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| Iron Maiden - Texas and Califórina |
| By: Thais Grossi |
| Pictures: Promo |
| 06/11/2008 |
In 9 days I watched 3 Iron Maiden concerts during the SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME TOUR, with Lauren Harris and Anthrax as warm up and it may sound unbelievable, but it´s not the most exciting thing I´ve got to tell.
Everything started in Texas, when they came to Houston for a concert and then to California, for two more. Except by some little details, concerts don´t change much. Lauren Harris opened the concert in Houston on Thursday, 22, for a not full crowd. Her band is competent, excited and she, she is Steve Harris´daughter, working hard and taking advantage of having such a father. This is more than OK to me, all those who would refuse to open for Iron Maiden may throw the first brick. |
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Iron Maiden started right after with Aces High. The 40 degrees Celsius of Houston that day fit perfectly with the stage decoration. I felt part of the scene after each firework, specially with the terrible hot wave that hit all of us in the first row ruthlessly after each explosion. I felt bad just by looking at Bruce, watching him boil inside that cape while singing The Ancient Mariner.
Another peculiarity about the concert in Texas was to see Bruce wearing a cowboy hat over a bandanna.
In California, after Lauren Harris Anthrax played. The concert was great and the guys are really perfect, specially Dan Nelson and Frank Bello who never stop moving. They opened with Indians (see the set list at the end of the page) and let everybody really excited during the entire show. |
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OK, everything was ready to Iron Maiden, and once more on Friday, 30, and again on Saturday. The set lists were exactly the same to all concerts and all bands as well as the jokes the say on stage. Bruce Dickinson is still amazing and the 50-year-old guys don´t let us down.
Well, my goal here is not actually to write a review of Iron Maiden´s concert, I´ve read several reviews, have only heard compliments and have nothing to crescent in relation to that. However, the experience after the show backstage has to be shared. Starting with the infra-structure they have whenever going on tour added to the team (over 60 people!), everything is extremely professional and huge. It is amazing to talk to the light designers, for example, and find out they are the first to start working, in the morning, building the stage lights. They are also the last ones to leave since lights are the last thing to be disassembled.
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Sometimes they can´t even sleep to start building everything to the next concert over again and I have to say that I didn´t see anybody complaining and neither unhappy. Each team is specifically managed and has a specific uniform with T-shirts that using the Iron Maiden typeface, are identified (video, light...). The organization is amazing. |
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Rod Smalwood, the producer, has an office built specially for him backstage and you can see a real enterprise structure there. You can also feel a family atmosphere. It is common to see Steve Harris´children walking around the backstage. One of the girls is Lauren´s press assessor and goes with them on tour. Everybody works hard and seriously but they never lose the mood. If the backstage were a custom´s party, which one do you thing people would wear there? If you thought “Eddie” you thought wrong! Actually, the plastic glasses where drinks were served were red as well as Scott Ian´s goatee, so meeting one of the technicians walking around wearing a glass on the chin was really common. |
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After the concert, party, of course!!!!!
The super-production includes a buffet with a lot of food and drinks to EVERYBODY, not only the band. Red and white wine, vodka, redbull, juice, Stella Artois (…), a real Heavy Metal democracy where everybody has fun all night long, except the Iron Maiden. They don´t seem to be in a “party like a rockstar” mood anymore, which is perfectly understandable, I believe there is moment in life where we get tired of certain things.
They walk around a bit, smile, take a few pictures, talk a bit and disappear. And it goes like this after every concert, in this case on the two following ones and during and after the second, the most heard words were “tired” and “hangover” but of course, these two little things don´t make anybody give up on doing it again the day after with no unhappy face.
As a person who used to live in Brazil crossing fingers and hoping to see Iron Maiden every two years at the maximum, yeas, my soul is clean now and I´m very happy. It was amazing.
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Set List – Anthrax
1. Indians
2. Got The Time
3. Caught In A Mosh
4. Madhouse
5. Antisocial
6. Room For One More
7. Home
8. Only
9. I Am The Law
Set List – Iron Maiden
1. Transylvania (com video do Ed Force)
2. Churchill Speech
3. Aces High
4. 2 Minutes to Midnight
5. Revelations
6. The Trooper
7. Wasted Years
8. Number of the Beast
9. Can I Play with Madness
10. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
11. Powerslave
12. Heaven Can Wait
13. Run to the Hills
14. Fear of the Dark
15. Iron Maiden
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16. Moonchild
17. The Clairvoyant
18. Hallowed Be Thy Name |
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