I am not sure how to begin, and I think that I'll even forget some things but this gig was so overwhelmingly fantastic!! This was the tenth time that I saw Maiden, but the gig surely belongs to the top three of those ten. It was surely the coolest gig since Waldrock 2003 for me. The band was really in a great mood. A lot of interaction, also between Bruce and Steve! The lads were constantly joking with eachother. After Iron Maiden, when the band left the stage for the first time, Bruce tried to pull Nicko's pants down, right before Nicko threw his last stick in the crowd! Also Bruce's comments were memorable. There's always
something during a gig that draws his attention. Now he commented on the side tribunes, which were on grass hills. Also, people were sitting on these hills. He thought it was rediculous that they were sitting during a rock concert. At the end of the day they would have a wet arse! Later his comments got more serious. Something in the vein of:
"Hello, how are you my friends? Did you enjoy the day? Did you like my friends Ronnie, Toni and the others? They should be called Black Sabbath and forget about that other guy."
Well he might have said it otherwise, but at least I thought that he meant it like this.
Of course I was very happy to hear this. Since the egg incident (I heard from someone of the crowd that he got hit by one egg on Download, by the way?!) I don't give a f**k for Ozzy, who would perform on Fields of Rock, the day after (today that is). I hope that his voice gets fucked within a couple of years, and that we're gonna get the real Black Sabbath soon, kicking Sharon with her zombie into oblivion.
Anyway, sorry for letting myself go, I'll get on topic again.
Bruce said that we have to wait till 2008, before they would come back. They were gonna build a pyramide and bring along an albatros and an ancient mariner!
Now a word on the setlist. Allow me to be a bit critical, but I thought that they would play 5 songs of The Number of The Beast? I might have a wrong memory about this, but it was the only "disappointment", so to speak, simply because I expected it otherwise. But they played "Children of the Damned", which wasn't played in the Netherlands since 1986! Adrian played on a nice red doubleneck guitar, especially brought along for this song.
Overall I have to emphasize that the band was so enthousiastic and Bruce's voice was in such a good in shape. The band played very tight. I'll remember it for a long, long time!
Video parts of Iron Maiden, Heaven And Hell and After Forever! Enjoy!!
http://www.youtube.com/CursedwithOblivion