Which live album best represents Iron Maiden

CrimsonEmotions said:
I'd say no live album better captures the era more than Live After Death. Others may have sounded better, or had better playing, but LAD represents the band at their pinnacle, with a killer setlist. Plus, the video was amazing, without the ADD editing that epitomizes much of today's live videos.

However, I wish there had been a live album for the 99 reunion tour--AKA Ed HunTour. The setlist they had was an amazing mix of the classic and newer, the familiar and the more obscure. It would have been worth it alone just to hear a live version of Stranger in a Strange Land, one of my favorite songs, which was played early in the tour.
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Completely agree with you there. LAD was a time where they were basically taking over the world and that tour was huge. It put them to a whole other level. I also agree that there should've been a live album for the Ed hunter tour. They really came back with a bang. I completely respect the fact that some fans got into Maiden in the early 90's so they have fond memories of that period, but once they got Bruce back and Adrian in '99, they were just on fire and there was no comparison in my opinion.
 
Forostar said:
*raises hand*

*raises it a higher for A Real Live One than for A Real Dead One*

I know these albums aren't loved much, mostly because of Bruce's rough voice (I didn't have a big problem with it myself) but also probably because Adrian is not on it. I especially digged A Real Live One because of the new songs on it. It is a rough, energetic and pure sounding album, containing mindblowing performances of ATSS (beautiful to hear these guitar lines live), The Evil (the speed, the bass drums!), Bring Your Daughter and yes here it comes: Fear of the Dark. All the others are great as well. Can I Play With Madness is also special because I was in the crowd. Speaking of crowd, I like the way the audiences change in between the songs, they've done that pretty neatly.

I rate this album higher than Death on the Road, on which I don't like Bruce's performance. And Lord of the Flies sounds messy. For the rest: one of the worst setlists in Maiden history.
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I dig A Real Live One in particular--it has a lot of my favorite live versions of that era. In particular, Fear of the Dark on ARLO (and Live at Donington, though I prefer the ARLO version to that) is the only live version where it doesn't feel like Bruce is doing a parody of himself with the whole "BWAHAHAHA" thing. The Evil That Men Do on that one is fantastic as well. On the downside, I have no idea why Steve picked the show that Bring Your Daughter... came from--Bruce ridiculously phones that one in.

I'd put ARLO higher than Death on the Road as well. Bruce's voice is pretty well shot on that one (I remember some talk that he was ill at the time of that Dortmund show). And Lord of the Flies, yeah, I was pretty unimpressed with his take on that. The only time I really felt Bruce was really putting all his effort into any Blaze material was during the Brave New World tour, with Clansman and Sign. The official live recordings they have of Bruce during the Ed Huntour doing Man on the Edge and Futureal, Bruce seems pretty uninterested.
 
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CA Bryers said:
On the downside, I have no idea why Steve picked the show that Bring Your Daughter... came from--Bruce ridiculously phones that one in..
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Gave that one a listen and I'm not sure if Bruce is phoning it in as much as he is just running out of energy. I hear him putting effort into the song, but he sounds out of breath. The ridiculously fast tempo of the song doesn't help.
 
Mosh said:
Gave that one a listen and I'm not sure if Bruce is phoning it in as much as he is just running out of energy. I hear him putting effort into the song, but he sounds out of breath. The ridiculously fast tempo of the song doesn't help.
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I'll have to listen to that one again--I threw it on my iPod a while back and I suppose it could be that he's worn out. I compared it to the Live at Donington version then, which he puts a lot more into it, but of course, that's Donington vs. random show on a tour. Of course he's going to push himself a bit more there. Both versions though, I do really like how much more monstrous he does the "ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhhh" part than the studio version. Very cool.
 
I was extremely impressed the way Bruce did Lord of the Flies. I"m not so much speaking to the death on the road album, but I caught 2 shows on the dance of death tour and that one definitely stood out for me because I hadn't heard that one live before.
 
"Lord of the Flies" on Death on the Road is my favourite live performance of the band, and I have to say either Death on the Road or Rock in Rio.

I prefer the live performances of the early 2000's. It was the period when I started listening to them and the first live-recording I heard was Rock in Rio so it has a natural explanation - it's just very hard to accept changes from what you're accustomed to. It's in part about the tempos and the overall feeling of the songs as discussed in this thread, but also about guitar tone and such. In general, the 80's were the fastest, 90's were the sloppiest, and in the last few years they've gone and slowed down, effectively reducing the energy they're known for - bad move.

There is far more recorded material available today, but the really bad performances are absent. The 90's are full of them, and there's a bit of 80's recordings that aren't exactly flattering too. They've been on fire since the reunion, as @Jayman said, but not only have they gone out there with a lot of energy, they have also been very consistent.
 
Decided to put on A Real Dead One in the car today, partly inspired by this thread. Been ages since I listened to the whole thing but I have to say it's pretty good! I don't really care for the renditions of the Seventh Son and Somewhere In Time songs but I really love the 90s material on this disc. Those songs were really meant for a live audience and while they sound kinda flat on the record, they really come to life on stage.
 
When I go away from Long Beach back to England I wanna be able to go to the hearing doctor and go "Doctor, Long Beach fucked up my hearing for good, alright"

Enough said.
 
Mosh said:
Decided to put on A Real Dead One in the car today, partly inspired by this thread. Been ages since I listened to the whole thing but I have to say it's pretty good! I don't really care for the renditions of the Seventh Son and Somewhere In Time songs but I really love the 90s material on this disc. Those songs were really meant for a live audience and while they sound kinda flat on the record, they really come to life on stage.
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Totally agree. I'm a big fan of the 90s material on Live at Donnington as well. The raw, rough and loose live sound they had in those days really suited that material.
 
As much as I love LAD, I would have to give the edge to RIR.
Better production and sound.
I like the setlist a bit better ( I am probably a bit burnt out on the LAD setlist after 30 years)
And I think there is better energy as the band hadn't been worn down as much before the show.

Though I will admit I hardly ever listen to the official RIR. The bootleg has superior sound to my ears.
No editing and dubbing from Steve.
Much like I watch the TV broadcast of the show a whole lot more than I watch the official DVD.
 
I thought the title of this thread was "which live album best represents Iron Maiden"

From reading the posts it appears people misinterpreted this to mean "which live album is my favourite based on when I started listening to Iron Maiden".

Lost count of how many times someone posted that RIR was their favourite live album because that's when they started listening to the band so everything post reunion live is better than anything before as that's what they are used too!

To answer the OP I personally think Rock in Rio best represents Iron Maiden live. I believe that around the time Bruce's voice was at the peak of its powers and the band were on fire as the whole reunion thing was still fresh. Plus the album has a great set list which does a very good job of giving an overview of the bands entire career up to that point. Throw in the great crowd at RIR and you've got the perfect live Maiden experience.

I would say that a very close second is Maiden England. Fantastic seist and the overall performance is near perfect. I prefer the video to the audio though as the latest release cut out all of Bruce's in between song talking and the original release cut out a load of songs!
 
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In terms of Maiden in a nutshell, I'd have to say Flight 666, on the basis that it can be thought of as a musically better version of LAD.
 
Rock in Rio, as it is the final show of the first album tour since Bruce and Adrian came back. It must have been quite an archivement for the guys, Rod and the crew, to end the whole thing at a huge festival with the best crowd in the world.
 
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