Iron Maiden live releases - Setlist, performance and sound. What's the most important to you?

[Yax]

This is a poll to decide what official release wins respective category regarding setlist, performance and sound. I've included most official releases, but skipped on a couple (i.e. Monsters of Rock 1988, Live at Dortmund, Ruskin Arms etc ). I've not added different options for ie. original vs remaster.

Please, one vote per category. Number of votes limited to three, so cast one per category.

The winner from each category will face off in a final. At that point of the poll you'll decide what's more important to you in this case. Setlist, performance or sound.

 

[Lampwick 43]

Setlist = Flight 666
Performance & Sound = Rock in Rio

 

[Diesel 11]

Honestly, a clean sweep for Rock In Rio. That concert is fantastic all round.

 

[Kalata]

Setlist, Sound & Performance = Rock In Rio.

 

[Poto]

Setlist - Flight 666
Performance - Rock in Rio
Sound - En Vivo

 

[srfc]

Setlist - much of a muchness, probably Maiden England or LAD.
Performance - all good bar some of ARDO
Sound - All good bar ARLO, ARDO and Donington

Live after Death is the definitive Maiden live album. I can understand why Rock in Rio is highely rated, but the two big 80's ones don't have tracks anywhere near as weak as The Mercenary and Dream of Mirrors.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

I'm eventually voting here, just want to say that I've grown more and more disappointed in the RiR release. The video was always questionable due to editing and insterted Chile footage. Even if we're talking CD releases only the audio is too compressed. Nowadays I prefer watching the TV bootleg, where the audio is of a way lower quality but has dynamics that the end product lacks.

 

[Yax]

I expect the vinyl remaster to be 8-10 dB or so more dynamic than its CD counterpart, like all Reunion vinyl so far. I've listened to it once and will rip it at one point.

 

[Magnus]

Line-up.

 

[Kalata]

Live after Death is the definitive Maiden live album. I can understand why Rock in Rio is highely rated, but the two big 80's ones don't have tracks anywhere near as weak as The Mercenary and Dream of Mirrors.

''The Mercenary'' and especially ''Dream Of Mirrors'' weak songs?.... Dream Of Mirrors is a fantastic song and I also quite like The Mercenary.

LAD and ME setlists are classics, but Dream Of Mirrors is a better song than DWYBO, for example.

 

[srfc]

''The Mercenary'' and especially ''Dream Of Mirrors'' weak songs?.... Dream Of Mirrors is a fantastic song and I also quite like The Mercenary.

LAD and ME setlists are classics, but Dream Of Mirrors is a better song than DWYBO, for example.

I think they are weak even in comparison to other BNW tracks that are not on Rock in Rio, and certainly weak compared to all the classics on LAD or ME

And I respectfully disagree about DWYBO.

 

[Randalf]

While I quite like Dream of Mirrors and The Mercenary is ok, they're definitely not on par with some of the classics. And while they don't exactly drag Rock in Rio down either, it's not like they're standout tracks there. Therefore I have to agree about those big 80's live releases having a bit more consistent setlists, as much as I love BNW anyway.

As for my picks... a hard one, again, but for setlist, I'd probably go with Maiden England! LAD/Flight 666 and Rock in Rio have some notable highlights, but some deep cuts like Still Life and The Prisoner, along with Seventh Son gems make the overall representation of my biggest favourites quite extensive.

Performance... well that's Rock in Rio! I do appreciate the fire of the LAD performances and I adore all the post-reunion live records for the very intese executions of the newer stuff, along with some of the best-ever performances of classics stuff like Rime (sorry...) and there's actually a bunch of great performances on Real Ones/Donnington '92 as well, but for me, it's Rock in Rio. The newer stuff, along with Blaze-era picks, sound so fucking intense and the classics selection is executed ferociously! It's a pity they copy-pasted Bruce's vocals though, as it really hurts the dynamic in the choruses of BNW and The Trooper, for example. It would've been interesting if they played Running Free instead of Sanctuary back then... that would've been NOISY!

As for sound... It's much harder choice! I think that Shirley-produced live albums post RIR are actually surprisingly worthy on this department! There's certain level of "dryness" in Flight 666 and En Vivo! but I think they sound fairly good and arguably often give much better representation (soundwise) of the band than some of the more recent studio albums. But I guess LAD takes this cake, in the end. But I'd give a honorable mention to Death on the Road, as it's probably one of the more overlooked live albums on every department.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

While I quite like Dream of Mirrors and The Mercenary is ok, they're definitely not on par

with Fallen Angel and Out of the Silent Planet.

 

[Randalf]

with Fallen Angel and Out of the Silent Planet.

Well I won't disagree with that!

 

[Kalata]

But I'd give a honorable mention to Death on the Road, as it's probably one of the more overlooked live albums on every department.

Completely agree. DOTR is a great live album with great performances from all band members, especially Adrian and Nicko.

 

[srfc]

I like DOTR too.

 

[GhostofCain]

Setlist - much of a muchness, probably Maiden England or LAD.
Performance - all good bar some of ARDO
Sound - All good bar ARLO, ARDO and Donington

Live after Death is the definitive Maiden live album. I can understand why Rock in Rio is highely rated, but the two big 80's ones don't have tracks anywhere near as weak as The Mercenary and Dream of Mirrors.

Too difficult to choose just one in each category, but I'd go with:

Setlist: Live After Death. Classic early Maiden summarised in one of the best live albums of all time
Performance: I went with Flight 666, as I think the reunion line-up has done some of the oldies more justice than the "Let's play everything really fast" younger version of the band
Sound: Flight 666, followed closely by Live After Death. Although I love Live After Death as a whole package I have never been a huge fan of the sound of the audience on it.

 

[srfc]

I have never been a huge fan of the sound of the audience on it.

Yeah, it loses out on crowd reaction compared to some of the South American crowds on later albums.

I think Bruce's banter is at it's best on LAD, some great one liners (this is what not to do..., the hearing doctor bit), the introduction of "scream for me" as the catchphrase, even the tongue twisting, rapid delivey of "heresasongoffthepieceofmindalbumthesongiscalledTheTrooooopah!!", a lot of that stuff has been suppressed at the editing stage on a lot of the later albums.

 

[Forostar]

Nice Yax. 2 (or even 3 or something) votes per category could also be interesting perhaps. If one album would be 2nd in all categories, and the no. 1 in all categories would be a different one, than the former can be seen as the best album.

By the way, I find it difficult to select one best performance. There are different factors. Lots of people usually tend to focus especially on Bruce, or a guitarist. There is also: other individuals (single or several), how does the group in total play, how is the song approached (e.g. I get a big kick out of the fast The Evil That Men Do on A Real Live One... such a drive!; rather than slow renditions of e.g. Wasted Years).

Sound: probably Live After Death. Just such a good balance and clear, still sort of rough sounding. But Rock in Rio and Beast over Hammersmith are also interesting.

Setlist: probably picking between Live After Death and again Beast over Hammersmith.
These two are probably my favourite live albums by Maiden. I played A Real Live One very often as well and Rock and Rio (the DVD especially!) pretty often (both definitely more often than Beast over Hammersmith) so these two are also dear to me.

On this forum we're outnumbered by young people who learned about Maiden in the digital age so the lack of love for Live After Death is somewhat understandable (still questionable). It is just another live album low on the discovery list of many others.

 

[srfc]

I played A Real Live One very often as well

Me too, I know there are quite a lot of fans on this forum who when they were becoming Maiden fans, A Real Live One was just coming out. Even after all these years I still see it as a completely different album to A Real Dead One.