Okie doke, review time.
Vantage Point/Sound: Various spots up on the upper bowl Janick's side of the stage in Section 313. Nowhere close to sold out tonight - but this date looked to be a clunker sales-wise from months ago. Floor was predictably full. Some open seats in the lower bowl, upper bowl was probably about a quarter full at best, so I had room to roam about as it ended up kind of being a free-for-all with everyone able to space out on their own.
With that, I was still getting more of the corner PA rather than the front PAs, I don't know if because of that the sound was a bit iffy, but it sounded like one big guitar with the bass sounding pretty buried until halfway in. Steve was hanging out in the back facing his rig on several occasions during Revelations/Blood Brothers with a tech fiddling with something. Probably the loudest Maiden show I've been to thus far, with that I think my hearing was going a bit fuzzy towards the end. Could hear Bruce pretty well up to that point and Nicko's drum sound this tour is still stellar.
The Performance: Solid. Standard Maiden. The Trooper, Run to the Hills and Aces High didn't feel like the funeral dirges they appeared to be on some gigs this tour although Aces was indeed slower than it was when opening the shows in 18/19. Sign of the Cross I thought was a bit slower than it was in 18/19, but I feel it really works in this instance as it really emphasizes the groove of the song really well - helps Nicko shine some more that way. Speaking of the old man, you can tell he's simplifying some fills and there's less rolling fills across the toms, but he's still got it and is still serving the band well as it's engine. Bruce sounded good in terms of range/pitch and there were no noticeable times where he was way off sync with the rest of the band. Even with its slower pace, Bruce did have some issues in Aces getting all the words out in the second verse and it sounded like he was getting slightly behind (but recovered by the pre-chorus) -- but, hey, 80s Harris composition.
The Setlist/Pacing: I figured this was an interesting city to start my 22 run as I didn't expect it to be as rabid of a Maiden audience as you'd get in LA/NY/Chicago. I know there've been plenty of concerns voiced on the forum about starting off a greatest hits show with three brand new songs, but, upon actually witnessing the show myself - I think it works
. Predictably, Senjutsu got a lot of blank stares and the floor didn't appear to be totally into it even with Bruce trying to get some chants going and with Eddie making his first appearance. Stratego the crowd started getting into it more due to the quicker pace of it and I guess due to some familiarity of it being the second single. The Writing on the Wall? Now, you're getting the crowd more noticeably into it due to it being the first single off the record and it being such a successful video. As soon as you get the cathedral reveal and the intro to Revelations? They fully had the crowd right there.
Aces noticeably had a more muted reception it, and I don't think that's because of the slower pace at all. I think it's the second encore break. The main set just keeps building and building and building where you've got pyro in SotC into Icarus into Fear -> Hallowed -> 666 blah blah blah, but the encore has just such a herky jerky start-stop pace to it. Anticipation builds with the crowd wanting an encore then you hit em over the head with The Trooper. Great, fantastic. Then you've got The Clansman and it comes to a screeching halt. Run to the Hills you build them back up again and then everything deflates after that that you can't build any sort of anticipation back up when you cut the lights for Churchill's Speech.
Should've probably went Aces -> Trooper -> Clansman (w/speech?) -> RTTH all in one go.
The 'Ooo, That's New': The plumes of CO2 coming out from Eddie's walkway for The Trooper entrance was a neat addition. Also, I don't recall the Book of Souls tour having synths during Blood Brothers, because they were laid on REALLY heavy for it tonight to the point it was drowning out the guitars in the quiet bits. The motorcycles transitioning into the pre-Cathedral theme was really neat, but, damn, did that drag on for awhile.
The Banter:
- Post Iron Maiden: "Hey, maybe we'll see you again sometime!" - No SIT reference.
- Post Aces High, Bruce staring up at the Spitfire for 15 seconds: "It's an amazing airplane! No propellor and it's still flying! Great piece of aerodynamics - it's got an elliptical wing, y'know?" - The man knows his airplanes... and airplane inflatables.