Albuquerque was great... but a little weird. The whole venue, even though it's outside, smells like a stale ashtray. Not active cigarette smoke, mind you... but an ashtray that's been laying around the house and needs to be emptied... and the carpet and drapes have the same odor. Like... okay, well, kind of like a heavily used motel room. Ew.
But... back to the important stuff... the show. Closest I've ever been for Maiden. I think that pit's only like 30 feet deep or something. So we were about 20 feet from the stage all night. The wind had been blowing up a dust storm all day and I think it trashed Bruce's voice. But, the band's energy more than made up for it. Seeing all the solos that close up was frickin' beautiful, and we were on Dave's side, so there was that ear to ear smile all night.
My friends got stuck in traffic, and one of their tickets was on my credit card for entry, so I missed most of Ghost. Only got to see Monstrous Clock, dammit. I can't really complain, because I'm seeing them here in Denver in a week and a half, anyway.
No event shirt, not surprisingly, as it was a much smaller venue in the (apologies, Albuquerque) middle of nowhere. But that's cool, I've got enough shirts anyways. I did pick up the patch, and can't wait to put it on a black Redkap work shirt. That's gonna look groovy.
Once again, great show, as always... can't wait for the next one!