Venue: Gradski Stadion Poljud / Split / Croatia
Concert date: August 9, 2008
Attendance: 29,000
Ticket price: €35.00
The great metal riders, big Iron Maiden to you and me, by now a proper corporate monster in their golden years, decide to celebrate the period of their output from 1984 to 1988 with a tour built mostly around songs from the albums “Powerslave” (1984), “Somewhere In Time” (1986) and “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” (1988). Doesn’t get any better, does it? The three best albums from the hottest lineup of their career, the ones they rode on the wings of gigantic eighties success like it was nothing.
The Split date was one of the last on this so-called “Somewhere Back In Time World Tour ’08”, but actually catching Iron Maiden live this time took extra effort and a special kind of sacrifice. At gigs like this, a gigantic band and a gigantic show, you sometimes have to literally fight tooth and nail to get anywhere.
First off, our trio in the lineup, D.J. Lea, navigator Marijana and driver (one way) Aleš, got a greeting on the highway near Primošten, right as U2’s “Unforgettable Fire” was playing: a gorgeous wildfire whose smoke sliced thickly through the sky-blue of the sunny day. Chilling views, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Then came the arrival in Split and the battle for tickets. Sometimes it happens that the guest list is longer than the number of free tickets printed. That too was a one-of-a-kind experience!
And yet all these remarks are completely beside the point once the adrenaline rush hits you, the one that wraps around you the moment you arrive in front of the venue, unleashed by euphoric metal faithful. How does it go again? Beer pours in streams from every direction, jubilant hoarse rasping echoes all around as Maiden fans bellow their favorite Maiden songs and proudly water the ornamental bushes and other nearby objects in the immediate forecourt of the mighty Poljud stadium.
Picking up the tickets claimed its victims. We missed the sets by Lauren Harris, the valiant daughter of Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris, and her band Rising Dream, which the vast majority of Iron Maiden fans surely wouldn’t regret missing if they were in our shoes. Iron Maiden are simply known for picking “oddballs” as support acts, or in other words stylistically incompatible “warm-up drivers”. We had just settled in way at the back of the floor, aware of the war that would soon break out in the front rows, when the sweet voice of the announcer came through the speakers and melodiously informed us that the show was postponed by an estimated 20 to 30 minutes. The cause? Maybe Maiden wanted to wait for the hordes of fans still milling around in front of the stadium to roll into the inside. We’ll probably get to see that in some other scenario. But the extra wait was “worth forgiving”. Especially when, to ease the waiting minutes, they spin Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, among other things.
Let’s move the clock to 10:27 p.m. Michael Schenker makes himself heard with his flying V Gibson and takes us into the UFO classic Doctor, Doctor. UFO were a band that in many ways was the mold for early Steve Harris and Iron Maiden. That classic always plays last, and then Maiden hit the stage. Taped intro of Transylvania. The old trick from the reunion tour in autumn 1999 carried on into Churchill’s Speach, followed by the assault of Aces High. Dickinson in a cap looked at first glance like a cheeky young kid who’d love to pick a fight with somebody. He was feisty and hot. And how hot the crowd was!
Bruce held up superbly vocally throughout the show. Well, the boys tuned down a notch, and that did the trick. It also made it easier for the crowd to rasp, drone or roar along with the singer. Over the course of the show Iron Maiden once again proved how tightly drilled they are. The routine is almost 100% there. And where there’s routine, a terrific self-confidence isn’t far behind, the kind they use to subjugate their fervent fans without breaking a sweat. During Revelations Dickinson didn’t play the guitar motif in the quiet section (it starts from A minor), as he used to, since Maiden have had three guitarists for a good many years now. Smith, Gers and Murray spiced up a few passages with triple harmonies (The Trooper, Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner, Powerslave), refining and building on the original versions of these songs. The stage set changed between numbers too. During The Trooper it’s standard by now for Bruce to don the red uniform of the English colonizers and wave a flag across the stage. The peak of the gig was undoubtedly the unforgettable epic Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner, followed by Powerslave. For the former the lads dressed the stage up as a ship’s deck, and for Powerslave everything took place inside a pyramid. The performance? Damn polished and close to the original, except that, as is well known, Iron Maiden play these tunes live in a slightly higher key, and this time they stuck to that too. And Eddie? The first was the mummy from the World Slavery Tour (1984-1985). The second Eddie, the one who comes to wreak havoc in the encore, i.e. “Eddie the Walker”, was taken from “Somewhere On Tour” (1986).
You’re surely wondering where the gems in the setlist come from, like songs from the albums “The Number Of The Beast” (1982), “Piece Of Mind” (1983) and even Fear Of The Dark? Maiden will answer most of that by pointing to the reissue of the classic live album and video “Live After Death” on DVD, which holds similar material from “The Number Of The Beast” (1982) and “Piece Of Mind” (1983), and to their wish to revive the atmosphere of the World Slavery Tour shows onstage once more. The band’s second strong excuse is that with a setlist like this they have to keep their fans wide awake and extremely wound up the whole time. In other words, maximum volume, which the Poljud crowd definitely delivered. I just expected a considerably bigger turnout. The stands were practically empty. Luckily the field below the stage was swarming with people.
The material was played with care. Three guitarists fuse their parts superbly, complement each other and know exactly how to position themselves during the show so nobody accidentally “steps into someone’s shadow”. During Heaven Can Wait an entire herd of techs, roadies, etc…, the people who make sure everything runs like clockwork on the Iron Maiden tour, came on stage and helped the band with the “Oh-oh-oh” motif. One of them even held up a banner with the witty message: “Janick Gers is God!!!” So the humor hasn’t left them yet.
Up front a real war was raging, so in one of the pauses Dickinson politely asked the crowd to take two steps back and give the knuckleheads in the front row some much-needed oxygen. Those who’ve seen Iron Maiden many times might grumble a little about the setlist. Just two songs from “Somewhere In Time”. A person would kill for Alexander The Great or The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner. And that’s their career album of greatest maturity and perfection. Once again we got force-fed Fear Of The Dark. Luckily, in the encore the magnificent mini Maiden aria Moonchild brought some flavor back to the feast. If you weren’t a spoiled Iron Maiden fan, though, catching one of the shows on this tour was an unforgettable experience. The question is how many more times we’ll get to hear Moonchild, Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner, Powerslave or Aces High live.
In short, the legendary Iron Maiden, the band that keeps heavy metal popular to this day, aren’t giving up. They’re a youthful and extremely convincing live unit that nothing can break. Perhaps the fact that they roamed festivals through June and July further helped the smoothness and tightness of the musicians with which they crowned the Split show, a very important fact that still gives the band a sense of solidity and indestructibility is that Bruce Dickinson sounded very fresh. They could still have played Yugosla… pardon, Transylvania live, just to warm up their fingers, but then they have the seconds they share with us on stage so damn calculated. One more thing. This was probably one of the last concerts with tickets for Iron Maiden this cheap. And yet. At the Sziget festival a ticket for the show costs even less, €32.00. Noble iron magic! See you again very soon.
Setlist
1. Transylvania (taped intro)
2. Churchill’s Speach (taped intro)
3. Aces High
4. Two Minutes To Midnight
5. Revelations
6. The Trooper
7. Wasted Years
8. The Number Of The Beast
9. Can I Play With Madness
10. Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner
11. Powerslave
12. Heaven Can Wait
13. Run To The Hills
14. Fear Of The Dark
15. Iron Maiden
—encore—
16. Moonchild
17. Clairvoyant
18. Hallowed Be Thy Name
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