A lot of talking about the future now, so I'll go 23 hours into the past and give my little review of the show.
First, The Raven Age. They were OK. Then time for an hour of anticipation, and finally the familiar UFO song came on. The reaction from the crowd where I was located - right at the fence of the main standing area, behind the front section - was nothing to write home about and I must say I've been in livelier crowds.
Then ... could it be? Was it really the
Blade Runner theme and did that mean what I thought it meant? Hell yeah! The smile almost went around my head. Finally CSIT! When they followed up with SIASL I felt that I had already gotten value for my ticket. WOTW finally got some of rhe more casual consert-goers into some singing, but I was singing along on auto-pilot while still digesting the fact I had heard Adrian play his SIASL solo live.
DOFP didn't stand out despite being the title track for the tour, but I think the sound was a bit muddy where I was standing for that one. Bruce teased us with talk about a deja vu, before they ventured into The Time Machine. I was pleasantly surprised when The Prisoner followed, a very cool song they should play more often. A little more talking from Bruce led us to Death of the Celts, which I believe sounded good and probably would have got a more active crowd moving.
A couple of hits in Madness and HCW got the crowd going a bit more, but what went on in the crowd for the next song I honestly cannot tell. AS soon as the wind started blowing I was in my own world. That they finally played ATG ... that alone would be worth the ticket. It turned out Adrian COULD play the solo after all
As expected, the main set ended with FOTD and Iron Maiden, but I must say they managed to surprise me again when the encore started with my favourite song from Senjutsu - Hell on Earth. Hope it's not the last time they play this. Finishing with Trooper and WY made sure the show ended with good energy. Not playing Hallowed was a surprise, but understandable given how many long songs they had in the set.
I couldn't hear any big issues with Nicko's drumming although there were a couple of times where the band wasn't as tight as they normally are. I must say that the guitar solos sounded great, especially Adrian who really gets a chance to shine on this tour. Bruce was in great form as well.
Highlight: The setlist. Loved it!
Minus: The crowd. The band deserved better. I didn't even need to work hard to keep my spot.
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