why do maiden slow down their songs live?

R

runningfree

Invader
ive noticed that nowadays maiden play quite a bit of their songs slower than the studio versions. i dont know when they started doing this, but i noticed this on rock in rio (almost all the songs are played slower than the studio versions). i also watched maiden playing at rock am ring on that live internet broadcast they had for it, and noticed the same thing. now im not necessarily saying that this is a bad thing...and sometimes slowing the tempo a bit i find actually makes the sound more powerful and heavy. but i just wish they would play some of their songs at least at studio speed. songs like iron maiden, wrathchild, sanctuary, prowler..a lot of the really early stuff..are supposed to be really energetic songs but maiden has slowed down all of these live, and although they still kick ass, i think they would be a lot better at at least their original speed so as to capture all the liveliness of these songs. even some newer songs could sound better faster..for example if songs like the wicker man or blood brothers or even fear of the dark could have been done had a higher tempo at rock in rio..i think i would have enjoyed the dvd a little more than i do now (not to say that i dont enjoy it already!!). now if you watch live at rainbow or beast over hammersmith or even maiden england, they play the songs normal speed or in some cases even faster then their studio counterparts (especially in the first two i mentioned). so does anyone know why they have slowed down? is it to lengthen their set to fit the time alotted to them instead of having to rehearse more songs? or is it just cuz their gettin old (thats probably not it but hey..i dont know!). so anyone have an idea?
 
Maybe because they're getting old? Also consider the third guitarist, it may be easier for them to play in sync with a slower pace.
 
Fear of the dark seems faster in the Studio too, unless i'm just imagining things.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-runningfree+Jul 18 2005, 12:24 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(runningfree @ Jul 18 2005, 12:24 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]ive noticed that nowadays maiden play quite a bit of their songs slower than the studio versions. i dont know when they started doing this, but i noticed this on rock in rio (almost all the songs are played slower than the studio versions). i also watched maiden playing at rock am ring on that live internet broadcast they had for it, and noticed the same thing. now im not necessarily saying that this is a bad thing...and sometimes slowing the tempo a bit i find actually makes the sound more powerful and heavy. but i just wish they would play some of their songs at least at studio speed. songs like iron maiden, wrathchild, sanctuary, prowler..a lot of the really early stuff..are supposed to be really energetic songs but maiden has slowed down all of these live, and although they still kick ass, i think they would be a lot better at at least their original speed so as to capture all the liveliness of these songs. even some newer songs could sound better faster..for example if songs like the wicker man or blood brothers or even fear of the dark could have been done had a higher tempo at rock in rio..i think i would have enjoyed the dvd a little more than i do now (not to say that i dont enjoy it already!!). now if you watch live at rainbow or beast over hammersmith or even maiden england, they play the songs normal speed or in some cases even faster then their studio counterparts (especially in the first two i mentioned). so does anyone know why they have slowed down? is it to lengthen their set to fit the time alotted to them instead of having to rehearse more songs? or is it just cuz their gettin old (thats probably not it but hey..i dont know!). so anyone have an idea?
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I can't be sure, but I think it has something to do with your poor paragraph sctructure and general lack of readability.
 
i dont think that they all are slower, Hallowed Be Thy name is much faster live than in studio.but som of the songs are slowed down a wee bit.
 
[!--emo&:rolleyes:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/rolleyes.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'rolleyes.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Oh, Mr DICKtionary.......Where are you?
 
I think some songs sound better slow.. like the instrumental bit on Iron Maiden and on Phantom of The Opera. It all comes down to preference. As Perun says, they're not getting any younger!

EDIT: Actually it wasn't Perun, it was LC! [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Sorry for the mix-up guys!
 
They are slowing some of their songs, as well as they are playing faster other songs. It depends on the song. That's it.

Cheers
 
I agree with 7th Death here. I think they've always played certain songs faster live than in the studio, which is great - afterall, we don't live songs to be an exact replica of their studeo versions.

I don't know why they'd want to play a song slower though. Maybe LooseCannon is right and they fnd it easier to keep in time with each other.
 
Maiden play most of their songs faster live than the studio versions!!
Adrian said in an interview that they play trooper much faster live quote

"...it's really an adrenaline thing, you start going and, if I try to play that for 5 minuites i'd propably die but when you 're on stage and you 're playing in front of people it gives you that energy... what we do is almost like a sport, it's like some kind of athletic event sometimes..."

and i don't think you can compare the studio version of Where eagles dare to how they played it live on "A real dead one"!!!
 
Maiden have also changed some of their tempos over the years. Compare the middle section of "Iron Maiden" on Live After Death (faster than studio version) to Rock In Rio (slower).

I also recall reading an interview with Steve where he said that as tours go on, HBTN tends to get faster and faster until they finally say, "Whoa! That was f**kin' fast!" - then they slow it back down for the next show, and the process starts over.

Maiden is not alone in playing songs faster onstage. Most bands do that.
 
I wouldn't say that. Maiden really tends to speed up things live.

As far as I can remember, all songs at RIR are faster (except Iron Maiden I guess...)


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In this last tour, in the Rock am Ring show broadcasted live on internet, and on the bootleg of this show, we can see (well, in fact, HEAR) that a lot of songs have been slowered down.

Personally I really enjoyed Phantom, Where Eagles Dare and Prowler [!--emo&:rock:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/headbang.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'headbang.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

The reason for that I can't explain but "getting older" seems a bit "too convenient" as explanation for me (bu it can be of course!). I would say that for this tour they had slowered down songs with that intention. As others, well, I really don't hear the songs in RIR at slow tempo... [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
nah, most of the songs in RIR are slowed down also, with the exception of hallowed be thy name (the intro is slowed down just a bit tho) and i think sign of the cross and the clansman (although i havent heard the studio versions of the latter two very much).

the trooper, 2 minutes to midnight, and run to the hills seem to be up to tempo, but i think they still might be slowed down just a little bit, its hard to tell.

as for the rest of the songs, i am pretty sure they have been slowed down. if you still dont believe me, try playing an RIR song in sync with its studio version and then tell me what you think. sometimes there will only be a slight tempo difference while other times it will be easily noticeable (especially for fear of the dark, blood brothers, dream of mirrors, and iron maiden!)
 
Actually I disagree, the songs are faster live. At least on the Rock in Rio DvD
"The Trooper" & "2 Minutes to Midnight" are played faster than the studio releases.
They also play "Ghost of Navigator" way faster than on the studio release, which is a good thing because the studio cut is too slow.
 
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