Maiden fans...the best?

SinisterMinisterX said:
Now, before I even get into this, don't get me wrong: Maiden fans are great people. But...

I think it's more than Maiden. Metal fans in general are a great community. It's because metal isn't mainstream, so we've all had to endure the same shit. Even before we meet, we have experiences we've shared.

Even more, it's not that metal is special. Metal is just a non-mainstream subculture. cfh mentioned Deadheads, and they were (are) the same with each other. To some extent, every subculture has this kind of tighter community.

However, Maiden seem to be a special sub-subculture within metal. One experience we've all had: wearing a Maiden shirt and having some total stranger start a conversation because of it. Other band shirts may cause that sometimes, but Maiden does it all the time.
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Thread over. SMX wins.
 
pilau said:
Thread over. SMX wins.
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Not sure I completely agree here.  I've been to quite a few metal shows, and while I wouldn't say most metal fans are rude, I would say that on at the Maiden show did the fans really all talk to one another, sing together, and throw horns together.  That was a first for me.  Granted, I am talking concerts specifically, where the best and worst tends to come out.  In general, metal fans are pretty awesome and laid back, good natured folks.  But concerts separate the men from the boys, so to speak.
 
chaosapiant said:
concerts separate the men from the boys, so to speak.
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True, but after 11 concerts I can say that I have no problem whatsoever with Metal crowds. True, sometimes it can get violent, especially in the first rows. When we're not talking about young people up to age 20 or so then you can definitely say most Metal fans are really nice people to bump into. They acknowledge other metalheads just for being metalheads. There's this certain feeling of "you and me we're on the same page".
 
pilau said:
True, but after 11 concerts I can say that I have no problem whatsoever with Metal crowds. True, sometimes it can get violent, especially in the first rows. When we're not talking about young people up to age 20 or so then you can definitely say most Metal fans are really nice people to bump into. They acknowledge other metalheads just for being metalheads. There's this certain feeling of "you and me we're on the same page".
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I wouldn't be so sure about that.

There's not many bands out there who can match the number of people who are "in the know" about Maiden, so to speak. I just got done being in a shitstorm with a black metal fan who was pissing on Maiden on another forum. Instead of telling me why Maiden sucks, I get told to rot. Dude is telling me he can't wait for the day Maiden dies and the BM circle can be happy about it. Let me ask you: Do you know any devoted Maiden fan who says this kind of shit?

I find fans of Maiden to be the best group of metal fans on the planet. They don't shit on other bands for the sake of shitting on them. There are zero superiority issues here. I've seen a ton more people act like jackasses at other concerts than I ever have at Maiden's. You ever talked to a hardcore death metal fan? I've met a couple who think Maiden is band full of wusses. But if I said "Fuck DM because their singers don't sing", I'll have an angry herd of black t-shirt wearing douchebags telling me to go kill myself.

Janick said it perfectly: "If you like our music, God bless you. If you don't, God bless you."

Now I do try to follow that lead, but my urges to tell some pompous "hardcore" fan off when they say some stupid shit about the band gets the best of me.

Maybe we like Maiden so much, we would rather be listening to their music rather than finding something wrong with someone else's.
 
I think the biggest contributing factor, is that Maiden are by far, the biggest, and least corporate band in the world.  In fact, I think only Metallica and possibly Ozzy are bigger.  But both of them are corporate and mainstream, for better or for worse. Maiden is still underground in a sense, yet sells out arena, flies their own jet, and headlines the biggest festivals, everytime they play them, without question.  Maiden fans are the best and biggest "secret club" in all of metal.  People who casually listen to music or the radio may very well go to an Ozzfest as a fun night out, but typically only Maiden fans are going to see their favorite band as an event, not just something to do.
 
Not in Europe (especially Scandinavia) so much.  Maiden is pretty much mainstream, even if it's sometimes hard to find people who listen to the band.  Maiden is listened to casually, people go to Maiden shows even if they don't appreciate it, and Maiden fans definitely aren't a secret club.  I sometimes get blasted by certain metal fans since I'm "too mainstream"... Those guys usually listen to Avenged Sevenfold or Korn or something along those lines.  Of course, there's also a great amount of hard core fans, and those are what you see at the front of a Maiden concert and lining up for hours, but sometimes I feel more like putting on some other metal shirt than Maiden just because it feels so mainstream.
 
