 Airbourne
are the only support band on this tour for most
of the tour dates, and right from the off I think
you can tell its not going to be a good one, it
starts win one of the guitars cutting out during
set opener Raise the flag, before being swiftly
sorted with out stopping but the sound is utter
pants, it sounds flat and really lacking power
and pace, if there taking a different approach
to there songs then they need to knock that shit
off swiftly, as it doesn't sound like airbourne
that I know and love and have got tinitus from.
Too much booze maybe but there only so much response
from the crowd as I suspect that many of the maiden
die hards aren't too familiar with this band,
but damn intuink they should have been given a
better shot at a more fuller richer sound as regardless
of how good they play there's no chance of them
upstaging the mighty maiden, the songs seemed
less fluid with Joel taking a different approach
with the vocals, it didn't sound too good. Song
like, Chewin the fat, no way but the hard way,
cheap win and cheaper women, really failed to
inspire. The better response came during songs
like Diamond in the rough, BlackJack, Too much
too young to fast, Stand up for rock an roll and
set closer Running Wild which really got the crowd
going, but even these songs didn't have the power
or energy they normally do, this is a much below
par performance than expected, did they warm up
the crowd? luke warm maybe. Anyone that knows
me, knows that Airbourne holds a special place
in my heart, and are a long time favorite of mine
but this performance was pretty shit.
After hearing Airbournes shoddy sound, I'm hoping
for so much better, Doctor Doctor plays over the
PA and were only minutes away from the mighty
Maiden. After the lengthy intro to The Final frontier
come to and end with the opening of the proper
song, my sound worries are quickly quelled and
Bruces voice comes flying over the top of it all,
Maiden Heaven this is! I've been looking forward
to hearing the new songs live to see how well
they translate and they don't disappoint, The
Final frontier catchy as hell with superb lyrics,
its loud and powerful, El Dorado comes in next,
its the second time I've heard this  live, still
not sure of the song in general but still sounding
pretty good. Then its time for a classic, 2 minutes
to midnight, just superb, classic maiden at its
best really followed by two new songs the Talisman
and future maiden classic Coming home, melodic
and slightly haunting and bruce makes a crack
about it not being about west bromwich albion,
but live it sounds superb. Dance of death, is
quickly becoming a classic, if not it already
is one, great singalong song, along with the next
The Trooper, well need I say more about this staple
song. Its good to hear them playing songs on the
album that marked Bruces return to maiden, two
songs blood brothers and the wicker man, blood
brothers being another one to really singalong
to. next up and my favorite new maiden song, when
the wild wind blows, just a beautiful and haunting
song, this will be a future staple, spoken in
the same breath as fear of the dark. This is followed
by the evil that men do, one of my favorites live,
still sounds great after all these years, the
band still got masses of stage presence that out
shines any of the stage props that they have up
there, bruce still darting around the stage like
a lunatic after all these years and 'Arry still
pretty much the embodiment of Iron Maiden in the
flesh. Then its time for THE big singalong, Fear
of the dark, with crowd singing the intro and
pretty much all the way through the song, as with
the rest of the set really It's just an awesome
spectacle to behold, but I don't think the performance
of this song at download 2007 will ever be topped.
Main set closer as ever is Iron Maiden, still
as raw as ever, with the appearance of Final Frontier
eddy looking pretty bulked up and mean!
 Number of the beast is the encore opener, still
a classic if over played somewhat, but what was
unexpected was the instruments cutting out near
the end of the song and the crowd carried on singing
regardless, the band looked pretty surprised by
this but the crowd carried it through to the end
along with Nicko on the drums and Bruce on the
Vocals, Fucking Awesome, Legend! is what bruce
had to say about it! Hallowed be thy Name started
as normal and everything was working again, weird
who knows what happened, its a great song and
another to sing to, and set closer was a lengthy
version of Running free with Bruce introducing
the band members. Overall probably one of the
best gigs I've been to, certainly better than
the last arena Maiden gig I went to back in 06,
which was the matter of life and death tour, which
lacked energy, but this gig more than made up
for it, fantastic, Maiden at there best!
Airbourne – 2/5
Iron Maiden – 5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence
Photos By John McMurtrie
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