Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Centralni Stadion, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Concert date: 01.06.2007
Attendance: 10
Ticket price: 55€
It took almost seven long years (on June 9th it will be exactly seven years since the show in Izola) for heavy metal giants Iron Maiden to show up on our turf again. For a home crowd hungry for the Maidens, that was a looooong dry spell, during which we had to make the pilgrimage abroad more than once. Seven is a fairytale number, and for loyal Slovenian fans the fairytale began the moment a concert of mega proportions was announced, one that went down on Saturday, June 2nd, at Bežigrad’s Stadion.
Lauren Harris: 18:00 – 18:35
Daddy Harris is still dragging his little girl along, and once again she “delighted” us with saccharine pop rock, call it Avril Lavigne on steroids. If cute little Lauren didn’t ooze the kind of sex appeal she does, she’d have been booed off the moment she stepped on stage. As it was, we could rest our eyes and drool a little, but that feeling soon fades and gets replaced by boredom with unoriginal, pathetic rock that is indistinguishable from the crowd of MTV-style “haters”. Lauren’s screeching is downright ear-piercing at times, though it has to be said she did inherit some of her father’s stage charisma, since she ran up and down the stage the whole time and kept urging the crowd to get more involved. Sadly, that just doesn’t work with this kind of music… The guitarist was a surprise this time, though, as he toned down his Zakk Wylde impersonation a bit. This was the second time I’ve seen Lauren before Iron Maiden (the first was last December in Milan). I sincerely hope it’s the last, too…
Tide: 19:00 – 19:50
While the techs were getting the stage ready for Tide, our homegrown act, it was time for a quick stroll around the Stadion. Unfortunately, per Murphy’s law, the lovely, juicy summer weather of Saturday afternoon went sour right as we arrived at the Stadion, and raindrops were already starting to bug us. So were the pretty salty prices of beer and “merchandise”. 3 euros for a beer and 30 euros for a T-shirt! Ah, what can you do, Europe has brought its own. Long live the united Europe… But we don’t get to see the Maidens on home soil every day, and there’s no denying it, this is an almost unique event where neither the lousy weather nor the high prices ruin the mood. Enough grumbling, Tide had already taken the huge stage. My apologies to all the fans, but it would have been better if they hadn’t. Music with this kind of genre orientation doesn’t belong before Iron Maiden, full stop! Even though we’ve had to suffer through everyone from Murderdolls to Dirty Deeds before the Maidens, I keep being amazed by the incredibly poor choice of support acts. Why can’t we hear metal before the Maidens, I wonder, when we have a whole bunch of quality Slovenian metal bands. Imagine what something like Metalsteel would have done to the place… And for the 55 euros the ticket cost, we deserved something more fitting, too. Even though, in my humble opinion, Tide don’t belong before Iron Maiden, and I neither know their music nor follow it, it has to be said that they handled their job confidently and sound better live than on record, or rather on the few songs I know personally. I still stand by my opinion, though, that Mary Rose, as originally announced, would have fit before the Maidens much better.
Iron Maiden: 20:55 – 22:35
A few minutes before nine, we finally got them, with the classic intro Doctor Doctor! The floor boiled over, and right from the start staying on your feet was a real mission impossible. Iron Maiden didn’t just make us happy with their visit, they even played the first show of their summer tour, A Matter of the Beast Summer Tour 2007, with which they’re marking the 25th anniversary of their groundbreaking album The Number of the Beast (1982). Iron Maiden kicked off with the punchy opener of the current album A Matter of Life and Death, Different World, and the crowd on the floor turned into a proper stormy ocean. Though it supposedly looked pretty static from the stands, I can tell you the truth is far from that. They continued with These Colours Don’t Run and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, and the AMoLaD trio really shines live, just like Dickinson’s vocals did, even though the weak sound system carried them off to who knows where at times. They say the guitars were mixed terribly too, but from my spot in the middle a few rows from the stage, the sound was optimal. It was great to hear all three guitars and Harris’s bass pushed a bit more to the front, so you could clearly make out every single “trademark” gallop. The AMoLaD trio was followed by the classics Wrathchild and The Trooper, during which Dickinson once again ran around the stage in an English uniform waving the “Union Jack”. Priceless! With Children of the Damned came the biggest surprise of the night: Iron Maiden didn’t give us the promised fifth song from the record this time. It would have been incredible to hear 22 Acacia Avenue or The Prisoner… Oh well, at least we got a fantastic Children of the Damned, where Dickinson proved the ravages of time haven’t touched his voice, although the disappointment over the unfulfilled promise of five NotB songs is considerable. Sadly, the crew didn’t give us a light show as good as in Milan, for example, but during the eternal classic The Number of the Beast we were spooked by a devilish goat rising on the left side of the stage. The atmosphere during the classics Fear of the Dark and Run to the Hills was incredible, though I quietly wish they’d retire at least Run to the Hills, even if just for a while. The main set closed with the anthem that has to be there, Iron Maiden, during which we were joined by the spectacular tank-driving Eddie, whom we probably had the honor of seeing for the last time. After a roaring chant of “Maiden, Maiden!”, came a fairly standard finish with the trio 2 Minutes to Midnight, The Evil That Men Do, during which the three-meter war monster Eddie said goodbye to us, and the always phenomenal ending with the one-of-a-kind Hallowed Be Thy Name.
What can I say in closing? We probably witnessed the “worst” Iron Maiden concert on our soil and a pretty average performance from a band that lacked more interaction with the crowd. Even though the Maiden still seem incredibly energetic on stage, the years do show at times, and this time they were most likely saving themselves for the next gigs with bigger crowds. A somewhat bitter aftertaste remains because of the salty prices, the predictable setlist, the disgusting support acts, and the primitive behavior of some Croatian visitors, who got help from our own weirdos too. Dave Murray even got a glass of beer to the head. Congratulations… no comment. Despite a few shortcomings, an Iron Maiden concert is still something unrepeatable… until the next Iron Maiden concert, of course. See you in 2008. Up the Irons!
Setlist
1. Different World
2. These Colours Don’t Run
3. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
4. Wrathchild
5. The Trooper
6. Children of the Damned
7. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg
8. For the Greater Good of God
9. The Number of the Beast
10. Fear of the Dark
11. Run to the Hills
12. Iron Maiden
— Encore —
13. 2 Minutes to Midnight
14. The Evil That Men Do
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name
Photo Gallery
