Okay! Here's even more thoughts about last night in Riga. Apologies in advance, as this is a long report full of fanboying.
Naturally, as this was a very last-minute decision and my first Maiden show since 2018 AND possibly the only one I'm going to see this year, I might be less critical than some have been regarding this year's tour and the set...
But seriously, it's a great show and as I kind of mentioned earlier, I think comparisons to 2018-19 setlist structure and whatever makes it appear a lot worse than it actually is. It was a very intense, high-energy show. A true feast of the beast.
IRON MAIDEN at Arena Riga 2.6.2022
The venue, the sound & the crowd
Relatively small arena. In my opinion, quite an ideal setting for an Iron Maiden show, at least if majority of the crowd is really into it. It's easier to observe general crowd participation and atmosphere from seats and I was on the floor, relatively close to the stage, so can't really say anything about the general crowd reactions other than of those who were near me. I think the new songs were warmly welcomed, but people go nuts when the concert starts anyway, regardless what is played. From my experience, there aren't usually many mosh pits in Maiden shows but like in Tallinn 2018, there was at least one quite near me. Uhm. Good for those who like that kind of thing - I'm glad people had fun and all, but... can't say I was thrilled by being constantly crashed into when I was cheering for Adrian's solo or singing along for Stratego and such. Those who feel need to mosh in a Maiden show could mind their space a bit more, as there certainly was some available space further back. Didn't ruin my experience or anything, but there were certain moments that were umh... slightly annoying. Other than that, people were quite into it during the show! I tried my best at being (too?) loud when singing along the most "niche" songs (Senjutsu, Sign of the Cross, whatever) and especially during The Clansman. Got an odd look or two, sorry about that, especially if I ruined someone's attempt at recording a video with decent sound, heh.
The sound was great! Very clear thorough the show. Bruce was very audible and the low end of the mix was BOOOOMING. Nicko and Steve, such beasts!!! Nicko, given his arthritis and age, is a fucking warrior. Honestly, he's been brilliant during the whole LOTB run and what a thunderous touch... The way he kicked off the instrumental break on Hallowed was phenomenal.
And now, a song-by-song look at the set and the performance.
Senjutsu
I understand why many feel that this one is bit of a controversial choice for an opener, but personally, I loved it. Good, dramatic build-up and heaviness and brooding atmosphere worked out great. This one sounded HUGE. Bruce's delivery was on point and I was positively surprised of the people who joined at the chorus.
RALLYING ROUND TO THE CALL!
Stratego
As I have often expressed, I think Stratego is one of the better "modern rockers" by the band and has a bit more character and interesting colour in it than, say, Speed of Light or something. Overall, I think Senjutsu & Stratego make a lot better pair than S15... The Final Frontier & El Dorado and are at least quite on par with If Eternity Should Fail and Speed of Light. Very powerful and the chorus went down extremely well.
The Writing on the Wall
The acoustic intro gives bit of a breather after two rather intense performances. Bruce had little bit of fun with Adrian at the beginning, underlining that his stage presence was very good-mooded last night. Some of the reports from the earlier shows on this tour spoke about Bruce being very reserved and focused, leaving shenanigans to a minimum, but I think he was quite playful...
Maybe he needed to get some rust off? Altogether, TWOTW seems to be a huge live sing-along favourite.
So, in my opinion, the new stuff rocked. Stage setting was cool, at least for just one short "act." The inflatable
Pagodas (or whatever the towers are actually called) didn't bother me too much, but depending the angle of your view, the background prop was slightly too two-dimensional. For most of the time, the visual landscape worked very well with all the lights and such, but I hope the actual album tour next year will present something more subtle.
Revelations
As far as the drama and flow of the show goes, the opening riff of Revelations had slightly bigger impact on the previous legs as it was preceded by The Trooper. Now we got two mid-tempo tracks in a row with bit of a break in between, but the song is obviously amazing as ever. Always one of the highlights for me and in a way, one of my all-time favourite Iron Maiden songs.
Blood Brothers
Bruce gave us his standard "don't care what colour you are, where you're from, what gender you are..." etc. speech. The song itself worked very well! I have only witnessed it once before and while being probably the most obvious ones nowadays, I don't really mind it's inclusion, although I hope it competes for the setlist spot with another "obvious" one and not any rarities. Now when I look at it, Blood Brothers seems most logical choice for an For the Greater Good of God replacement. It should go down very well at the festivals, the light show follows roughly the same lines and shades and given the amount of revisits to countries they played in 2018/19, it's at least some variation in the core set. Might have very well been part of the original plan for 2020, who knows.
