Incredible performance Yesterday night in Milan, Italy. Probably the best show I have attended ever.
I was there too!!!!
Overall - I'd rank it as my third best Maiden show ever. Can't beat, also for sentimental reasons, the reunion tour in 1999, and the Somewhere Back in Time tour in 2008 when I got a chance to see - kinda - the World Slavery tour that I missed on account of being 5 years old, but this is one of the very best.
For the stage show, this was probably the best ever. They already had a fantastic show (the ramps and the backdrops and of course Eddie) but they reinvented it all and brought it to a new level, with the gigantic props like the plane for Aces High and the Icarus figure. Amazing attention to detail and theatrics, Bruce in his books talks about the "theater of the mind" for his idea of a stage show (he quoted the backdrop for Rime of the Ancient Mariner as an example) and this is the best theater they've ever put on.
For the personal viewing experience, sadly it sucked - it was a flat field, obviously more than crowded, and everyone around me is tall as me, or shorter than me, so I basically didn't see anything. I've seen the backdrops of course, and the upper part of the stage and the screens but with my own eyes I barely got a glimpse of the stage. I'm not even sure, photo camera side, if I saw with my own eyes all of the six band members. I wish this was in a closed venue where I could sit and see it all.
For those complaining about the setlist - of course everyone is entitled about their own expectations and tastes, but I'd say that Mike Portnoy spoiled you with all the amazing efforts he took in creating the setlists for DT. Iron Maiden are a traditional band that, while promoting the hell out of a new album, always played it safe and they never ever were a "let's play a b-side or a song never played live in 40 years" kind of band.
For a band that always plays the same songs, in a single show you got:
- A song that wasn't played since 2005
- A song that wasn't played since 1985
- Two songs from an era of the band that no one but the die hards care about
- The return of two classic songs in the encore that, albeit overplayed, were put aside since 5 years
- New backdrops and stage props for basically every song, even the most overplayed one which was removed from the usual and predictable place just before the last song of the main set
I mean, what more do you want? Alex the Great? Sun and Steel? Women in Uniform? they've never been that kind of band and they never will. Of course everyone is entitled, as I said, to not like this or that song but if you accept the reality of what a Maiden setlist has ALWAYS been, this setlist is beyond amazing.
I regret now not having seen them in the other italian date they had, nor having a chance to see them again in a week in north east Italy.