Iron Maiden - Legacy of the Beast tour - Saturday September 21, 2019
I officially have my second metal concert in the books! Wes & I drove to Dallas over this past weekend to see Iron Maiden on their Legacy of the Beast tour. I know nothing about Iron Maiden so during the drive, Wes curated a selection of their greatest hits for me to familiarize myself with. I can't really say with certainty that I like their music. But, Wes is a fan and he said that their concert was top notch (actually, he said it was "really good" because he would never say "top notch" LOL). He also said his three favorite songs from the concert were
Fear of the Dark,
Trooper (one of my favorite performances of the night as well because that was when Eddie, the mascot, came out and had a choreographed sword fight with Bruce, the lead singer), and
Number of the Beast (even though it annoyed him that everyone was singing along and drowning out the band).
The opening band was The Raven Age. They are a metal band from somewhere in England (aka not famous here). Wes said their ability to play music was good but their song writing was crap. I thought they were pretty terrible over all. They really wanted to involve the crowd and promote their new album,
Conspiracy, but I don't think very many people knew of the single they just released so their attempts at getting everyone to clap to the beat and sing along didn't work out very well. But they said the word "conspiracy" so many times that I actually remembered that was the name of their new album. Good advertising technique, guys!
All metal bands practically sound the same to me (clearly, this is not the type of music that I listen to regularly) so all I have to go on is the look and feel of the concert. And the concert felt really good. It was outdoors in awful heat and humidity but everyone was friendly, excited, and in a genuinely happy mood. The crowd was pretty diverse but all of the random concert goers were chatting with each other without judgement. Wes got several compliments on the band t-shirt he was wearing. I sat next to a young man (who asked my permission to vape but still was polite enough to step away to do it even after I assured him it was okay) and his father. They both were very eager to tell Wes and me about Iron Maiden, their song catalog and this concert's set list. At one point during the show, Bruce came on stage with a sword. I turned to Wes and screamed, "OMG he has a
sword!!" The father heard me and tapped me on the shoulder, gave me the rock & roll sign of the horns and a face that read "
of course he has a sword now head bang with us!" and I couldn't stop myself from screaming as loud as I could and bobbing along with the rest of the crowd. Why can't strangers be this nice all of the time?
The set design was really cool. We weren't very close to the stage so I couldn't get good pictures but they had large screens hung up all over so we still got a decent view of the show. The stage was multi-storied so the lead singer could run around and climb up onto the various tiers. Bruce has a lot of energy!! You would never believe the band was in their sixties from the way they played and interacted with us. The show started with Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech and a life sized replica of a Spitfire plane flew onto the stage. I knew at that point that my like or dislike of their music didn't matter; this was going to be an entertaining concert. There were lots of lasers and pyrotechnics (including a HUGE Icarus model that burned down at the end of
Flight of Icarus), a costumed Eddie in stilts, and a new backdrop was revealed at the beginning each song (the best one being an incredibly detailed inflatable demon's head). Bruce did a handful of costume changes, coming out in various hats, masks, a cape and props. Costume changes are the best! Anyway, it was a fun experience and I am really glad we got to go because Iron Maiden was on Wes's bucket list of bands to see live.
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