As we all know, Maiden did an "Early Days"-tour in 2005 where the set list consisted of songs from the four first albums only. Therefore I had hoped that the obvious songs from NOTB could get a break now, considering they were also played in shows after the AMOLAD tour.
From Powerslave we get the songs we had expected, that's fine. But that they feel they need to play so many of the obvious songs is a bit disappointing. Having The Trooper, The Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills and Fear of the Dark in the set list now feels a bit unneccessary as all those sons have been played on recent tours.
When the tour was announced, we were told that the focus would be on the three albums succeeding Piece of Mind. Now we actually have a set list where Piece of Mind gets the same number of songs as Somewhere in Time, and where NOTB gets as many songs as Seventh Son. It has simply turned into a "greatest hits pre-Blaze" tour. Of course that is great.
However: The three albums Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son were all successful, and in total they contain enough "hits" to fill most a set of 100+ minutes. Songs that they could've played and still playing "safe" include Stranger in a strange land, The Evil That Men Do and Infinite Dreams. None of these would be extreme surprises, but would be better suited to the original idea of the tour. The following set list would still, in my opinion, be "playing it safe":
From Powerslave: The songs they actually play
From SIT: The songs they play, plus CSIT and SIASL.
From SSOASS: The songs they play, plus TETMD and ID.
We knew that we weren't going to get Alexander, Only The Good Die Young or Seventh Son. But the set list we have actually got is more safe than I had hoped for.
But it's up to Steve and the boys, of course. And if they enjoy playing the songs they do, and they do it well, then who am I to complain? They are playing a shitload of good songs.