I wonder if Maiden will play another big surprise like FOI for next year's 3rd leg or for next album tour (if they change the setlist...., I think this time they will change it, because it is the 3rd leg and on ME tour 3rd leg they changed 3 songs)?
Most likely not. Flight of Icarus was more or less expected to be played at some point anyway, and it's highly unrealistic for another cut like that to be dusted off for next year's leg alone. Sure, something like The Clairvoyant, Phantom of the Opera, Brave New World, Afraid to Shoot Strangers, Die With Your Boots On or even The Prisoner does indeed have a fair chance to be featured as a "childrenofthedamnedpowerslaveafraidtoshootstrangers" of the next album tour, but no, nothing as big as FOI for next year. One real surprise (surrounded by pre-tour media hype based on Bruce's comments) and a couple of TBOS-tour like adventurous moves maybe.
But that's another speculation anyway.
At least that's what I believe.
Anyway, I mean FOI was played for the first time since 1986! and will Maiden be again brave enough (and not lazy) to return a song like ''To Tame A Land'' (it's unlikely, because it was played only on one tour) - but I remember an interview with Steve from 1983 where he said something like: ''I'm really proud of POTO, but TTAL is the best song I've ever written''./
Not for next year and I doubt anything that big would return for next (album?) tour either. I do believe that one or two of the mentioned "deep-cutish" classics have a fair chance to return for the next cycle, but To Tame a Land seems a bit too complex and demanding to be thrown in at this point. I think it's more likely for them to dust off another rarely played song or two than not, but not quite in To Tame a Land, ATG etc. scale. To be fair, there's not that many big show centerpieces left to dust off anyway, since ROTAM, SSOASS and SOTC have all been played within about 10 years and there's a couple of huge, longer songs in their more recent recordings too that have some potential to reappear in the live set.
The biggest surprise will be ATG (of course), but also songs like ''The Fallen Angel'' and ''Out Of The Silent Planet'' could return? Why not. They were played a couple of times in 2001. Or something completely out of the blue like ''Mother Russia'', for example.
Yes they were, and Maiden has indeed thrown in one or two relatively surprising or at least, in their standards, adventurous picks for almost every tour in recent memory and I
do believe that the trend will continue. However, I'd expect it to be along the lines of previously mentioned selection. Dusting off Stranger in a Strange Land (just an example) sounds
relatively plausible, but it's far from being super likely. And The Fallen Angel and Out of the Silent Planet - not to even mention Mother Russia - are so
out there that there's just no chance for them to be played.
Feel free to mock me if I end up guessing wrong, though!
Think it this way: when looking at the nature of those songs and the role they'd most likely play in a Maiden setlist structure, especially Mother Russia and The Fallen Angel, there's so much more iconic and better songs to pick to a 15-16 song set.
I'm all in for cool setlist curiosities, but looking at bigger picture, potential for being a huge setlist curiosity doesn't make song worthy setlist pick alone. In other words, of course The Fallen Angel is technically more of a rare song and an interesting setlist curiosity than, say, The Clairvoyant, Wasted Years, or Powerslave, but looking at the big picture, not that many would actually replace any of the mentioned not-quite-staple-but-definitely-classics picks with The Fallen Angel.
So, in the end, looking at the concept of LOTB and potential song selection in the first place, the expected structure of the next (potentially an album tour) tour cycle
and the pool of songs they'll most likely choose from... There's just very, very little to
absolutely no reason and chance for something like Mother Russia or The Fallen Angel to be played.
As for next year's speculated set, they might very well make little changes. I don't believe in more than two or three changes, one per set piece maybe, maybe not even that. There's not many songs in the main set that seem very replaceable anyway.
