Strangest setlist inclusions? (SPOILER FREE)

A Matter of the Beast was such an obvious protest by the band that it's actually kind of amusing. Promised five and five off of AMOLAD and NotB, delivered five and four. Hell, at the first four gigs they didn't even play Children of the Damned for a miserable 14 song setlist. I'm still surprised they were going to make a DVD of the Donington gig given how badly neutered the setlist was.

A more seasoned fan coulda left after For the Greater Good of God and not missed anything, and that was only the eighth song on the set. Given those eight also contain The Trooper and Wrathchild, they only played six non-staples on that tour which is a stunningly poor ratio.
 
Ruflux said:
A more seasoned fan coulda left after For the Greater Good of God and not missed anything
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Bizarre conclusion. By that logic why even go to Maiden gigs if you've seen most of the songs they are likely to play already?
 
It's more meant to be a commentary on how they structured the setlists. Practically all the staples were just lumped together towards the end, rather than being more evenly distributed. Similarly, they specifically played staples instead of being at least a little creative with the not-NotB or AMOLAD tracks. It just felt like incredibly lazy setlist construction to me.
 
How A Matter Of The Beast 2007 set should be IMO:

1. Different World
2. These Colours Don't Run
3. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
4. The Trooper
5. The Prisoner
6. Children Of The Damned
7. 22 Acacia Avenue
8. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
9. For The Greater Good Of God
10. The Number Of The Beast
11. Run To The Hills
12. Fear Of The Dark
13. Iron Maiden
---------------------------------------
14. 2 Minutes To Midnight
15. The Evil That Men Do
16. Hallowed Be Thy Name

Apart from Trooper, IM, FOTD, 2MTM and TETMD every song is from either AMLOAD or TNOTB.
 
- The number of NPFTD songs on the album tour. Most of them probably works well live, but I would have cut out The Assasin and the title track (I like this song, but did it work in a live setting?). They also didn’t play The evil that men do until the very last shows, I think it’s odd they didn’t play it regulary on this tour, since it charted pretty well I think.
- Wasting love being played in 92-93
- the blaze tours: they should have dropped The trooper, it must have been a tough song for Blaze. Also playing The aftermath-Sign of the cross-2 minutes to midnight-the edge of darkness in 95-96 must have been a long piss break for those who weren’t there to hear songs from TXF! I like the VXI setlist alot better.
- having Journeyman in the encore in 2003-04 was a brilliant move I think
- having FOTD in set setlist in 2008-09, 2012-14, ATSS 2012-13. I really love both of them and hope ATSS will be played live again, but this left out that 80’s feel the band supposedly were out to recreate
 
Sth2112 said:
- The number of NPFTD songs on the album tour. Most of them probably works well live, but I would have cut out The Assasin and the title track (I like this song, but did it work in a live setting?). They also didn’t play The evil that men do until the very last shows, I think it’s odd they didn’t play it regulary on this tour, since it charted pretty well I think.
- Wasting love being played in 92-93
- the blaze tours: they should have dropped The trooper, it must have been a tough song for Blaze. Also playing The aftermath-Sign of the cross-2 minutes to midnight-the edge of darkness in 95-96 must have been a long piss break for those who weren’t there to hear songs from TXF! I like the VXI setlist alot better.
- having Journeyman in the encore in 2003-04 was a brilliant move I think
- having FOTD in set setlist in 2008-09, 2012-14, ATSS 2012-13. I really love both of them and hope ATSS will be played live again, but this left out that 80’s feel the band supposedly were out to recreate
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NPFTD was great live and since it's the title song there's no way they not gonna play it. A hidden classic.

Wasting Love was perfect in 1992/1993 - Maiden should play it live again.

Agree about Journeyman and not only Trooper was hard for Blaze to sing live.
 
1 - FOTD being played during Somewhere Back In Time and Maiden England Tour. Here's why:
  • It makes no sense chronologically speaking (and that's curious because they didn't include it - rightfuly so - during the 2005 tour)
  • While having great sing alongs in between solos, FOTD is without shadow of doubt the most overplayed and overrated song from the entire catalogue.
  • It could make room for songs like: Alexander The Great, Sea Of Madness or Stranger In Strange Land during SBIT and Infinite Dreams, Killers or Still Life in ME.
2 - The way Killers and Somewhere In Time are "disrespected" by the band when it comes to setlists:
  • If we put aside the Early Years Tour only 1 song - appart from Wrathchild - from Killers was picked by the band to feature setlists since 1988!!!!!!!!!!!!! (!!!!!). That song was Murders In The Rue Morgue in 1998 and it was only played during a portion of the Virtual XI tour. They also played Killers back in 1999 but the setlist was chosen by the fans. Where's Killers? Purgatory?
  • As for Somewhere In Time, other than obvious (and wonderful) Wasted Years and the magnificent Heaven Can Wait, no other song was picked by the band to feature a live setlist since THE VERY 1986 SOMEWHERE IN TIME TOUR!!! Stranger In A Strange Land was played back in 199 but then again the setlist was chosen by the fans. Fan favorites like Alexander The Great, Stranger In A Strange Land or amazing songs like LOTLDR and Sea Of Madness have been completely ignored for almost 32 years. Unbelievable.
 
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Kalata said:
NPFTD was great live and since it's the title song there's no way they not gonna play it. A hidden classic.
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Yup... and unlike the strangely crappy vocal delivery in the studio version, Bruce really nails this one live. The only song I from NPOTR I question the inclusion is Hooks In You... WHY?

Kalata said:
Wasting Love was perfect in 1992/1993
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Yes it was... for me to get something to drink at the bar :P .

Kalata said:
Maiden should play it live again.
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As for Blaze back in 1995/1998 they sould've played all the Bruce era songs downtuned. And in the case of the following, Blaze should be absolutery FORBIDDEN to sing them without downtuning:
  • The Evil That Men Do (that chorus... aggonizing!)
  • The Trooper (simply awful... even the sing along!)
  • Heaven Can Wait (oh God... make him stop! My eardrums are bleeding!)
I think the Blaze situation was easy to solve... Maiden sould have downtune to D. It would fit Blaze's pitch way better (though I doubt that Heaven Can Wait would) and wouldn't compromise the original songs integrity (Hey! Priest did it in the 90's and workedout fine!)
 
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