I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2026] Iron Maiden

I loved these three bands back in the 1980s.  Not in the above order (Anthrax was always near the top), but I never seen them when I was a huge fan.  I saw Iron Maiden in 2000 but I didn’t know most of the songs they played that night–until the end.

When this tour was announced I didn’t really think about going–I haven’t been enjoying heavy metal shows as much as I used to and I haven’t listened to anything new from Iron Maiden in about 30 years.  But then I saw that this show was going to be an old-school tour with songs from their first decade of music.  Iron Maiden thru Fear of the Dark (I didn’t even know FotD was one of their albums).

I was able to grab a ticket for the second night–the first sold out pretty quickly.  I don’t know if the second night did, too, but Bruce said it did.

The first two bands were great but I decided to move away from the mosh pit that kept forming in front of me, so while we waited for Iron Maiden, I moved to the middle of the GA section.  The people around me were shorter (good) and I patiently waited.  (Oof, after the long fast walk and the fact that as of yet I had not gone to the bathroom I was a but cranky.  I also didn’t want to lose my spot to get a $7 water.  I know the water price because when a dad came back with water for his son and himself, I asked how much it was and he told me.  He then let me have the last inch and a half when he was done–thank you kind stranger!  This guy was really nice and I enjoyed chatting with him until the lights went out and music started.

It was Doctor Doctor by UFO.  I had seen that this was the music they played before the band came on.  But since they had been playing music the whole time, it was weird to have this song start, the lights dim and….nothing.  I don’t know the song and it felt endless and some people were into it and I stood there wondering when I’d have something to look at.

And then the familiar chords of Iron Maiden’s The Ides of March started and the video screen followed a series of streets with ALL KINDS of inside jokes.  I knew about 3 of them.  The image shifted to that of Eddie on the cover of Killers and the band started the quiet intro of Murders in the Rue Morgue and I was ecstatic for about a minute because as soon as the song started properly, the entire right side of the GA erupted into a mosh pit–and we were pretty far back at this point.  WTF.  Do people not know where the pit is supposed to be?  Well, I got elbowed a few times until I was able to get away.

This opening was my heaven, because I love the first two album so much and Bruce sings these songs perfectly, even if they’re not “his.”

The rumbling bass of Wrathchild was awesome.  And it was really fun to see Steve Harris up front, foot on the monitor, smiling and plucking that bass.  And of course, the crowd shouted along the chorus.  And mid-song Eddie came out–some 12 feet tall, stomping around the stage and being generally awesome.  I wonder how that’s done.   I assume someone is in the costume, but it doesn’t look like stilts or anything.  They followed that with the great guitar riff of Killers.  I could have listened to them play that all straight through.

But then the backdrop changed to a fancy … operahouse?  And the guitar lines for Phantom of the Opera started. I’ve always loved these early records but as I was listening to the melodies and solos it really hit me just how melodious these songs are.  The solo melodies are gorgeous and they play over each other perfectly.

As with the other two bands, I didn’t really know who was still in the band–the late 90s were tumultuous for metal bands.  I recognized Dave Murray immediately and of course Steve Harris has never left the band.  But about half way through this song I realized that there were three guitarists on stage.

I had to wonder if one of them was Adrian Smith.  I hadn’t heard about him leaving (he did, for a few years, but came back).  But I felt like it didn’t really look like him at all.  And, he was really showoffy in a way that Iron Maiden never was.  And then there was another guitar with short hair and a bandana and a goatee.  He played a lot of the solos and sang back ups.  I had no idea who he was.

Well, turns out THAT was Adrian Smith.  It doesn’t surprise me that he had shorter hair, as he usually did, but I simply would never have guessed that was him (although I see he looks exactly the same as he did in 1999).  I wish I knew that during the show because I would certainly have paid more attention to him.  The other guy, it turns out is Janick Gers.  So it turns out right when I stopped listening to them, Adrian left the band. Maybe I knew that?  He and Bruce made solo albums, but Adrian wanted to keep writing epic songs and Steve Harris wanted to strip things down again.  So they brought in Janick who played on Bruce’s album.  Bruce left after the next album (Janick stayed) in 1993.  Six years later Bruce and Adrian returned–after six years of terrible sales and reviews–and they kept Janick too. Oh yea and their drummer Nicko McBrain had health issues a while back (I actually thought he was dead) and their replacement was okay.

Back to the show…, the opening monologue to The Number of the Beast started and while Bruce didn’t exactly hit the big scream, he came pretty damned close–not bad for 68 years old. The crowd was electric for this song and it was so much fun to hear shall we say 25,000 people sing along.

Then they jumped to the Seventh Son album–the last one I bought from the and one I didn’t listen to much.  This song sounded familiar, but not that familiar.  It was like a nice respite.  Especially since it’s much slower and it made the pits slow down.

After this song, Bruce came out wearing a creepy mask.  I never got a really good look at it but, given the next song was Powerslave, I’ll say it was some kind of Egyptian mask. He ran around the stage from one side to the other singing Powerslave–unhindered by this massive thing on his head.  I was super excited to hear this one live because the only other tim I saw them, they played only one song from this album and I never guessed they’d bust this out.

They followed it with the hit from that album–2 Minutes to Midnight.  It was, of course, fun to hear that one too.  But I really wasn’t prepared for what came next.

