The List: Iron Maiden

On Saturday, July 3rd, 1982, I was halfway through spending the weekend at my grandparents, while my parents were attending a concert at Rich Stadium, just outside of Buffalo, NY.  I was only 8, so I didn't really have awareness of exactly what they went to, but while watching the 6 o'clock news with my grandfather, they showed a clip of the concert, a few guys running around stage and a giant Frankenstein monster guy with them! I was already a fan of giant monster movies thanks to UHF television- Godzilla, War of the Gargantuan, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and the like and I was TOTALLY onboard with what I saw on the news. "That's the concert your parents are at!" My grandfather exclaimed, kind of shocked. That was my first introduction to Iron Maiden and my parents were never that cool again.

By the time I was 12, I was a full-on heavy metal maniac. Iron Maiden were my favorite band with Metallica quickly closing in by the time I was 13. A month after my 13th birthday, Maiden played Buffalo and a few of my friends and some classmates went; my envy was off the charts, even if I didn't really think Somewhere in Time was as good as Powerslave. In 1988, my uncle to pledged to take me to see them on the "Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour" and boy was I was excited! The tour was for an album I actually love- I rode my bike (during easter break if I recall) to the store in the spring to buy it on cassette and it essentially didn't leave my Walkman until ...And Justice for All came out in the fall. Now, I SWEAR he told me the show was at the Niagara Falls Convention Center and that he had bought tickets and it got cancelled. I remember my friends talking about the show being cancelled but looking at online information about the tour and cancelled dates, the only NY shows I see that are listed as cancelled are Utica and Binghampton. Perhaps it was booked and canned so fast that there's no online record of it? I may also be confusing this with a David Lee Roth concert that was there in '88 that I desperately wanted to attend, but that show happened for sure. Regardless, I wasn't interested in going to the Rochester shows in '91 or '92 (this is an ongoing theme with Rochester) and didn't finally see Iron Maiden until February 1996- a very bleak time for them and metal in general. The venue only has a capacity of 2,500 and it was nowhere near full. Plus, Blaze Bailey was singing. A very strange and non-epic gig. 

Great tour, TERRIBLE video game.

In 1999, Bruce and Adrian returned to Maiden and a bunch of us crammed into a car and drove to Cleveland to witness the "Ed Hunter" tour and that was EVERYTHING we had hoped for. The set opened with the goddamned Churchill speech into Aces High and I've seen them 8 more times since. 

Not that it's been all gravy since 1999, I left pretty disappointed in 2012 on the "Maiden England" tour because Bruce was constantly being a total buzzkill BITCHING about the height of the venue stage and I didn't think they played especially well. Also, and a further bummer, though I've seen them a total of 10 times I had tickets to two shows (2017 "Book of Souls" and the first leg of the "Legacy of the Beast" in 2019) that I couldn't attend because of events at the college I used to work at. When I caught the post covid leg of "Legacy" they opened with three fucking boat anchors from Senjutsu- not exactly the legacy I signed up for. Regardless, Maiden are an exceptional live band on a level that is only rivaled by Metallica.

 This is the LIST of every song I've seen them perform at least once:

 

 S/T

Iron Maiden

Phantom of the Opera

Sanctuary

Prowler

Remember Tomorrow

Running Free

Killers

Wrathchild

Killers

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Another Life

Drifter

Number of the Beast

The Number of the Beast

Hallowed be Thy Name

Run to the Hills

The Prisoner

Piece of Mind

The Trooper

Die with your Boots On

Revelations

Where Eagles Dare

Flight of Icarus

Power Slave

Aces High

2 Minutes to Midnight

Powerslave

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Somewhere in Time

Heaven Can Wait

Wasted Years

Seventh Son

Moon Child

The Evil That Men Do

The Clairvoyant

Can I Play with Madness

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Fear of the Dark

Afraid to Shoot Strangers

Fear of the Dark

X Factor

Man on the Edge

Lord of the Flies

The Edge of Darkness

Fortunes of War

The Aftermath

Blood on the World’s Hands

Sign of the Cross

Virtual Xi

The Clansman

Futureal

Brave New World

The Wickerman

Ghost of the Navigator

Brave New World

The Mercenary

Dream of Mirrors

Blood Brothers

Dance of Death

Wildest Dreams

Senjutsu

Senjutsu

Stratego

The Writing on the Wall

The MOST important record in my collection...

Although I had been borrowing music from my uncle Jimmy for years(mostly classic heavy metal)the year between turning 14 and 15 was really when I fell in love with music. Had there been a positive football or academic happening in that time frame, perhaps I wouldn't even be bothering with this blog, perhaps I'd be a different person, but I can only speculate. The fact of the matter is that when I was 14, not only did my uncle Dave take me to see Metallica, but he also took me to Cavages at the Summit Park Mall and let me pick out one album for purchase. This was a test of my coolness, I'm sure. A rite of passage to see if I had what it took to be a screaming heavy metal maniac. I was in middle school, and it would still be a year and a half before I discovered hardcore and straight edge and all the stuff that most people know I'm about. This was a young mulleted man-child who 21 years ago had to make a choice. A choice between 2 albums that interested him: Danzig: Danzig and Iron Maiden: Live After Death. Mainly these "choices" came from the fact that their cover art was intense and illustrated in a way that was appealing to my young mind.

I held both records in my hands, noticing they were "gate fold" layouts, like my Father's copy of Kiss: Alive. The 13.5" squares were heavier than the Sex Pistols, Ramones, Judas Priest, Devo, Motley Crue and earlier Maiden records I had borrowed prior to this meeting of two greats in my fists. I had to choose, I had to make a decision. I knew I liked both bands; but what to do?

Ultimately, Live After Death won the battle. Why, you ask? Well, my teenage mind chose the record with more songs. A simple decision, made from a craving for more music, more content. Although I did purchase Danzig eventually in my 15th year on cassette, Live After Death left an impression that has forever stayed with me in a way Danzig (arguably #5 in my favorite bands of all time) couldn't have. So today while I was making my breakfast there was no question what I was going to listen to. Iron Maiden's Live After Death, the 21 year old copy, the record I never parted with, the record that is the most important in my collection, the record that still fucking skips on side two.