Why was the Dance of Death tour so short?

They were probably afraid to lose too much money, as they probably never profited on NA tours from 1990 until that Ozzfest tour in 2005. They hardly sold out any shows back then, and they played theaters instead of arenas.
 
They were probably afraid to lose too much money, as they probably never profited on NA tours from 1990 until that Ozzfest tour in 2005. They hardly sold out any shows back then, and they played theaters instead of arenas.

I can see many venues significantly bigger than theatres in these post-reunion North American tours:


 
If I'm not mistaken, Steve had said (in the DOTR documentary) that they will already do a 3 months tour instead of the 9-10 months that they've done in the past (the 80's). With bigger production. And the DOD tour was 4 months. Probably they thought that they have to slow down a bit, but then again TBOS tour was 7 months!

But during 2002-2007, the tours were short - GME..'TID (4 moths), DOD (4 months), Early Days (4 months), AMOLAD first leg in 2006 (3 months)... 2007 leg (2 months) with 2 months break in between. And the band had almost 2 full years break in 2001-2002 - a couple of shows in SA in 2001 and the Clive gigs in 2002, which were only 3. But if we see GME.. 'TID tour as first leg of the DOD tour, then it was not short: played a lot of shows in NA and Europe (some big festivals like Download), some SA and Japan shows- the band was very busy during the whole 2003. Let's not forget that they are getting old and all of the band members have family, kids... but after 10+ years since the DOD tour, they tour more (2-3 years) - amazing! It's a natural thing for any band to tour less since their early years/heyday.

Maybe they played only 5 NA shows during the DOD tour, because the previous year they've done a good amount of shows there.

SBIT tour really returned them to the long tours (2 legs in 2 years) - this has to be one of the most successful tours that the band has ever done. Of course, Ed Force One really helped.
 
When did that happen, apart from Ozzfest where they didn't headline and had to adapt?
I'm mostly thinking about many of the 80's tours where the setlist in North America was often shorter. Also during Give Me Ed, several shows had songs omitted from the setlist.
 
I remember in the lead-up to the DoD tour Steve was having problems with his back--spinal fusion-related, I believe, from the weight of his bass throughout the years, and that touring would be limited going forward. I'm guessing his initial prognosis was worse than whatever treatment/recovery he went through for it, since tour lengths have gone back up to decent lengths each.
 
Also, I saw Maiden at Donington in 2003 just before the release of DOD. The rest of the bill was rubbish, Nu-metal and associated bands hadn't quite been washed away yet so maybe the market for proper metal hadn't recovered quite as much then. Also look at the rubbish Maiden had supporting them at the time Muderdolls and Funeral for a Friend, that's a snapshot of what was trendy at the time, absolute muck.
Funeral For A Friend were an amazing band!
 
Here in México a famous record store promoted DoD with some posters saying "soon in concert" but they never came until 2008 for SBIT
 
Back
Top