Best Live Maiden song

Patrick Watts

Patrick Watts

Invader
What is the best Iron Maiden song played live? In my opinion, I think ROTM and Running Free are right up there. Also, Wrathchild at Monsters of Rock '92 and Rock in Rio deserves a special mention, due to Brice's incredibly unnatural scream in the bridge

I heard Phantom of the Opera at this year's Download Festival, and I actually believe its one of the best lesser-played songs performed live

Discuss below
 
Mosh

Mosh

Powerslave
Staff member
I went to school with a Brice. Guy was a dick; moved to LA. Good riddance.
 
LooseCannon

LooseCannon

Enterprise-class aircraft carrier
Staff member
Because the tour is still going on, and there are people who would like to not know the setlist in advance.

On Oct 3, you may discuss it openly.
 
TheSeventhSonRoberto

TheSeventhSonRoberto

Rockin in Rio
Phantom of the Opera at Ullevi during the early days tour always gives me goosebumps. And when Bruce starts speaking during the 2nd solo makes me want to scream fuck yeah! And head bang until I get dizzy:edmetal: . It's the closest feeling of being live without actually being live at the concert

The Prisoner at Maiden England 88 was superb just amazing. I've said before that I think Maiden England 88 was Bruce's worst vocal performance but he sounded amazing for this song(in hallowed,7th son his voice was not good at all)

Rime of the Ancient mariner at flight 666 was another live song to give me goosebumps.
Obviously Fear of the dark rock in Rio but to be fair the entire Rock in Rio was amazing beginning from Wickerman to Run to the hills. Every song sounded on point just a minor exception during Number of the beast where Janick's guitar sounded like shit for about 5-7 seconds but that's it. (if wasn't Janick's guitar feel free to correct me)

And every song for live at hammersmith was a close 2nd to Rock in Rio
 
MrKnickerbocker

MrKnickerbocker

clap hands
It's really hard to beat "Fear of the Dark" from Rock In Rio. It's simply perfect. But, like Roberto said, most songs on that album are on point.
 
SirRobbins

SirRobbins

Ancient Mariner
MrKnickerbocker said:
It's really hard to beat "Fear of the Dark" from Rock In Rio. It's simply perfect. But, like Roberto said, most songs on that album are on point.
Click to expand...

Rock in Rio is the current generation equivalent of Live After Death except the audience is more defined and louder (then again, RIR was 250,000 people).

Ghost of the Navigator, Running Free (Paul's version from the Rainbow in 1980), Fear of the Dark and probably Hallowed sound great live! Aces High and 2 Minutes sound great as well!
 
Perun

Perun

After the war?
Staff member
This is nitpicking in the highest degree, but there is one thing that really bothers me with the Rock in Rio version of Fear of the Dark. I'm putting it in spoilers, because this really pretty much ruined the version for me when I noticed it, and most of you are probably going to curse me for pointing it out.

We all know that in the first chorus, Bruce always lets the audience sing the fourth "fear of the dark" line. In Rock in Rio, Bruce prompts the audience to sing by saying "you!", but then proceeds to sing the line anyway. If you listen to the bootleg version, you will notice right away that Bruce did not actually sing this line. It was edited in, and if you listen closely, you will notice that it is exactly the same as the second time he sings the line. They simply copied it in! I've seen this discussed years ago, and apparently the semi-official explanation somebody got from somewhere was that the audience was out of pace. However, it wasn't. Here is the unedited bootleg version:


Now, as I said, this is a nitpick, but this is my favourite moment in the song, and one of my favourite live moments in general, and it bothers me so much precisely because this is otherwise such an amazing recording of the song, and because it was a completely unnecessary thing to do.
 
SirRobbins

SirRobbins

Ancient Mariner
^ This may add to your complaint. I noticed the DVD version is different from the CD version with the guitar sounding faded during the crowd chanting before the first lyrics. The melody is almost unheard in the CD but in the DVD, it is clearly defined as it is in the video above. That is my one irritation with that song.
 
Perun

Perun

After the war?
Staff member
I'll check that out, although overall, I'd say the CD version is inferior anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a good number of other fuckups there too, given that the entire thing was recorded to be mixed in 5.1 to begin with.
 
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