Iron Maiden (support: The Raven Age)
Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Prague / O2 Arena / Czech Republic
The third concert of The Future Past tour — or rather the European leg of the new world tour by the one and only Iron Maiden. It was Tuesday, 31 May 2023, which meant we were at the band’s second Prague show. O2 Arena. As vast as it is. With its entire foyer, an enormous concourse, and a shopping centre attached to it. A colossal structure. Packed to the rafters. Much like the Zagreb Arena, only everything in Prague is even bigger and even more lavish (any debate involving the half-built Stožice wreck sadly loses all meaning at that point). Remarkable.
Day two, then. A new metal holiday! A fresh metal communion with the titanic heavy metal sextet Iron Maiden. The energy is immense. Expectations no less so. Day one — the Tuesday show on 30 May 2023 — was stunning, and here comes another serving. Fans of the latest record »Senjutsu« (2021, Rockline review) are well catered for in the setlist, and no less so are fans of »Somewhere In Time« (1986, Rockline review) — which on this tour has proven to be a particular kind of magnetism that automatically draws everyone to the band’s shows. Worth noting: every show on The Future Past tour is being filmed in its entirety. With multiple cameras. In short, Iron Maiden are putting together another live document from this tour as well.
By the way, in the morning football match that Bruce Dickinson had mentioned at the previous night’s show, the Iron Maiden football team hammered Prague’s Slavia 10–6. The drill is the same on the second Prague show day. The Raven Age, the band of George Harris, son of the legendary Maiden bassist Steve Harris, are already doing their thing inside the O2 Arena. Not a bad band by any means, but for an Iron Maiden devotee they don’t quite fit the context of classic heavy metal taste. Meanwhile, the two of us are still outside. In front of the O2 Arena. Enjoying a well-earned swig (or two) of Czech beer. In the company of a Slovenian crew of inconsolable Maiden devotees. I can honestly say that over the years we’ve become a real brotherhood. Even outside of concerts.
This time it was harder to push your way as close to the stage as possible. Neither show had a fan pit, so you had to execute the maneuver of claiming the best spots considerably earlier than usual. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. The floor is here and the connection with the band will definitely be intense again. The intro to the opening Caught Somewhere In Time. Right up to the first shift into that classic Maiden ’80s gallop as the sextet explodes across the stage. The sound throughout the show was solid on the second day too. Even from the left side of the floor, about 30 metres back from the stage, you could hear all the essential elements — though Gers remained something of an unknown quantity more than once. Whether he’s audible or not is often debatable. But in the final stretch — from Fear of the Dark to the end of the set (encore included) — he definitely is. The clown he is, during Fear of the Dark he snuck all the way over to the right side of the stage (Murray’s usual spot) and kept ramming into a monitor that’s deliberately set up to swing freely back and forth. Once he’d returned to his spot, Smith walked over to that same monitor and, with a sour face, theatrically wiped Gers’s sweat off it.
We already covered Dickinson’s bright mood and incredible energy in the day one write-up, and in Ljubljana too — he was the main catalyst driving events at the highest atmospheric level. This time was no different. Wearing welder’s goggles, which is not something we’re used to seeing on him. He had them on through the opening Caught Somewhere In Time and Stranger In A Strange Land, during which cyborg Eddie paid us his first visit, dressed as Clint Eastwood from »The Good, the Bad and the Ugly«. What followed was a longer stretch of the show dedicated to »Senjutsu«, which the band themselves seemed to enjoy the most.
Dickinson was running back and forth non-stop. Sometimes across the front of the stage, sometimes up on the extended catwalk that ran along the colossal set combining both headline albums of the current tour, high above the fortress of McBrain’s drum kit. During Heaven Can Wait, he and cyborg Eddie staged another gun duel. Vocally, Bruce again delivered a superb performance. The crowd’s focus is mostly glued to him throughout the show, and every bit of on-stage mischief he pulls off gets an extraordinary reaction from the thousands-strong crowd. At the front of the crowd, one fan was watching the show wearing a hoplite helmet (complete with plume). Naturally — we’re talking about the classic Alexander The Great. When the band got to that brilliant composition — automatically one of the highlights of the evening — this fan managed to pass the helmet up to Dickinson. He snuck up behind Harris with it and abruptly jammed it down on his head. Harris, who clearly has no love for that sort of unexpected Dickinson prank, yanked it off his head even faster and threw it down in front of him.
The third show felt even tighter than the first two on the current The Future Past tour. There were even fewer slip-ups than at the previous two shows, which confirms that in recent years Iron Maiden are a band that builds concert form with each performance. Show by show. Bear in mind that the current setlist is effectively turned upside down compared to the final leg of Legacy Of The Beast, yet that doesn’t justify any looser playing than you’d expect — and there was none. And one small interjection: Nicko! Where have your rolls gone?
Can I Play With Madness (back in the setlist after 10 years) and The Prisoner proved to be excellent additions, since in their spots someone might have expected standards like 2 Minutes To Midnight, Run To The Hills or The Number of the Beast. What’s more, material from »Powerslave« dropped out of the setlist entirely this time, as did anything from »Killers«. But when you add Alexander The Great to the equation, the whole thing remains flawless. Above and beyond, even. An old-timer like me never thought they’d actually live to see Alexander performed live. And The Prisoner live? A classic that delivers a brilliant hit of nostalgia! It’s incredible what Maiden achieve with Fear Of The Dark. How ferociously the crowd responds during that song. The most intense moment of the entire show, if anything. That classic remains a staggering crowd favourite. During Iron Maiden — which signals, as always, the end of the main set — a giant samurai Eddie sculpture ‘inflates’ in the background. Then the encore. The excellent Hell On Earth — one of the strongest compositional moments on »Senjutsu«, I’d say — rightfully opens it, and then an adrenaline rush seizes the O2 Arena in the full gallop of the Battle of Balaclava — The Trooper’s account of the senseless slaughter of the British Light Brigade in the Crimean War, 1854–1856 — as those opening notes ring out. No, it’s not over yet. Bruce Dickinson roars: »Every fucking day we do this is the best day of our lives«. What follows is a megalomaniac rendition of Wasted Years during which Eddie’s incarnations throughout the band’s career flash across the backdrop. Insane. But even this madness has to end eventually.
What to say at the end? Really, nothing. With this new tour, Maiden have once again served up something different. Something they hadn’t tried before, and something that played out in an incredibly nostalgic way. They pulled an ace from up their sleeve that united every fan on the planet. And that was the band’s goal. And given everything on display — the moments of almost childlike giddiness and impulsive abandon that individual band members radiate during shows — we know the story is far from over. We’ve barely finished three Iron Maiden shows and we’re already hungry for more time with this legendary band. We’ll very likely catch them on stage again next year, if not sooner. Until then: »Up the Irons!«
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Edita Klemen
Setlist:
1. Caught Somewhere in Time
2. Stranger in a Strange Land
3. The Writing on the Wall
4. Days of Future Past
5. The Time Machine
6. The Prisoner
7. Death of the Celts
8. Can I Play With Madness
9. Heaven Can Wait
8. Alexander the Great
9. Fear of the Dark
10. Iron Maiden
—encore
11. Hell On Earth
12. The Trooper
13. Wasted Years
