LEGACY OF THE BEAST 2019

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I sing in a cover band and after a few rehearsals, we decided to downtune all the songs (Judas, Maiden, Rainbow, Queensryche...). At the end of the set, I was very tired and it was hard for me to sing consistently. With the downtuning, the improvement has been almost miraculous for me. I think it would be also great for Bruce (he sounds great in 'If Eternity Should Fail'!).
 
The guys in Maiden have been playing for 40+ years, thus I hardly think tuning down a half or even a full step would be any issue for them. Same with using a capo (if needed). At some point you have to do what’s best for your singer’s voice.

Now, if it’s Bruce who is opposing downtuning, then that’s his own fault.

Do Maiden even play in accidental keys (e.g. Ebm, C#m, etc.?) Just going off of memory it seems like most of their stuff is in Em or Dm. I think Flight of Icarus is in F#m, but that’s not an uncommon key for metal. Fallen Angel might be in F#m, too, but that’s all that I can remember...

Also, I know that Adrian has used dropped D tuning in several recordings (Ghost of the Navigator, Rainmaker, Mother of Mercy, etc.) Has he ever used full downtunings with Maiden? Like full step down, for example?
 
Yeah, there was something weird with the seat maps from the start of this previous week. There were still massive amounts of seats available in the lower bowl, then all of a sudden entire rows disappeared. It didn't seem 'normal.'
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Also, I know that Adrian has used dropped D tuning in several recordings (Ghost of the Navigator, Rainmaker, Mother of Mercy, etc.) Has he ever used full downtunings with Maiden? Like full step down, for example?
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No. I know there's some confusion/disagreement over whether Mother of Mercy is in drop D or D standard but other than that we only have drop D tuning used by Adrian on some older songs when played live and a couple of reunion tracks. Add Janick on IESF and all of the guitars on the aforementioned Mother of Mercy and that's about it. I don't think Adrian's even played in drop D on all that many reunion tracks either. I think there's at least one song with a drop D guitar on it on every reunion album maybe? But not a massive number by any means.
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
Yeah, there was something weird with the seat maps from the start of this previous week. There were still massive amounts of seats available in the lower bowl, then all of a sudden entire rows disappeared. It didn't seem 'normal.'
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Nashville is the rotten apple of the tour. Still there will probably around 7-8k there. In 2017 they had Oklahoma with only 5k. There are always some shows which won't end up that good. On a tour with this many dates and considering they played several of the places only two years ago it's bound to happen. The sales for this tour started really slowly some places (like Brooklyn) but will end up with mostly excellent sales.
 
srfc said:
Great Unknown is in a different tuning, not sure what.
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Open D with a capo at the second fret, I believe. I wasn't really considering that, but yeah that's definitely one example. Another one is Janick's unusual tunings on the various acoustic intros on some of the albums, but I have no idea what those tunings are.
 
Ruflux said:
Open D with a capo at the second fret, I believe. I wasn't really considering that, but yeah that's definitely one example. Another one is Janick's unusual tunings on the various acoustic intros on some of the albums, but I have no idea what those tunings are.
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Those are all open tunings, variations on DADGAD.

Ruflux said:
No. I know there's some confusion/disagreement over whether Mother of Mercy is in drop D or D standard but other than that we only have drop D tuning used by Adrian on some older songs when played live and a couple of reunion tracks. Add Janick on IESF and all of the guitars on the aforementioned Mother of Mercy and that's about it. I don't think Adrian's even played in drop D on all that many reunion tracks either. I think there's at least one song with a drop D guitar on it on every reunion album maybe? But not a massive number by any means.
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The only reason people think it's in D standard is that it is notated that way in the tab book. The tab books are very good in places but they are also filled with mistakes. Final Frontier in particular seemed a bit rushed (there are parts that aren't even notated). I believed the tab book was correct for a long time and assumed that the downtuning was due to Bruce struggling on the chorus (even in D he can barely hit some of those notes).

That being said, if you use your ears there are a couple clues that point to it being in drop D instead. The first and most convincing is that during the opening verses the guitars are playing power chords while letting the top two strings ring out. If you listen carefully, you can hear the open E ringing. This wouldn't be heard if the guitars were tuned down to D. It's tricky though because the same notes that you would hear in D standard are still part of the chord and the E sounds very faint, but it's there. Also during the chorus riff, you hear a little fill that goes E F G. In D standard that would be the third and fifth fret of the 6th string and the 5th fret of the 5th string. In drop D it's the third fret of the 5th string. The only reason I find that significant is that the motion in drop D is much more natural and typical in rock music, not to mention slightly more ergonomic.

It's still hard to say though. Some guitars could still be in D standard while others are just drop D. Adrian could be fretting that E in an add9 power chord shape instead (he does this on several songs). Having The Great Unknown in another tuning also complicates things as it shows that the band is more open to alternate tunings than in the past.
 
Collin said:
A lot of those will be gone by the day of the show. Probably not the nosebleeds, but a lot of the stuff in the lower bowl for sure. I knew it was fake news all along.
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There were still a ton of tickets showing for sale just days ago. Sales had to have picked up and/or they're giving tix away to radio stations, bars, etc. to hand out.
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
Yeah, there was something weird with the seat maps from the start of this previous week. There were still massive amounts of seats available in the lower bowl, then all of a sudden entire rows disappeared. It didn't seem 'normal.'
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If you are closing out seats, you don't close out seats in the lower bowl. You upgrade the people in upper bowl and close them out there, but lots of upper bowl seats in places I would expect to be closed are still open, so I don't think this happened.
 
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