Iron Maiden Concert Review Jan 24 and Jan 26 , 2004 at Hammerstien Ballroom NYC

REVIEWED BY: Jeff M
jeffm17@netzero.net

Iron Maiden is one of the few bands in the metal genre that is capable of sounding as good live as they do on thier records. The two shows I witnessed recently were no exception.

Maiden took the stage about 9:10 PM after a fogettable set by opening act Arch Enemy. The crowd was pumped as Bruce and the boys opened with the first single from the new record Wildest Dreams, which was followed immediately by the classic from Killers "Wrathchild" the band was firing on all cylinders and played a song which they did not do on thier last three tours with Bruce, Can I Play with Madness a song I never liked but It went over pretty good with the crowd singing along during the chorus.

Next, the Trooper a great live number but the only track from Piece Of Mind. I would rather have seen them do Flight of Icarus from this record which they have not done in quite some time.

At this time Bruce mentions thier latest CD Dance of Death and they go into the brilliant title track with Janick Gers playing an Acoustic Guitar through the first few parts. This song worked great live and featured three separate solos by the three axemen. Rainmaker followed, another real good track from DOD and the crowd was really fired up.

Brave New World followed and it sonded great and they were rocking and as active on stage as allways. Pascendale, my favorite track from DOD followed and the stage was set to resemble a war scene with Bruce donning a soldiers helmet and trench coat, this was perhaps the highlight of the show and featured some great guitar work from Adrian Smith.

Lord of The Flies followed and was the only track from the two records with Blaze Bayley. Next up was No More Lies another from DOD which works better live than on record.The next Three songs need no Intro

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Fear of The Dark
Iron Maiden

The sound started to fade in and out during Maiden's theme song and after the song they left the stage to break before thier encores. Well, they never had a chance to give the crowd what they wanted due to a problem with the PA system. Evidently a fan threw a beer from the mezzanine section and it landed on the sound board which shorted it and prevented the band from completing a great set.

I did go to Monday's show which the same set list plus three encores.

Jorneyman
Number of The Beast
Run to The Hills

Final thoughts on both shows:

They played and sounded great, the show was much shorter than the Brave New World Tour They could work on thier set list a bit, I mean come on, nothing from Powereslave or Somewhere in Time. All in all an etremely good show.

Jeff M