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.
Let's compare the setlist of this album tour and that of the previous one (based on
En Vivo but taking into account that it underwent changes from its original form) and relish on how methodically they are designed.
1. Satellite 15 / The Final Frontier - 1. If Eternity Should Fail
2. El Dorado - 2. Speed of Light
In both cases, the openers of the album. The Necropolis bit tend to create a first pause - which the segue of "TFF" into "El Dorado" managed to avoid - but I think it is a question of equipment (tuning? I haven't checked yet).
3. 2 Minutes to Midnight - 3. Children of the Damned
4. The Talisman (!) - 4. Tears of a Clown
5. Coming Home
An oldie or classic, followed by the slower song from the new album. (!) Remember that "The Talisman" used to be between "TETMD" and "FOTD" when the tour started in Russia in February 2011)
6. Dance of Death - 5. The Red and the Black
The first big complex one.
7. The Trooper - 6. The Trooper
'Nuff said
(a good way to inject some power and speed back into the show)
8. The Wicker Man - 7. Powerslave
9. Blood Brothers - 8. Death or Glory
10. When the Wild Wind Blows - 9. The Book of Souls
The "thick of it", in which the climax is represented by the long, complex song from the new album (or one of those, when there are several on the album, in this case "TRATB" and "TBOS" - "EOTC" not being eligible for live performance).
11. The Evil That Men Do - 10. Hallowed Be Thy Name
(11'. The Talisman - in the first dates of the tour)
A classic that more or less has the same dynamic and crowd-pleasing function as "The Trooper" but a bit longer and/or more complex.
12. Fear of the Dark - 11. Fear of the Dark
13. Iron Maiden - 12. Iron Maiden
The "mandadory" end sequence of any Iron Maiden set: it seems that, while "Iron Maiden" has always occupied this spot, "FOTD" - after being played in the late middle of the set when it was new in 1992/93 - has grown to accompany it "naturally" (like ZZ Top's "Jesus Just Left Chicago" with "Waiting for the Bus" - though in this case, it is more of a technical coincidence they have exploited). Can someone research for how long it has been at this spot? From memory, it must be since "the X Factour" (20 years...).
Encores
14. The Number of the Beast - 13. The Number of the Beast
Another "mandatory" one - with the first comers and classic-oriented members of the audience, but still a shoe-in to get the crowd pleased and excited. The only time it was put aside was in the first leg of the AMOLAD tour. I feel that this song is just "predictable" or "boring" on paper only, not when you are in the crowd.
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name - 14. Blood Brothers
16. Running Free - 15. Wasted Years
This part seems to be where Maiden has been the most original compared to the previous tour, even though each song can be labelled a 'classic' (even "BB" for a lot of Maiden fans - I for one still consider it a rather new song, but it is starting to change
). The only analytical aspect I can make out of these for the moment is that there is one song which is about relatively 'passively' appreciating it ("HBTN", "Wasted Years") and another one which requires more crowd participation ("Running Free", "Blood Brothers"), and that this order has been reversed from one tour to another.
To conclude, this comparison shows how well thought-out Maiden setlists are in so far as they offer a mix of predictability and surprise, while taking into account at the same time the physical capacities of the musicians (see "The Talisman", displaced because it was too much for Bruce's voice at this moment of the concert).
