Which of the reunion albums had the most interesting tour connected to it?

Dick Brucinson

Dick Brucinson

Bruce Dolci
First to start off with what this thread is NOT about: It's NOT about which album songs simply sounded best live during the related tour. At the best this could be only one of several aspects to the question, so there's more things you might wanna consider. For example: The general working of the toured album songs together with the further songs chosen for the particular tours setlist, taken as an entire package. You also might wanna include some thoughts of stage designs, themes and anything else that appeals important to you for whatever reason. So: The ultimate reunion album tour for you?

I myself would answer my own question clearly with Dance Of Death. The album itself ranges not much higher than just on an average level among all their reunion albums for me, but there was never a minute of boredeom from the beginning to the end of their 2003/2004 shows - saying this by having seen them four nights within a period of one month back then. The stage (castle) looked awesome, and instead of digging out stuff from their previous album, Brave New World, they put some effort to keep it all exciting on a maximum level. Lord Of The Flies was a super cool surprise that worked out well in its context, the lights during No More Lies were mind blowing, and having Journeyman part of the set was really unique. Their most exciting reunion album tour IMO.
 
Dance Of Death was my immediate thought as well.

Brave New World had a great setlist, that focused heavily on the new album, had a healthy dose of classics and a few wildcards like the Blaze songs, which loses a bit of a special feel considering the overlap with the Ed Huntour.

AMOLAD had the ballsy move to play the entire album. I love the idea and I'm so happy that they went for it (where's the live album Rod?!), but it also limited the overall setlist.

TFF's first leg was an interesting setlist, but doesn't really count as an album tour for me. The second leg only took a few of the TFF songs and I wish they'd have done more with it. Though I appreciate DOD making another appearance.

TBOS is another strong contender, with an interesting setlist and an amazing show.

SNJ only got a hybrid tour, which is great as well, but loses some points imo when only talking about the he point of view of post-reunion albums, since a third of the show is focused on SIT.

Now, back to Dance Of Death. A bit more than half of the album made the setlist. The mandatory classics are present of course, but there's also CIPWM, which hadn't been played for ages at that point, if I recall correctly. BNW being played was much appreciated as well, because it showed that they won't completely ignore the reunion albums. Lord Of The Flies is a major factor for why I rate that tour so high. They didn't have to play it or any Blaze songs for that matter, but they still went for it. Add to all this the great stage design and the reaper Eddie (who looks so much better than on the original cover) and you got a modern classic.
Since I grew up in Dortmund it was awesome to have a live album from your hometown (though I didn't see them live back then unfortunately), but in hindsight I wish we would've gotten a show where Bruce wasn't sick. Can't have it all I suppose.
 
Between A Matter of Life and Death, and The Book of Souls for me.

A Matter of Life of death because of the novelty of the whole whole album being played in full, and also I loved the look of the stage with the big fuck off search lights and the Tank Eddie with the tracks built into the set. It's an absolute tragedy that there hasn't been an official release of this tour.

The Book of Souls because it's the tour that brought Maiden back from the dead. After Maiden England, it seemed like the band were running out of steam. Then with Bruce's cancer and his subsequent recovery, it seemed like they had a second (or third life) as soon as they kicked off in Fort Lauderdale in 2016. Not only did the album tracks sound amazing live, with IESF being the best concert opener since Moonchild, but the staging was fresh and exciting, and it probably had the best setlist of any album tour since Brave New World - dusting off tracks like Powerslave and Children of the Damned and even breathing new life into Wasted Years by putting it as the closer.
 
I would say they have all been winners besides Final Frontier. Low(er) representation of the new album and a pretty uninspired selection of classics. It was especially baffling coming off of the 2010 leg which remains one of Maiden’s most daring setlists. And yet 2011, not 2010 or even 2006 got the dvd. :facepalm:

Dance of Death isn’t particularly special in terms of song selection, but the increased theatricality and stage design was stunning. A special tour.

Brave New World and Book of Souls are tied for best sets that incorporated new songs and an interesting selection of classics. BNW managed to cover nearly every album and a couple great choices of deep cuts, Book of Souls broke some rules by including songs that at the time typically seemed reserved for nostalgia tours (Powerslave, COTD, Wasted Years). It also proved that you could please Play Classics fans and still play a lot of new stuff.

AMOLAD and now Future Past are probably the Crown Jewels though. Playing the new album live particularly when 80s bands playing classic albums live remains the most badass thing Maiden has done. The hybrid aspect of Future Past is such a good idea you can’t help but feel they could have saved time and squeezed out a new album or two by doing that all along (imagine something like Seventh Son/TFF and Powerslave/TBOS). I guess they kinda tried with A Matter of the Beast, but that was a weak attempt which did little justice to either album. I also liked that they managed to showcase a larger spread of songs by bringing Senjutsu into the nostalgia tour, another thing that would have been interesting to see them do before.
 
Clearly AMOLAD first and Future Past tour comes second by a lot. If ATG weren't in the playlist it would have been another tour, so I cannot treat those 2 tours equally.
 
All are interesting (maybe without the 2011 one; the 2010 one is not an album tour), but the most interesting? TFP and AMOLAD. Because of the choice of songs and stage for the former.

The tours that were a perfect blend (stage and some songs selection) are TBOS and DOD.

DOD and BNW probably incorporated the use of new songs in the set the best.
 
Mosh said:
you can’t help but feel they could have saved time and squeezed out a new album or two by doing that all along (imagine something like Seventh Son/TFF and Powerslave/TBOS). I guess they kinda tried with A Matter of the Beast, but that was a weak attempt which did little justice to either album.
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Cool idea, but that would have limited the setlists (like in 2007) and that's not good, unless the songs are deep cuts.
Mosh said:
I also liked that they managed to showcase a larger spread of songs by bringing Senjutsu into the nostalgia tour, another thing that would have been interesting to see them do before.
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I'm really grateful for that (I love the 2 SJ songs), but I don't think it would work on a History tour. Only in 2022, 2010 and 2003.
 
The Dance of death tour, with the mask, WWI outfit, the acoustic song, sound effects and great setlist wins it for me.

I kind of like all the recent album tours, cause they all had some surprising moments and songs!
 
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