Right, I just came back from Rio.
The show was amazing. I've been to TFF world tour, Maiden England, TBOS and now LOTB.
My ranking (performance-wise) would be:
1) TBOS world tour
2) LOTB
3) TFF world tour
4) Maiden England
Not sure how they sounded on the streaming or br tv, but I can assure you that the sound on RIR was perfect. Nicko's drums are sounding greater than ever. Very good show from three amigos as well.
Let me comment about two or 3 songs and then I will get to the Bruce's voice discussion.
The Clansman - I know it's already pretty known, but I just want to say again that this song works REALLY well live. The "FREEDOM" part is absolutely amazing. 100k people singing, basically.
FTGGOG - I was pretty sure most people would not get into it. Why? No offence, my friends, but this forum is the only place where AMOLAD is absolutely loved. In the rest of the world, it's just an "okish" album. FTGGOG is a good song and personally I was very happy to see it live, but I don't think it is an "easy" song to sing, you know? Except for "For The Great of Good of God" part, the rest of the song is not easy to sing. AMOLAD is not a popular album, even here in Brazil. We, in this forum, are die hard fans and we love to listen to unexpected/rare stuff. Most of maiden fans like to listen to The Trooper, Run to the Hills and the "PlayClassics!" stuff. That's the reality. I don't expect the reaction to FTGGOG to change, not even in Argentina or Chile.
FOI - 32 years out of the setlist, yet everyone was singing every bit of it. Brilliant, amazing, great crowd participation. I can't believe it has been out of the setlist for 32 years, really.
Did Bruce struggle on some songs? Yes, for sure, but let's be honest: he is struggling on some songs like The Trooper since Maiden England. In my opinion, it doesn't have anything to do with his cancer. It is pretty related with the fact that he is older now (duh). For me, it's pretty obvious that the older he gets, the harder it is to sing songs that require high pitchs. The Trooper, Aces High, Where Eagles Dare, some parts on FTGGOG, TETMD chorus, etc. The reason why Bruce completely changed the way to sing TETMD is because he is aware of the fact that he can't handle the high pitch notes anymore - especially on the encore. Or maybe he can, but for sure not on the 4th month of the tour.
And that's something really important that I didn't see you guys discuss very much. I already said it on TBOS world tour: compare the first 10-15 performances with the last 10-15 ones. Big difference. His voice peaks at the end of the first month of the tour and then slowly starts to get worse (except if there's something like a cold on the first month of the tour or so). I've been to São Paulo 2016, TBOS world tour, and his performance on Children of the Damned was simply perfect. Why? Because it was like the 15th show of the tour or so.
Also, it is important to say that Bruce can easily handle songs like Revelations, Fear of the Dark, Sign of the Cross, etc - songs that do not require high pitch notes. His last good performance of a high pitch sound song was The Talisman. He struggled on DOG, TRATB, Aces High on Maiden England, etc. Again: it gets really worse by the end of the tour.
In my opinion, something must be done about it, but I'm pretty sure they won't do anything because of Bruce's pride. Is it a big deal? Nah, not really, but sometimes I get annoyed with his struggling and I think they could handle it better. Maybe by not touring as much? Maybe by simply changing the setlist to adapt to Bruce's age? Well, I don't know.
Don't get me wrong. Bruce is still doing well, but I just fear that as time passes, he will struggle more and more.
Anyway, I had a fantastic experience on Rock In Rio and my gf, who attended a heavy metal show for the first time, was very impressed. Also, the media in Brazil is 100% impressed by everything Maiden did on the show. Big fuss and they were over all the newspapers. I'm pretty sure they will get even more popular in Brazil after this. Let's hope they keep going strong. In the end, we are lucky that they are still around.
Sorry for the long text and for the lack or idea organization - I'm still hyped after the show.