The performance itself was great. Being performed this early in the set, Bruce nailed the occasional higher notes he used to underline certain lines and overall, I found the performance very powerful. Good crowd interaction and sing-along. I get why this one seems like a boring and too obvious choice for some, but I'm very fond of the song and it settled in to a Legacy set surprisingly well.
Sign of the Cross
Like in Brave New World tour and Rock in Rio live album many of us love, Blood Brothers is followed by Sign of the Cross. I thought it will most likely stay in the set, but wasn't 100% certain of it. Now, it seems obvious. It's still an epic centerpiece of the show. My jaw dropped in the first show of 2018 when I heard the chant intro and once again, even though I knew it was coming, it got me very excited. Sign of the Cross is a majestic live song and the band delivered it with such intense and dynamic touch that I couldn't be more happy with the performance. Bruce, not hindered by the health issues we know from the infamous Nights of the Dead live album, managed to give the lyrics that magical weight on certain moments. I like Blaze's take on this one as well, but one of the reasons why I particularly love versions with Bruce is his ability to give the lyrics and narrative of the song so much more colour and, of course, there's just a bit more dynamic range in the vocal department that greatly benefits these long, theatrical songs.
One of my all-time favourite Iron Maiden songs and to me, those 2018 performances and this recent one I witnessed are my "definitive versions" of it. The show elements are very well designed and tasteful.
They'll be coming to bring the eternal flame
They'll be bringing us all immortality...
Just brilliant. And that second chorus... I just love the emphasis and higher note Bruce puts in for the
FIRE IN THE SKY! part. And the flames do just that. Sign of the Cross on Legacy of the Beast tour is, in my opinion, excellent example of the beauty in Iron Maiden stagecraft. The stage isn't the biggest, the pyro isn't the plentiest and whatever, but the visual landscape they manage to create with relatively simple set of tools of a "classic theatre" along with tight and intense performance by the band is just outmatched. I've praised Bruce quite a lot now, so let's give spotlight to others as well:
Dave! Probably one his biggest moments on this show? Solos were great on this one! Nicko kept it tight and powerful; this kind of a song might occasionally loosen up a little bit, but this was a very intense and tight performance for sure.
I can never thank them enough for including this one in the Legacy of the Beast setlist. Yes, I saw it three times in 2018, but hey... Before 2018, I didn't even dare to dream of a chance to hear it live one day. This song is such a huge thing for me in the Maiden catalogue. I mean, yes, existing "modern" official live version from Rock in Rio made it a bit different than with songs like Infinite Dreams or something like Stranger in a Strange Land, let alone Alexander the Great, but in many ways, this was the
"Rime of the Ancient Mariner 2008!" experience for me, if you catch my drift.
As much as people, me included, like to complain about Iron Maiden's setlist approach, I'm honestly grateful and happy for the memories and unforgettable experiences and looking at my "favourite songs I've seen live" checklist, I honestly don't feel much need for complaints. I got into Maiden around 2007. After SBIT run, which I didn't see live, I honestly didn't expect to ever hear Moonchild, The Prisoner, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, The Clairvoyant and such live. Seventh Son was and still is my favourite album. Well, I got that chance in 2013. Unbelievable! And then, come LOTB, I managed to catch stuff like Aces High, Where Eagles Dare, Revelations, Flight of Icarus, For the Greater Good of God AND two Blaze-era gems that I previously thought to be never played live again. Well, both anyway; I expected The Clansman to make a return, but Sign of the Cross... You should have seen my face when they played it last night, hehe.
Okay sorry, this thing is getting bloated again.
Flight of Icarus
Dusted off in 2018 after a long break, so it most definitely has not lost it's value as a setlist inclusion and experience. The band kept it super tight and groovy and Bruce nailed it. While it's kind of funny how long they skimped it, but the way it returned and keeps soaring has lost none of it's power.
Fear of the Dark
Not a huge personal favourite, but I get why it's so beloved. Granted, I think The Legacy of the Beast tour bought some new life to it, as Bruce initially said back at the beginning of the LOTB run. Sometimes, especially somewhere around 2008-2014 or so, it felt quite a going-through-motions kind of a song, but on the recent years it has gained some subtlety, particularly Bruce's performance, and the slightly gloomier take on the vocal department works well with the slower tempo, as the song just isn't quite as unrelenting anymore as it was during the very intense 90's performances of it. So um... whil I could do without this, I very much enjoyed!
