Sunday, June 01, 2008

Iron Maiden at Irvine Meadows(Verizon Wireless)



My Heavy Metal worshipping brother checks in with a guest show review from the second night of Iron Maiden at Irvine Meadows(Verizon Wireless). My brother's first record was Destroyer from KISS in case you were wondering. His report follows below.

Lauren Harris, Steve Harris' daughter, opened up the show both nights. Gives "Bring your daughter to the slaughter" a whole new meaning.

Anthrax


I was really excited about seeing Anthrax both nights, as I still remember picking up my Spreading the Disease at Middle Earth records in Downey, CA. They broke in their new singer Dan Nelson with his first arena shows, and boy did they deliver. He seemed to fit in with the band very naturally as his vocals blended in seamlessly. The setlist was definitely a best of and was repeated both nights. Scott Ian (Guitars) also made a reference to Guitar Hero for "Madhouse" as it is featured in the omnipresent video game.

Anthrax setlist for May 30 and May 31st
"Indians"
"Got the Time"
"Caught in a Mosh"
"Madhouse"
"Anti-Social"
"Room for One More"
"Safe Home"
"Only"
"I am the Law"

Iron Maiden




I couldn't wait to see Iron Maiden though, being a bass player myself, it was like going to Mecca. I also was unable to attend the Long Beach Arena Powerslave tour, so this was a close to a consolation prize as possible (Live after Death DVD doesn't count). One thing about a Maiden show is the T-shirts. They had at least 15-20 different styles available and at $40 each, I decided to look only. The show started off with "Aces High", "Two Minutes to Midnight", then shifted to "Revelations" and "The Trooper" off of Piece of Mind. Bruce did don a British Army uniform similar in style to the cover of "The Trooper" single. "Wasted Years" and "The Number of the Beast" followed, with a sneeze by Adrian Smith (Guitars) preventing a start to "Can I Play with Madness?". Bruce started laughing uncontrollably and needed time to recover.






The time transport back to the '80s continued as midway through one of their songs, a gal stared to disrobe and continued to remove her shirt completely. The kid next to me was with his parents and the mom shielded his eyes so he wouldn't see. The show had the usual beach balls bouncing around and Bruce running from side to side. Maiden played tight as usual and sounded incredible. Eddie had two showings with the first being the Mummy version circa the Powerslave tour that comes through the Eddie Pharoah headpiece that splits into two pieces. The second showing was as the Somewhere in Time Eddie that walked around the stage with the band.

Iron Maiden Setlist for May 30th and May 31st
"Aces High"
"Two Minutes to Midnight"
"Revelations"
"The Trooper"
"Wasted Years"
"The Number of the Beast"
"Can I Play with Madness?"
"Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
"Powerslave"
"Heaven Can Wait"
"Run to the Hills"
"Fear of the Dark"
"Iron Maiden"
"Moonchild"
"The Clairvoyant"
"Hallowed Be Thy Name"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Patrick!! Whoo!

07ELWAY said...

I DID ATTEND THE WORLD SLAVERY TOUR BACK IN MARCH OF 1985 ON THE FINAL NIGHT AT LONG BEACH ARENA.IT WAS MY VERY FIRST CONCERT.IT WAS AWESOME.I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A MAIDEN FAN ESPECIALLY OF THE 80'S AND EARLY 90'S STUFF.THE STAGE SET WAS INCREDIBLE BACK THEN AND WAS JUST AS EFFECTIVE AT IRVINE.THESE GUYS DONT SEEM TO BE SLOWING DOWN ANYTIME SOON.THE REALLY PUT ON A SHOW,AND THAT'S WHAT WE AS TICKET BUYERS EXPECT,TO GET OUR MONEYS' WORTH,AND ONCE AGAIN IRON MAIDEN DELIVERS.IF YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THEM YOU NEED TO AND QUICKLY.WHO KNOWS WHEN THEY WILL CALL IT QUITS,HOPEFULLY NOT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS CUZ THEY ROCK AND YOUR EARS WILL LET YOU KNOW AS MINE CONTINUE TO RING THROUGH THE NEXT DAY.

Anonymous said...

I was there on Saturday night. I actually didn't like Anthrax. It just isn't the same without Joey and Danny in the band. I never liked the whole switch from Thrash metal to more grunge rock/metal when John Bush came along. Persistence of Time was a classic and the last Anthrax album I ever liked. I wish they would just stick with their guns, like they are really going to reinvent themselves at this stage in their careers


Maiden fuckin owned that place. i have never been to a show this good in my entire life. I am still speachless this is by far the best live band in the world! Black Sabbath may have started metal, Judas Priest might claim to have 'the metal god' in Rob Halford. But believe me Iron Maiden are the fucking Kings of heavy metal and can't be touched

Isorski said...

Great photos and review. True comment about Lauren Harris. I saw the band in the Northwest a couple of days after you. Bruce made a comment about Adrian's sneeze at our show right before they played Madness. Must have made an impression on him. Classic!

I posted a review and some photos at http://isorski.blogspot.com/2008/06/concert-review-iron-maiden-part-two.html. Check it out.