Location: Vienna (Austria), Stadthalle
Concert date: June 7, 2003
Attendance: 5000
Ticket price: 45.10€
After two hours holed up in a stinking, hellishly hot dive and a bitter run-in with some revolting pale Bavarian beer (the barkeep clearly wanted to poison us by any means necessary), we made our way to the entrance of the Stadthalle, where “the necessary evil of every gig” (security) frisked us thoroughly and gave us a perverse going-over with their front extremities. The Iron Maiden shirts were, as usual, insanely ugly. By 7 p.m. the floor was packed, the toilets were totally occupied, and the ground was soaked with assorted secretions, sticky smears and all kinds of fallen debris. On December 15, 1995, this very same hall was almost completely empty when the band presented their album “X Factor” with their new (and now former) singer Blaze Bailey. This time the picture was totally different. It was teeming like an anthill.
What I’ll never accept are the choices of support acts like Murderdolls. They have about as much to do with metal as I do with a prokaryotic bacterium. Even worse. Murderdolls have nothing to do with music at all. Well, that’s not entirely true. Not for those detail-oriented types who count the clatter of overturned pots as a kind of music. Come on! They’re eating up our money, and that’s not fair. But apparently I can put up with plenty as long as I get to see Iron Maiden. So, anti-propaganda for everything good ever created in music, from the Beatles to Yes and beyond… the so-called Murderdolls impressed only with their image. They know how to slap on makeup and dress up in bizarre latex. Lovely! The singer screeched like a tomcat being skinned alive, the sound was dreadful, distorted filth trapped in a couple of little boxes on four frets of the guitar neck. Only the drummer is a real beast and worth listening to; everyone else is just a poser. All I could feel was my trousers vibrating. Three full glasses of beer flew from the crowd toward the band; even the always well-behaved Austrian audience is capable of that, interesting. I don’t get why it’s so hard to find one decent support act for Iron Maiden on European tours, when in the US they play with Dio and Motörhead. Business is business. I hope Murderdolls have written their will, because in Zagreb, with that hot Balkan temperament, ten days from now they definitely won’t survive.
By half past eight everything was ready. As usual, the spotlight first lit up the drum fortress and, behind it, a six-and-a-half-footer trying his best to be funny. Nicko! The crowd instantly went into delirium, and really raised a racket at the spoken intro to The Number Of The Beast, which kicked off the show. Iron Maiden decided to hit with full force right away and blow the hall to smithereens, because that classic was followed by a new one, The Trooper, with a fired-up Bruce, the die-hard Brit, waving the Union Jack. The crazy-tight sound and the singer’s performance recalled the polish of the “Live After Death” recordings. The sound was good, hell, it was phenomenal, unbeatable. All the three-guitar harmonies were not only played precisely but audible down to the last detail. It’s hard to imagine The Trooper any other way, since it’s riddled with harmonized charges from start to finish. Excellent performance.
The Blaze story showed the band in a totally different light. They were good, but it just wasn’t it. Then came the happy year of ’99, Bruce and Adrian came back, and in Milan (September 23, 1999, Ed Hunter tour), with a dream setlist, it was classic Maiden again. Izola ’00, same Maiden, but the sound was fading, and the guys somehow weren’t 100% in it during the show. And today? The Stadthalle must surely suit the band. This was the golden classic Iron Maiden I dreamed about as a kid. Bruce was in the same getup as on the Brave New World tour. Steve is no longer a footballer on stage. Like I said, Maiden obviously came to tear the Stadthalle down. The first part of the setlist was a dream. They stayed on “Piece Of Mind” (1983) and shook out Die With Your Boots On. Time for a mid-tempo song. In the Di’Anno days that was usually Remember Tomorrow, but this time, as Bruce announced: “This song is about ancient Egypt, A. Crowley, T.C. Chastain….!” and he roared out the end of his speech: “Revelations!” For a full 18 years people waited for this fantastic gem to return to the Iron Maiden setlist. Revelations! The hall was insanely charged up, and the loyal, faithful fans played a huge part in that. The whole hall sang along to the verses and became one with the band all the way to the end. Especially during Hallowed Be Thy Name, which peaked toward the end with Bruce’s trademark crowd-baiting. That immortal occult mini-epic was followed by another surprise. 22 Acacia Avenue, with the spotlight aimed at Adrian, who opened the song. Pure perfection when it comes to stage presence, sound and performance of 22 Accacia Avenue.
The Wildest Dream, a brand-new song, a sped-up banger of just under five minutes, opened the second part, which was mostly made up of new stuff. Of course they couldn’t skip Wicker Man and Brave New World, though I figure at least one of the two will surely get dropped from the setlist on the November tour. A special treat was The Clansman once again, with Steve’s intro on acoustic bass. Here it’s really Nicko who dominates every time, with his jazzy torpedoing, laying down and clamping in of the most varied fills. Together with Steve he again sounded unbeatably tight. What a power, this unique rhythm section that enchants you again and again. The performance of Clairvoyant was a delight too. It was the first time I’d heard it with Bruce on vocals. Played with perfect timing. From the cheerful main harmony at the start and end of the song to the exceptional chemistry between the guitarists on stage. Sung and roared super reactively! This perfection thrilled me so much that in an instant I thought: “What the hell are you stocking up on millions of metal bands for, when there are really just two classics here that offer everything to satisfy your musical taste, Iron Maiden and Judas “fuckin'” Priest!? You don’t need any other drug!”