Invader said:
Not in Europe (especially Scandinavia) so much.  Maiden is pretty much mainstream, even if it's sometimes hard to find people who listen to the band.  Maiden is listened to casually, people go to Maiden shows even if they don't appreciate it, and Maiden fans definitely aren't a secret club.  I sometimes get blasted by certain metal fans since I'm "too mainstream"... Those guys usually listen to Avenged Sevenfold or Korn or something along those lines.  Of course, there's also a great amount of hard core fans, and those are what you see at the front of a Maiden concert and lining up for hours, but sometimes I feel more like putting on some other metal shirt than Maiden just because it feels so mainstream.
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Well, my only experience is with American crowds.  Korn and Avenged Sevenfold and such bands are much more mainstream here.  I have to go out of my way to find someone who actually like Maiden, and then it's still a stretch as most people say "I thought they broke up" or "They are still making new albums?" 
 
In June my roomie and I were wandering the parking lot of the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord, CA, looking for a place to hide and partake of cannabis (Hey. I'm 23, just finished college, and do it once in a blue moon, no need to judge :P) and two latin dudes invited us into the back of their pickup truck for a couple of beers. It seemed a bit off, but no they were just two normal dudes who were just enjoying the sunny late afternoon with a couple of beers, and about to go in to see a show they were excited for.

We sat and chatted about Maiden and other metal, and concerts in general, and just had a grand ol time.

You can't do that with strangers anywhere else anymore.
 
LordMaiden said:
I just got done being in a shitstorm with a black metal fan who was pissing on Maiden on another forum. Instead of telling me why Maiden sucks, I get told to rot. Dude is telling me he can't wait for the day Maiden dies and the BM circle can be happy about it. Let me ask you: Do you know any devoted Maiden fan who says this kind of shit?
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Well I don't really think you should take this person seriously at all. He sounds like a stupid douchebag kid and quite not a representative type of person in the metal community. Of course every social group has it's black sheep.

Invader said:
Not in [...] Scandinavia.  Maiden is pretty much mainstream. [...] Maiden is listened to casually, people go to Maiden shows even if they don't appreciate it, and Maiden fans definitely aren't a secret club. [...] Of course, there's also a great amount of hard core fans, and those are what you see at the front of a Maiden concert and lining up for hours, but sometimes I feel more like putting on some other metal shirt than Maiden just because it feels so mainstream.
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I understand exactly what you mean - and I even got to experience it - I was there last Wednesday. However I must say that the hardcore Maiden fans in Norway can easily challenge the South Americans.

chaosapiant said:
Well, my only experience is with American crowds. Korn and Avenged Sevenfold and such bands are much more mainstream here.  I have to go out of my way to find someone who actually like Maiden, and then it's still a stretch as most people say "I thought they broke up" or "They are still making new albums?"  
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It's the same for my case. My experience with Metal is limited to the Israeli scene and though there are many metalheads here who listen to Maiden and might consider themselves as (big) fans I never met someone who is as enthusiastic about Maiden as I am. But I have found out that most metalheads here are really nice people who enjoy the music and enjoy being part of the underground 'society' or whatever you may call that. And again, I am not talking about teenagers. They're a completely different story.
 
At a Devin Townsend/Cynic/Between the Buried and Me show, I met a group of older Israeli metalheads who were visiting.

They were some seriously cool people, I had a good time drinking beer and watching Cynic do their thing with these guys at the bar. Seems like the rest of the world gets it right when it comes to cultural experiences.
 
This is really cool! It's nice for me to hear about Israelis behaving nice outside our country because we have a very bad reputation as tourists.

By the way, Cynic are really awesome, my drumming teacher introduced them to me about a month ago and I'm really hooked since then!
 
Cynic is wonderful!!! Glad they got mentioned. I strongly recommend to anyone to pick Cynic Live at a festival in Norway 2007. It's on youtube, track by track. Mind blowing!!! :edmetal:
 
pilau said:
This is really cool! It's nice for me to hear about Israelis behaving nice outside our country because we have a very bad reputation as tourists.
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Trust me, I know how you feel about that one :P

I'm from San Francisco. No matter where I go in this country I'm a pariah because of that. When I leave the country, I'm a pariah because I'm American.

I think it's interesting to see that despite all the differences that people like to rage about, most humans are ultimately cut from similar cloth.
 
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