Their Music Shall Split the Heavens

I'm still on vacation here, but I took some time to write about yesterday's concert.

IRON MAIDEN - SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME

I can find no words to describe what it was like. When I thought about how to write this, those lines from Tenacius D's song Tribute popped into my mind: "Be you angels?" And angels is right! Because I'm pretty sure that for all the 30.000 people there, those two hours were full of joy and nothing else. I'm certain that these people who are Iron Maiden are blessed by any number of deities you might or might not believe in!

Now, on to the concert. I'll try to be as spoiler free as possible, for those of you who plan to see the concert in these upcoming months they have left of the tour.

I'll just shortly mention the openings bands, Lauren Harris and Trooper.

Lauren Harris is the daughter of Steve Harris (bass guitar player for Iron Maiden) and though her voice wasn't all that great they put on quite a show. It really got you in the mood. And the girl looks fantastic, which gets you in a different kind of mood, if you know what I mean. They jumped around and had attitude, though they weren't excellent, the band was pretty well put together, and I think they did well.

Next came Trooper. For those of you who don't know, these guys are a Romanian heavy metal band. They did a great show. They didn't jump around, but they had the attitude. The vocalist came in as the first song started, grabbed the microphone pole, raised it into the air, screamed... it was fantastic. They even managed to blow the fuse during one of their songs (that's a bit of a lie, actually one of the generators fell, but the impression it gave was "these guys are too strong for the equipment"). They said that their dream was to play at a concert as the opening for Iron Maiden, ever since the band was formed 13 years ago. Well, they seemed pretty happy to get their wish. They even made a tribute song especially for this occasion, the lyrics went something like "Sunt pe scena cu Fecioara de Fier". In my opinion both bands were very well chosen and the atmosphere got really electric before the main event came on stage.

Now, onto the bulk of the evening. The first thing that was out of the ordinary, was the song they began with. First on their list was Churchill's Speech, but they didn't start with that. The first song we've heard, while they were still behind the curtains, was Doctor, Doctor. It was some kind of special bonus track, though I believe it may still have been part of the tuning and soundcheck. Anyway, everyone was taken by surprise, and it was quite pleasant. When the curtain went up and they played the first song from tracklist, Aces High, you couldn't even hear Bruce sing, since the crowd roared throughout the entire song. It was electrifying.

You could see by the reaction of the audience which are the favoured songs here in Romania. Most screams came when that strong voice started reciting the beginning of The Number of the Beast or when the stage went completely dark and the first few notes of Fear of the Dark were being played. It wasn't just a concert, it was a whole spectacle. I particularly liked what they did with Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Of course, Bruce did his job so very well. He really managed to get the crowd into the atmosphere. "Scream for me Bucharest!" he kept saying, and scream we did until we had no more voice to scream with and then when he said it again, we would still find the energy to scream once more. I was amazed at how animated the whole show was. They were leaping over the speakers, throwing their guitars in the air and such. At their age, it was such a glorious scene.

For anyone who ever loved Iron Maiden, this is something you mustn't miss. For everyone in Romania, if you're an Iron Maiden fan, and still didn't make it, the best chance you'll probably have is to see them in Budapest, performing at the Sziget Festival, on 12 August. If you're coming, you might get to meet me there. Until then, ROCK ON!