Just came back from Bruce's gig, in São Paulo and it was spectacular; he said he and his band will be back, next year and this will be his band for many, many years (Resurrection Man is superb, on stage!)
One thing I noticed was, by watching the gigs since the L.A. ones, and being on the gig, past night, he's not into Maiden at all, 'cos there are many difficult songs on both bands setlists and it was clear he exudes pleasure singing his material and pulling out the hard ones and with Maiden he's not 100% there, to make the effort that he can, to make the songs as they should be.
I just came back from São Paulo and yes, the show was actually mindblowing.
In my opinion, the highlights were:
1) Darkside of Aquarius;
2) Book of Thel;
3) Many Doors To Hell;
4) Afterglow of Ragnarok (!).
Look, I know many people here got very high expectations about TMP and then when it was released people were like: "hmm, ok, good, but not even close to TCW and AOB". And that's right - this is also my opinion.
But hey, don't miss this tour!
Bruce is in great shape. He seemed very healthy and very excited during the whole night. Also,
all songs from TMP work very well live. When Afterglow was released, I said it was 7/10 and I still maintain this opinion, maybe 7.5/10 now. However, it sounded
immense last night. Very anthemic chorus, very good crowd participation. One of the highlights of the night for sure.
Maybe it was my excitement, but I don't think Bruce missed a note last night. You know that high note/high scream he used to do on TNOTB and Wrathchild (RIR 2001)? He did that twice on Rain On The Graves and it was amazing. He nailed Darkside of Aquarius and Book of Thel. The crowd participation on Darkside was simply amazing. The only song that he suffered a little bit was The Tower, but that's completely understandable as it was the last song of the set.
The only mistake I can remember was when he mixed up the lyrics a bit on Navigate.
Now let me dive into the controversy whether he's 100% into Maiden or not.
Look, Bruce was the responsible for the 'marketing campaign' about TWOW and Senjutsu as a whole, wasn't he? Based on the amount of interviews on the last years, I could argue Bruce seems more enthusiastic about Maiden stuff than Steve Harris. Did Harris say anything about Senjutsu at all? I mean, I know they have different personalities and things like that, but I don't think Bruce can be accused of not being into Maiden.
However, there is indeed something to argue against Bruce in that regard. It's the fact that, apparently, he hasn't been putting enough effort into singing the lyrics of the songs the way they are (especially those written by Harris). It took 20 shows until he got the lyrics of Hell On Earth right (and he kept fucking up here and there during the 1st leg of TFP). However, I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's intentional. I think it's just Bruce getting old and being a bit lazy. Plus, Bruce's performances last year were very solid, especially on the beginning-middle of the tour (which is where we are now, so it's kinda expected).
Anyway, I hope they release a DVD from last night, because the performance of the whole band was top notch.