The possibility of Maiden tuning down on some songs has been discussed here and I think the point some people have made about some of the songs losing bit of their essence is a good one. However, I think FOTD might actually benefit from it, as it would give Bruce even more space and dynamic range with the vocals and therefore make use of the current tempo a little bit better. Just a random thought.
But hey, it sounded great as it is! If they keep it in the set for next year and tour(s), I'd welcome this meddling with it's setlist position again. Maybe in the encore next time? It's not a huge thing, but even these small twists make it a bit less auto-pilot kind of thing.
Hallowed be Thy Name
I've run out of proper expressions when it comes to praising the tightness of the band's performance. A very welcome change to play this one in the main set. My first time hearing this one live was in 2011 and every single time since has been better, so even if I don't find the inclusion of Hallowed quite as sacred as some, the most recent performances have been absolutely outstanding. Oh boy, Bruce can still handle the "GOD BE WITH YOU!" part so well.
The Number of the Beast
Pyros, fun sing along, good performance. Probably one of the least interesting songs in the setlist for me, but it always makes a good show and as in the previous numbers, the band's touch was quite admirable.
Iron Maiden
Hello Eddie!
The Trooper
Long time no see in the encore. A very welcome twist in my opinion! Again, I could do without, but maybe next year will give it some rest. Don't get me wrong, it went down very well and I really like this encore.
The Clansman
A fantastic sing-along! Bruce gave a superb performance that's from another world than the official live documentation of
LOTB tour The Clansman from
Nights of the Dead. Reports from the very first shows indicated that the band was already quite worn at this part of the show, but I didn't really notice that. Might be just me, or maybe it was about the rust of the first shows and long break from extensive touring in the end..? Anyway, another welcome twist to the encore. I love it! I have a very soft spot for Bruce's takes of this song, for the same reasons as with Sign of the Cross; Bruce is just so good at making the narrative of the song come alive and he has quite a lot of "space" to operate within as it's not so high-pitched one. Just brilliant!
Not alone with a dream
Just a want to be free
With a need to belong
I am a clansman!
I sang along every single word, potentially annoying someone standing next to me, hah. Oobs.
Run to the Hills
A classic choice for this setlist position and... what can you say? It works. Bruce actually sounded quite good and the band clearly had fun with it.
Aces High
Yes, the tempo is a bit pedestrian and yes, Bruce is a bit tired at this point, but... given the circumstances, I think they delivered quite well! Bruce was more in control than on some of the other nights and even that last chorus sounded good. It's obviously not on par with the 2018, but a lot better than some of the Maiden England tour performances of it and... well... Bruce was so great on this show that if the tradeoff for being awesome for like 14 songs in a row, including challenging ones like Hallowed be Thy Name and ridiculously great first half of the set is one a-bit-tired-but-okay-good Aces High at the end instead of earlier in the set, I'm... actually quite fine with it. And really, I think it sounded quite good yesterday. Of course, at that point, as I had such fantastic time, not even a terrible performance or complete exclusion of Aces High could have ruined it. So I'm probably a bit biased.
So... I had great time. It was a fantastic show. As often mentioned, the really interesting stuff gets played out of the way quite quickly, making the set a bit "front-heavy" in that sense, but little bit of twist in the running order of the classic stuff (Fear of the Dark relatively early, Hallowed back in the main set, The Trooper in the encore, followed by The Clansman, Aces High as a closer...) gave rest of the show some extra quality for someone who has seen this tour on previous legs.
Very happy that I made the trip. If I can't get to Gothenburg, this might have very well been the last time I heard some of those huge favourites of mine played live. And the way they were delivered makes me smile and cherish these memories.
Those of you who are able to see them this year, but haven't decided yet: I'd say it's most definitely worth it. Being there, it didn't feel like a downgrade from the previous legs, as the new stuff worked out so well and the old show centerpieces were just as amazing as they were on previous legs. The setlist is exactly what was promised and foreshadowed by Bruce in various interviews, so I was never disappointed with it. Maybe that helped me to accept it without complaints so quickly? Well, whatever the case, I had great time.
Up the irons!
www.setlist.fm