Holy crap, did they really play the 13 minute Rime of the Ancient Mariner?  With Bruce wearing a naval pea coat? Yes they did, including the slow voice over part.  High school me would have been ecstatic as I listened to that song a million time.  SO much so that even though I hadn’t listened to it in some 30 years, I still knew all of the parts.

They shifted gears briefly by playing Run to the Hills–a short blast of fun that everyone loved singing along.  And then it was back to the epics, as they played Seventh Son.  This was another song from Seventh Son of  Seventh Son, and, I’m guessing I must have listened to that album more than I realized because while I couldn’t sing along, I knew the melodies pretty well. This song–about ten minutes long–started to outlive its fun, in part because the visuals never really changed on the screen behind them.

Somewhere around this song these two huge guys moved in next to me and kind of pushed their way over to make me be behind some really tall guy who I hadn’t noticed before.  It definitely made the last few songs less pleasant.

Back to more familiar territory as they played The Trooper.  Bruce was dressed in military regalia and mid-song, the giant Eddie–dressed like the cover picture came out on stage and waved his sabre around.

They made my night when a cage rose from the stage and Bruce was in it as the music for Hallowed Be Thy Name began.  This song is just so good–the melodies, the guitar parts, Bruce’s voice.  It’s fantastic.  Mid-song, Bruce burst from his cage and an animated version of himself ran up a pathway to the gallows awaiting hm.  The theatrics were wonderful as the animated Bruce felt to the stage and moments later real Bruce rose from the mist and finished the song.  He must really enjoy the theatrics of his part because he had so many costume changes and ran to every inch of the stage.

They ended the set by playing Iron Maiden.  I felt like it was a little slower than usual, but that’s okay.  It still sounded great and was a perfect way to end the set.

And because of those tall people around me I moved from my close position and went to the back of the pit. Which was spacious and airy. [I couldn’t believe how many people were smoking!].  At this point I was annoyed by the crowd and my feet hurt and I was ready to go home.  But I stayed for the encore because I never leave before the encore.

They came back for a few more songs.  They played Aces High and this was the first time that I thought Bruce’s voice wasn’t quite reaching where it should.  Evidently this is a challenging song …and he is 68. But I did enjoy hearing the music.

Oh and that was one thing that I founded annoying–Bruce kept chanting Hey Hey Hey during all of the instrumental breaks and I was like, dude, I’m here for these guitar solos.  But it felt very European, so I allowed it.

They ended the set with two songs that I was really disappointed in.  Evidently Fear of the Dark is a huge hit of theirs? I’d never heard of it or heard it.  It was a fine song and I enjoyed Bruce’s outfit for this one (a hunched over old man with a lantern), but wow I did not expect that to be the encore song.

Nor did I expect them to end with Wasted Years.  Bruce said that they ended every show with this (?) and they liked to remind everyone not to waste your time…etc etc. Dave played the riff really slowly which was weird and while I did remember the song I was never a huge fan of it.

I had seen that they end the show by playing Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.  And I stuck around jut for that.  And I guess I wish I hadn’t.  I did hear the song but since I waited, I was caught in the crush of people going out, I couldn’t go to the bathroom and never even saw the merch!

The walk back to the car was worse than the walk to the stadium because the police blocked off everything and wouldn’t let us cross the road.  When I finally got to my car, they had also blocked off the convenient way for me to get home.

So, overall, I enjoyed 90%of the night and I’m not letting the terrible arrival and departure impact that score.  People were really annoying and I will certainly never go to another show there.  I may not even go to another metal show (except maybe Anthrax) because I find metal crowds to be kinda sucky.

But Up the Irons!  Maiden was fantastic.

2026 NJ	2020 Montage
Doctor Doctor (UFO song) [tape]	Arthur’s Farewell [tape]
The Ides of March [tape]	The Wicker Man ♠
Murders in the Rue Morgue √	Ghost of the Navigator ♠
Wrathchild √	Brave New World ♠
Killers √	Wrathchild √
Phantom of the Opera ∇	2 Minutes to Midnight ¶
The Number of the Beast #	Blood Brothers ♠
Infinite Dreams ≥	Sign of the Cross ‰
Powerslave ¶	The Mercenary ♠
2 Minutes to Midnight ¶	The Trooper ∞
Rime of the Ancient Mariner ¶	Dream of Mirrors ♠
Run to the Hills #	The Clansman ∉
Seventh Son ≥	The Evil That Men Do ≥
The Trooper ∞	Fear of the Dark ♦
Hallowed Be Thy Name #	Iron Maiden ∇
Iron Maiden ∇	encore
encore	The Number of the Beast #
Churchill’s Speech [tape]	Hallowed Be Thy Name #
Aces High ¶	Sanctuary ∇
Fear of the Dark ♦
Wasted Years ⊕
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Monty Python song) [tape]

♠ Brave New World (2000)
∉ Virtual XI (1998)
‰ The X Factor (1995)
♦ Fear of the Dark (1992)
≥ Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
⊕ Somewhere in Time (1986)
¶ Powerslave (1984)
∞ Piece of Mind (1983)
# The Number of the Beast (1982)
√ Killers (1981)
∇ Iron Maiden  (1980)