Next came a song from my favorite Maiden album, and again it was the first time I’d heard it with Bruce on vocals. The striking intro of Heaven Can Wait had never sounded so majestic live in my ears, and the fusion with the wild rhythm and the singer’s all-out charge in every section conjured up an extraordinary atmosphere. What a difference from the official live release of the Fear Of The Dark tour, which, next to today’s Bruce, really sounds “crap” and kind of overblown in the vocals. Once again, at the part of the song with the famous “Oooh, oooh, ooh,…” Maiden invited fans, close friends and family members up on stage, and they clambered up and filled it with their yelling. Maiden pulled a little skit on that front. At the end, Janick and Dave wanted to join that group of chosen ones leaving the stage and sneak off hunched over, which Steve noticed, and he dragged both of them back by hand. Bruce left the title line of the chorus to the crowd, who nailed the job in tune, ten out of ten. Only Fear Of The Dark is slowly starting to really get on my nerves at Maiden gigs. Guys, how about swapping it for some other song from that album, any one? Well, at least this time I got to catch my breath and cool down my overheated noggin.
As the closer, Iron Maiden also rang out in the best live version I’ve had the chance to hear so far. This time they didn’t play it in a formal, “well, that’s it, it’s over” style and leave the crowd hanging; they sawed it off the way it should be. All the guitarists’ strings rang out seriously and flowed into an exceptional classic fade-out that echoed through the hall. Of course, now I have to describe Eddie’s design. Anyone with the DVD “Visions of The Beast” at home will know exactly what I mean. Eddie’s silver lobotomized skull, hanging and bouncing on long springs (in magical Slovenian: on a special suspension – something for Droljc!) behind Nicko’s back, put itself together during the Iron Maiden song. First an enormous brain dropped into it from above, and later the skull vault completed Eddie. Oh right, walking Eddie, the one who comes out mid-show to terrorize the stage and the hall, was made up and modeled after the cover of the band’s re-best-of “Edward The Great” (2002) – re-best-of because it’s almost identical to “Best Of The Beast”.
In the encore, Bruce first addressed the audience and gave all the fathers in the crowd some special advice: “Does anyone here have a daughter? As you probably already know, we’ve finished a new studio album, which comes out in September. So let me see (Bruce counts on his fingers),… Vienna!?!?? Do you want us to play here again in November?” The crowd responded with thunderous enthusiasm, and with anything but a negative reaction. “Then make sure you lock up your daughters real good when we’re back here!” Bruce said, short and sweet, and the rhythm section came to life with the wicked rock’n’roll butcher groove of Bring Your Daughter…To The Slaughter. There you go, the first time I’ve heard anything off “No Prayer For The Dying” (1990) live. Bruce ran the intro with exceptional interplay between him and the crowd, ordering them to sing back his “oooh-ehs” in different variations until we almost fried our vocal cords. Iron Maiden were really enjoying this one, which has found its place in the setlist again since the Fear Of The Dark tour. And from “Powerslave” (1984) they pulled out none other than Two Minutes To Midnight. That classic, almost six-minute killer, with its middle section seasoned with tight transitions and solos, brought me to my knees once again. The most convincing Two Minutes To Midnight of my life, just like on the World Slavery Tour (’84/’85). Unbelievable, what a sound, what a close approximation of the middle of the golden eighties. Totally committed and unrestrained to the very end.
A short but monstrously heavy morsel awaited the singer at the end. Run To The Hills, of course. With the chorus done just like on “Live After Death”. Bruce kept all the power of his extraordinary vocal abilities almost untouched. Dec was literally glowing on stage. The singer and the rest of the guys come across like rowdy twenty-year-old kids and not like old geezers who’ve slid deep into their forties. In that respect Iron Maiden actually follow in the footsteps of bands whose members are well into their fifties but act on stage like they’re at the peak of their careers. These are truly the greatest legendary bands, like Judas Priest, Motörhead, Uriah Heep or Yes. Anyone who says these old dudes burned out long ago is deeply mistaken. Iron Maiden still sound incredibly fresh, full of youthful drive, and seeing them live is honestly an obligation for every music lover.
Two surface-level reasons why the revived band is riding at full force again are the exceptional form of every member on stage, the bombastic chemistry that holds them together, and the fantastic revamped setlist. Let’s just hope that on the tour this coming November Maiden won’t ruin this setlist by playing half the new album in it, and that daredevil kamikaze Janick won’t try to dive headfirst off the stage like he did on the Brave New World tour. No point in philosophizing. It’s been ages since my voice was this tied up in knots after a gig.
Setlist
01.) The Number Of The Beast
02.) The Trooper
03.) Die With Your Boots On
04.) Revelations
05.) Hallowed Be Thy Name
06.) 22 Acacia Avenue
07.) The Wildest Dream
08.) The Wicker Man
09.) Brave New World
10.) The Clansman
11.) The Clairvoyant
12.) Heaven Can Wait
13.) Fear Of The Dark
14.) Iron Maiden
—encore—
15.) Bring Your Daughter…To The Slaughter
16.) Two Minutes To Midnight
17.) Run To The Hills
