Iron Maiden -- Vancouver, British Columbia -- July 29th, 2012

[hoopbuddy]

Missed Coheed, oh well.

Setlist: Same as all the others, reproduced here so you don't have to search elsewhere.

Iron Maiden:
1. Moonchild
2. Can I Play With Madness
3. The Prisoner
4. 2 Minutes to Midnight
5. Afraid to Shoot Strangers
6. The Trooper
7. The Number of the Beast
8. Phantom of the Opera
9. Run to the Hills
10. Wasted Years
11. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
12. The Clairvoyant
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
---ENCORE---
15. Aces High
16. The Evil That Men Do
17. Running Free

Thoughts:

First off, if anyone can point me at a lucid explanation from any Maiden members why they can't change up their setlist each night, I'd love to read it Even Megadeth are starting to do that (though sadly, not Anthrax it seems) and of course Metallica are great at it.

Bruce even alluded to this in the intro for "surprise" Phantom of the Opera.

Show was very good, Bruce's voice was pretty on for the most part. Lots of pyro which is always welcome! I was seated exactly in line with the stage front/security pit. I couldn't see Nicko except a tiny bit of the top of his head Got too much Janick, no Dave or Adrian. Those guys still play with wired guitars!

In my original go-round with Maiden in the 80's, I was a Beast/Piece/Powerslave guy, I checked out when they soiled their music with the cheesy whine of the synthesizer. So, I missed Time and 7th Son and onwards, until the awesome Brave New World came along. Now that I'm older and can tolerate (but still never really like) synth stuff, I've grown to like some of 7th Son, Time, etc.

Ironically, I saw Maiden in 88, also at the PNE, on the original 7th Son tour. I looked back on that on setlist.fm, since I couldn't remember the setlist at all, and it's pretty similar. I think the 88 setlist is marginally better (Heaven Can Wait and Hallowed) but they did one more song last night. I have to say, I sat and rested during the actual song 7th son, not a favourite of mine, nor is Moonchild, but overall a good show.

I saw them previously on the "first leg" of Final Frontier, which meant it had way too much Matter of Life and Death (an unlistenable album, IMO) and only El Dorado from FF (which I quite like).

I had tickets to Somewhere Back in Time in 2008, but (long story) I had to fly to Singapore on an emergency flight to attend my 2nd daughter's birth and I don't love Maiden (or any band) enough to miss my kid's birth Still bummed severely about missing that show though.

Anyway, I'll always go see Maiden but my God, I hope they drop Running Free and Fear of the Dark. They dropped Hallowed this time and Run to the Hills in 2010, why not those two fairly lame entries?

[PowerMaiden]

I don't agree on the majority of your post, so instead of saying you're an idiot like I usually do, I will not make any comments


Cheers !
PowerMaiden

[ravenheart]

Originally Posted by hoopbuddy

I hope they drop Running Free

This.

The rest... basically crap. Getting turned off by an album a favourite band puts out is fine. To not revisit when the next album comes out to see if they've improved, dumb. And the next? Dumber. And so on. Not even bothering with 12 years of output from a favourite band until the big media-headline-cliche reunion is pretty damn sad. I should probably stop saying "a favourite". I'm clearly wrong.

[JRA]

I'll take Running Free over Sanctuary any day. Then again, they are already playing two songs from the first album and 0 from the second, so they ought to bring back Drifter as the grand finale.

[bigguytoo9]

I was there last night and it was a MAGICAL show. The entire band was on fire and Bruce sounded spot on. 7th Son was a total highlight of the night, also the 1,2,3 punch of Moonchild, Madness and Prisoner was icing on the cake very early on!

[es156]

Originally Posted by PowerMaiden

I don't agree on the majority of your post, so instead of saying you're an idiot like I usually do, I will not make any comments


Cheers !
PowerMaiden

[LIVEtoROCK86]

Originally Posted by hoopbuddy

Missed Coheed, oh well.


First off, if anyone can point me at a lucid explanation from any Maiden members why they can't change up their setlist each night, I'd love to read it Even Megadeth are starting to do that (though sadly, not Anthrax it seems) and of course Metallica are great at it.

It's called being old and lazy. Phish is the best at it though. They always change it up. Fuck yea.

[tyrantchef]

Originally Posted by LIVEtoROCK86

It's called being old and lazy. Phish is the best at it though. They always change it up. Fuck yea.

But how many nights in a row do you see Phish on a single tour? I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but changing up a setlist nightly is ONLY going to benefit the SMALL percentage of people who see multiple shows(like me). Plus, then it opens up the door for people to complain that the city the night before got a better setlist.
IMO, Maiden are trying to put on a high impact, tight, energetic show each night. I'm not a musician, but I can't imagine it would be too hard for Maiden to rehearse a few extra songs to put into a rotation, so I don't think it has anything to do with laziness.

[El Gordo]

Originally Posted by LIVEtoROCK86

It's called being old and lazy. Phish is the best at it though. They always change it up. Fuck yea.

Unfortunately, Phish phucking sucks.

I would like to see a little variety in the Maiden setlist though. It's nice to be a little surprised by what songs the band pulls out, but hey, I can't complain about seeing them in Toronto, I had a great time.

[Maidenmagic]

Maiden have never really done the whole "different set every night" so them not doing it now is not surprising. Say what you want about them, Metallica gets two big thumbs up from me for changing the set every night, especially when they have a smaller catalogue to work with. 9 studio albums, including three that are mostly off limits.