A few weeks before the Iron Maiden concert, LCG started sniffing around the Internet for a copy of the current set list. He couldn't find one, and since I am not exactly Little Miss Internet Savvy, I didn't even bother trying. Searching for information on the Internet is not a problem for me, but actually finding what I need is a different story. A long boring story that involves me finding stuff that is not only useless, it isn't even funny.
So I did my part by asking CEB for help. LCG sometimes refers to me and CEB as the Ghosts of Metal Past and Present. If he has a question about something that took place fifteen years ago, he asks me. If he needs up-to-the minute info, on, say, the current lineup of Whitesnake, he asks CEB. CEB has an astonishing capacity for metal news, facts, and rumors, as well as lots of downtime at work. (Special thanks go out to his employer for enabling him to become so well informed on current tours.)
Within an hour of my request, CEB had provided me with the Iron Maiden set list. I called LCG and he asked the important question. "Is Wasted Years on there?" It was not. He was on quite the Wasted Years kick, and for several weeks had been chatting about how much he wanted to hear it live. "Yeah, well I want to hear Band On The Run. You have a better chance at hearing your song than I do." "Good point." But as our pre-show mania increased, (which coincided with him getting the new DVD video collection) he started to worry less about hearing Wasted Years because no matter what they play, Iron Maiden kicks ass.
As the big day crept up, I started having brief flashbacks to the other two Iron Maiden concerts I had attended.
While buying the tickets in 1991 is something I remember in vivid detail, the actual concert is a bit hazy, but some choice bits have come floating back to me. I was not well schooled on Iron Maiden when I went to the show. I was there as an Anthrax fan and Iron Maiden was just a super metal bonus that I wasn't complaining about at all. But here are my random scraps of 1991:
I was so excited about the concert I couldn't eat all day. (Setting a precedent for this year.) When Frank Bello's thumpy bass started up, I could feel the sound waves rattling around in my stomach. My insides acted like an echo chamber for the entire show because the only thing thumpier than Frank Bello's bass (I love his sound!) is Steve Harris' bass. (I really, really love his sound!)
Before the show, off to the right we saw three thirteen year old boys file into their seats, followed up by a mom.
Me: "Wonder how she got stuck being the parent to go."
Friend: "That's you someday."
Me: "I would never carry a purse."
I was in the fourteenth row and still had trouble seeing. I don't think I had hit my full adult height yet. (Growing that extra inch hasn't really helped me out all that much.)
When the giant Eddie walked out, I was delighted when he chased Janick and Janick hid.
During The Number Of The Beast, the two guys next to us were playing air guitar and singing along and having the best time ever.
One of my contacts was bugging me and I finally just pulled it out and threw it on the floor. I decided it was better to see a little blurry out of one eye than only remember eye pain.
After the concert, my friend and I ate an entire twelve count box of Hostess Cupcakes.
The next day we ran out to Great American Music (the same one where we got our tickets in the first place) so she could buy No Prayer For The Dying and I could buy Persistence Of Time.
My neck hurt all weekend from the much headbanging I did.
The concert was on a Friday, and Monday morning we both showed up to school in our Iron Maiden shirts. We were asked why we were both wearing Iron Maiden shirts. "We saw them Friday night." The stupid metal jocks were shocked. (My school was so small that, with few exceptions, the jocks were also the metal guys.) They had no idea that Maiden had been in town! They had all gone to see the premier of the movie The Doors.
I also saw Iron Maiden in August of 2000, but it wasn't as much fun, and I place the blame squarely on my ex-husband. I worked at the record store at the time, and my best work friend Goatee and I played the latest Iron Maiden release, Brave New World, every single day. We were getting all antsy and decided to go see Maiden.
Only problem was, Goatee was stone ass broke. But my birthday was coming up, so I announced to my spouse that for my birthday, I wanted Iron Maiden tickets. It was a triple bill of Rob Halford, Queensrÿche, and Iron Maiden. I was calling it the Greatest Metal Vocalists Ever Tour and was very excited. My only mistake was: I took my ex-husband to the show. I really should have taken Goatee.
You see, my ex-husband was not metal. We had what I now refer to as a mixed marriage, because cultures clash when someone who is metal marries someone who is not metal. He had, at one point, been hard rock, but of course when I took him to see Iron Maiden he was in his Dido phase. (Insert several minutes of me muttering under my breath about stupid crap Dido, etc. I don't quite feel like typing up a Dido complaint right now, because as much as I like to bitch about Dido, I like to rave about Iron Maiden even more.)
The following are my random scraps from 2000, but they are a little foggy because my spouse and I were about four months away from separating, and I had to drink many beers to be able to put up with him. You would think that Iron Maiden (and Queensrÿche-this was back when I still liked them) would have been enough to make me happy, but I really couldn't stand my spouse at that point. I disliked him so much I was at that show thinking Geoff Tate was looking handsome, so you can see how bad things really were. Anyway, the vague memories:
Bruce Dickinson yelled at the crowd! Twice!
Once he yelled at someone up front who was causing some sort of trouble to pick on someone his own size and then added, "I'm more your size." I was really hoping to see him hop into the crowd and beat someone up, but that didn't happen. However, I thought him entirely capable of doing so, and that made me very happy.
The second time he yelled at the people in the balcony to stand up. The balcony crowd (myself included, but I blame the beer and the stifling presence of the jackass) was mostly seated, and Bruce was not having that. The whole point of his rant was that he was forty-two years old and running around, so the fans could good and well stand up. I did not, but I did feel guilty for the rest of the night.
That was the first time I saw them with three guitarists, and on that tour three guitarists meant three guitar solos. I don't like solos interrupting perfectly good rock and roll sets, I don't care who happens to be playing guitar.
I was watching carefully for a curtain to be pulled aside, and when it happened I turned gleefully to my spouse and said, "Eddie's going to come out!" Eddie did indeed walk out on stage a minute later. I was delighted, my spouse was not.
To sum up, today's public service announcements are:
1. Iron Maiden rules.
2. If you are metal, never, ever, not in a million years, I don't care how cool they seem to be at first, under no circumstances marry someone who isn't metal. If you disregard this advice, you may find yourself having a less-than-stellar time at an Iron Maiden concert sometime in the future, and that is no way to live.