O2 Arena London 3 AUGUST 2013
The Artic inspired landscape of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son adorns the stage. The video screens either side of the stage show vast ariel shots of rolling hills and crashing sea as Bruce's dulcet tones serenade us to the prelude of Moonchild. Those wonderful and mysterious opening notes wrack up the suspense before the
band burst onto the stage amid a blaze of pyrotechnics and screams from the crowd. Iron Maiden are back on home ground after their European tour and are on fire!
Maiden England 2013 follows a similar set list from their Maiden England 88 tour and Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour classic album shows. With many of the songs being played tonight, including some live rarities like The Prisoner. And of coursethe epic titular track from Seventh Son played in all it's glory with Bruce dressed as a soothsayer and plenty of dry ice too! For any fan this track is the moment of the night!
Of course all the faves are there: 2 minutes to Midnight, Can I Play With Madness and Wasted Years.Throughout the show Bruce showed the usual displays of athleticism and some serious flag waving in The Trooper.
In between songs there are interchangeable backdrops with each one having Eddies fearsome grin staring at you. The customary horned beast animatronic in Number of the Beast and clairvoyant Eddie are spectatular. Even a giant Eddie as General Custer during Run to the Hills chopping away at Nicko with his sword and a hint of chopping away at something else ( are you just pleased to see us Eddie!) Personally I would like to have seen Afraid to shoot Stranges substituted for one of the best rock ballads written: Infinite Dreams as I think it's a stronger song and more in keeping with the Seventh Son theme, but hey!
The set closes with the mandatory Iron Maiden and for the encore Churchills speech the popular Aces High, The Evil That Men Do and Running Free. With pyrotechnics galore, fire (you can feel the heat) and ice, these guys know how to put on a show!!
As much as the O2 is a great place for music in theory they still have never managed to get the acoustics right. To be honest Maiden deserved better than the fuzzy muffled mess that the O2 offers for sound quality. For a band as epic as Maiden where their lyrics and melodies are crucial, much of it's message gets lost inside the circular tent.
Another disappointing part of this evening was the amount of people taking up amature video on their pocket cameras. Personally I find this very rude to the band they have paid to see. Also to the audience who are trying to enjoy the show around them, some of whom needed to remain seated and were virtually unable to see the gig at all, even the screen. Very unfair and selfish behaviour. They really miss the whole experience of the live gig, they would be better off buying a DVD!
Iron maiden are a band of colossal proportions. They deserve your full and absolute attention!!