigarettes in the 1970's and 1980's to nearly everyone smoking marijuana in the 2010's and 2020's.

I miss the 1990's and 2000's, when people had largely given up smoking *anything*.

Brief glory age, that.
 
I just found out this bootleg on YT after reading a lot of positive reviews and the fact it is described as the best Blaze performance with Maiden. I'm not sure about this but Blaze here absolutely rocks also on Bruce's tracks. Unfortunately some tracks are cut out early, like SOTC.

Somewhat sad in that Blaze's vocals on the Bruce-era tracks was *improving* by 1998.

But the sands of time for him were running low ...
 
Somewhat sad in that Blaze's vocals on the Bruce-era tracks was *improving* by 1998.

But the sands of time for him were running low ...
You can't fight physics. Blaze's vocal cords were never meant to stretch as much as they would've needed to for him to be able to even remotely sing songs like Hallowed Be Thy Name in original key. Hell, that song is brutal even for someone with Bruce's range. You can't "improve" upon something that physically is impossible. If Blaze had kept on trying to strain through songs way out of his natural register, he probably would've eventually ended up with his voice shot completely, as in your singing days are done shot.

I don't particularly rate him as a singer, never have, but his Maiden career was primarily turned awful by the sheer boneheadedness of Steve Harris and the rest of the lot to not tune down to suit Blaze's register.
 
Back
Top