LEGACY OF THE BEAST 2019

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Great quality.

Bruce tries new things with FoI, especially the last part of it. I guess he wants to make the "eaglee!! Flyyyy!!" (10:22-10:25) part more similar to the LAD version, but no precision so far. :p
 
FTGGOG from Philly is still super rough, but it definitely figures since it's such a demanding song to sing for Bruce. Other than that, yeah he's getting better with every show.

e: Also, occasional missteps aside, I'd argue Davey and Jan have been playing better solos on average this year than the last. I particularly liked that improv on the RTTH solo posted above.
 
I get the feeling, he's not fully into it. Maybe problems with leg or his voice. His stage presence is distracted? English is not my native language, so i can't explain properly what i'm seeing. I get this impression from overall Bruce's stage presence.
 
I get the feeling, he's not fully into it. Maybe problems with leg or his voice. His stage presence is distracted? English is not my native language, so i can't explain properly what i'm seeing. I get this impression from overall Bruce's stage presence.
It’s almost certainly problems with his leg distracting him - he’s likely restricted in what movements he can make, possibly due to a wrap or brace on his ankle, possibly just due to instructions from his doctor. For someone as active as Bruce, that’s certainly enough to throw you a bit off your game.
 
Yea, it's confirmed that Bruce is/was definitely sick or had allergy issues plus a messed up foot. And that's not taking into account any meds he might be on for either of those items. Everything considered, this is an incredibly focused show, from everyone.
 
Ok, here's my review. It's not as detailed as I'd like it to be, but hey, I was at a Maiden concert, cut me some slack.

The venue: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pa.

Not quite a sellout, but close enough. My seat was in in Section 106, row 21, seat 13. This was the last seat in the row next to Section 107, which was center stage. This was great because I had the aisleway and steps right there. Even better was the fact that the seats were staggered, not one in front of the other, so the seat in front of me was only halfway in front of me. Add to that the fact that no one sat there, I had a completely unobstructed view of the stage, even when the people in front of me stood up.

Ok, now that the view has been established, on to the show.

The Raven Age played one song that lasted 40-45 minutes. (at least that's how it sounded to me) They weren't actually bad, but they didn't do anything special. The bass player stood in a serious video game headbanger pose most of the time, and the drummer had some double stomp action that had to be computer generated. No one could keep it up for that long, at that speed.

Intermission.

Doctor Doctor was actually louder than the opening act. (For the Raven Age, that's gotta sting.)

I'm not gonna go song for song, everyone here knows the set list. Just gonna points of interest.

Sound wise, it wasn't bad. The bass was buried a bit, but not too bad. There were times when I would be playing the bass in my head where it should have been, but you couldn't hear it. (if that makes any sense.)

Nicko's sound was awesome, especially some of his cymbals. He laid off some of the stuff and just kept a beat in places where there are fillers and tricks on the album. But hey, the guy is closing in on 70, so I was just happy as hell to be in the same room with him.

As far as the guitar sound, this was the highlight. Both Adrian & Dave's guitars sounded excellent during their soloes. Yanny's guitar sounded clear and crisp on the higher notes, but when he went down the neck, the lower notes lost clarity and sounded like he was playing with gloves on. He needs to have a talk with his sound/tech guy.

Bruce struggled early on to hit the notes, but loosened up and was a lot less strained sounding. He did a lot of dropping down an octave, but that wasn't a big deal. Not to me, anyhow. The guy's been singing for decades, and beat cancer for Pete's sake. He's earned the right to coast a bit, I think. If I want to hear him sing like he did 30 years ago, I'll put in a cd.

He also flagged a bit towards the end, and actually sat down for an entire song (I forget which one.) But, again, after 40+ years, sit your ass down for a few minutes if you need to.

Overall, I had a blast. It was the first time I'd seen Maiden in over 25 years. Since the last time I saw them, I got married, bought a house, put two kids through college. So, seeing Maiden got shuffled down the monetary priority list.



Now, just some observations.

During the military set, Dave walked up the steps to say something to Nicko, and got his foot tangled in the camo netting and almost pulled it down. He stood there for a few seconds until a roadie got him untangled.

Bruce didn't wear his Redcoat during The Trooper. Also, The Trooper backdrop is a different Eddie from the one they've been using for years.

Adrian's Revelations solo has always been my favorite, so I knew going in I had a 50/50 shot. But, alas, I got Yanny, and he butchered it. And on top of that, after the solo, the entire band got lost, off beat and it just sounded like a mess for about 10 seconds until they all got back together.

That actually happened 2-3 more times during the show. A couple of times Dave hacked up his soloes and skipped entire bars, which led him to a different key ahead of everyone else that just sounded bad for a few seconds until everyone else realized it and caught up.

During Icarus, one of his wings never fully inflated, so he had one wing.***

***ok, I don't know how to do a spoiler alert, so I'm gonna write this at the end of this post.

Well, it only took me 36 years to decide, but I think Adrian is my favorite guitarist. He just killed it all night. His sound was great, his soloes full of emotion, and when he wanted to, he made his guitar just scream.

Dave had some good soloes, but more than once, he seemed to just muddle his way through it, and, as I said above, seemed to forget where he was.

Yanny had exactly one solo that was on par, sound wise, to the other two. Crisp and clear, a real bender and screamer. I forget which song, but I remember thinking "Wow, that was pretty great!" Other than that, it was his usual noodling around with no real beginning, middle, or end.

Thankfully, when he went into his Vaudeville show, it was always on his corner of the stage. You could just ignore it.

And finally, the fans. The guys outnumbered the girls 10-1, of course, but I'd bet money that the girls easily had waaaayyyy more tattoos than the guys.

Seriously, every girl I saw was covered. Arms, legs, back.



So now, 'See Maiden one more time' is scratched off the bucket list. All I have left is see a rocket launch in person & get shot out of a cannon.

















***Spoiler***

At the end of Icarus, his wings drop and he falls from the sky and disappears behind the drums. I wasn't expecting that, at it was sooooo cool. Made the whole trip worth it. In fact, when we got back to the car, my brother was already there (he had seats closer), and the first thing he did was high five and say "Icarus falls!!"

So yea, that was a highlight.
 
At the end of Icarus, his wings drop and he falls from the sky and disappears behind the drums. I wasn't expecting that, at it was sooooo cool. Made the whole trip worth it. In fact, when we got back to the car, my brother was already there (he had seats closer), and the first thing he did was high five and say "Icarus falls!!"

So yea, that was a highlight.
That was something that I hadn’t seen before either until I was right there in the amphitheatre watching it. Amazing shit.
 
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