The Official Book of Souls Tour 2016 Thread (Warning: Spoilers within!)
- Thread starter Collin
- Start date
btx109
Trooper
Regarding setlists, keep in mind that Maiden have a lot of people to satisfy. First and foremost they have to please themselves. It has to be fun for them, otherwise playing would become a chore instead of a joy. On album tours they are promoting new product, so they have to learn & incorporate new material into their set. Since the expectation is for new fans to buy the album, they must choose which songs they believe are best represented in a live context, which might not necessarily be what hardcore fans believe are the best tracks. Hence, one of the reasons for no "EOTC."
Then there are audience considerations. For knowledgeable, hardcore fans like most of us they try to throw in a rare or deep album cut...on this tour it's "COTD," on the last Maiden England tour it was "Afraid To Shoot Strangers" and "Phantom Of The Opera." My two wishes for this tour were COTD and "Flight Of Icarus." I got one of them. And last tour, I LOVED "POTO"! I would love to have heard "Infinite Dreams" over "The Clairvoyant" but again, taking everything into account it was difficult to argue with "Phantom..." and "SSOASS."
Finally, you have brand new fans seeing the band for the first time and long-time fans who haven't seen them in years. I too heard people leaving Mandalay Bay grousing about not hearing "RTTH" or "2MTM." Hard for me to relate but I get it. Those classic songs for many are what the band is all about...the songs that they remember from high school or some other point in their past. So they're always going to play "The Trooper," "NOTB" and "FOTD." They'll always close the set with "Iron Maiden," which still gets me hyped. When you toss all of that into the pot, I think they do a fantastic job of assembling a well-paced, full production each tour with something hopefully to please everyone. With a catalog as deep as theirs, it's impossible to please everyone. For example, I LOVED the decision to play "AMOLAD" in its entirety, but I heard a large segment of the audience at Irvine Meadows booing halfway through the set. Unlike most bands Maiden has very few duds or filler material on their albums. They're remarkably consistent. Even an album like "NPFTD," probably my least favorite album, has some great cuts on it.
And lastly, the boys aren't young pups anymore. For what they give each night onstage, I think we're privileged to get what we do from them. Hell, I'd love to see "For The Greater Good Of God" again but my guess is we'll get that one the same time that they finally perform "Alexander..." live.
Then there are audience considerations. For knowledgeable, hardcore fans like most of us they try to throw in a rare or deep album cut...on this tour it's "COTD," on the last Maiden England tour it was "Afraid To Shoot Strangers" and "Phantom Of The Opera." My two wishes for this tour were COTD and "Flight Of Icarus." I got one of them. And last tour, I LOVED "POTO"! I would love to have heard "Infinite Dreams" over "The Clairvoyant" but again, taking everything into account it was difficult to argue with "Phantom..." and "SSOASS."
Finally, you have brand new fans seeing the band for the first time and long-time fans who haven't seen them in years. I too heard people leaving Mandalay Bay grousing about not hearing "RTTH" or "2MTM." Hard for me to relate but I get it. Those classic songs for many are what the band is all about...the songs that they remember from high school or some other point in their past. So they're always going to play "The Trooper," "NOTB" and "FOTD." They'll always close the set with "Iron Maiden," which still gets me hyped. When you toss all of that into the pot, I think they do a fantastic job of assembling a well-paced, full production each tour with something hopefully to please everyone. With a catalog as deep as theirs, it's impossible to please everyone. For example, I LOVED the decision to play "AMOLAD" in its entirety, but I heard a large segment of the audience at Irvine Meadows booing halfway through the set. Unlike most bands Maiden has very few duds or filler material on their albums. They're remarkably consistent. Even an album like "NPFTD," probably my least favorite album, has some great cuts on it.
And lastly, the boys aren't young pups anymore. For what they give each night onstage, I think we're privileged to get what we do from them. Hell, I'd love to see "For The Greater Good Of God" again but my guess is we'll get that one the same time that they finally perform "Alexander..." live.
Collin
Chasing Ponce De Leon's Phantoms
I'm not sure that we'll ever see another song from AMOLAD again in a setlist.
Lego
Ancient Mariner
Same... perhaps next year, you never know. Certainly more likely to happen than Icarus or SIASL.
btx109
Trooper
For what it's worth, I don't think that "EOTC" would go down well live nearly as well as it seems like it would. Myself, I'd prefer if they traded "TOAC" for "The Great Unknown," which I thought they'd play based on Adrian stating that he dreaded performing it live because of the tuning.
Collin
Chasing Ponce De Leon's Phantoms
What tuning is it? I'm pretty sure it's standard tuning.
Lego
Ancient Mariner
As much as I'd love to have a GMETID-style setlist with nearly all albums represented, their farewell tour will probably just be Somewhere Back In Maiden England part 3. Aces, 2 mins, wrath, TETMD, etc.A couple pages ago someone brought up a very interesting point and projected timeline of what Maiden has left. We can talk about that all we want, but the real question is.. will Iron Maiden play Alexander on the Farewell tour?
matic22
Ancient Mariner
I think it's an open D (DADF#AD) with capo on the 2nd fret. Adrian stated that he used that in an interview. The other guitars are standard.
Edit: Here is the part of interview:
When discussing the third track on the album, “The Great Unknown,” Smith even revealed a hint about the setlist for the upcoming tour, adding, “I was messing around with a tuning, an open D tuning [DADF#AD]… It sounds very strange, but it kind of works. “The Great Unknown’s” riff came out of that tuning, really. But I also used a capo on it, which makes it weirder, and I’m dreading playing it live [laughs]. But that’s a different little thing I did on this album.
btx109
Trooper
I don't think they'll do a farewell tour. I think they're at the stage where they'll go on for as long as it's profitable and physically possible for them to do it. They appear to still have a lot of gas left in the tank both creatively & physically and with the success of this album & tour, seems within the realm of possibility that they may have another go-round in them following this one. They're still playing & performing at a very high level.
matic22
Ancient Mariner
I also think an official farewell tour will not happen, because that closes the doors for the future. And if you decide to do it again, the fans might feel used. If they do it it would be something like Rush's R40; nothing official, but most of the fans know that it's over with touring. Also as I stated before and as Jan and other members of the band stated, the history tours are over. I can see them recording new album in late 2017 / early 2018, and then a short 3-month tour and more in 2019.
Ironalice
Ancient Mariner
The history tours may be over but i can see a tour before the next album along the lines of the gimme ed tour , nothing too major just a brief summer run like in 03 And Donnington 92 will be released on DVD at some point so I could see a Be Quick back in the set etc etc
matic22
Ancient Mariner
Yup with a new single in the set, I can see that in summer of 2018. There is also a strong possibility of the 97-99 Dickinson solo band reforming for an album. Roy Z has stated numerous times on Facebook that he would love to work with Adrian again.
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
I generally don't take photos or videos of concerts -- and I'm annoyed at the army of people who obstruct my view with their phones -- but I did quickly snap this image, which I think is pretty cool:
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Black Bart
Ancient Mariner
Unfortunately, you are referring to a Dream Theater that doesn't exist anymore (the one from 1996-7 to 2005 or so it seems). And only the fear of being off-topic prevents me from saying more about their utterly disappointing evolution.
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