IRON MAIDEN LIVE IN SYDNEY

ACER ARENA, February 9, 2008

Iron Maiden's first Australian tour since 1992 was perhaps one of the most anticipated events for a large part of the local metal community since it was announced in September. 14,000 tickets for the first Sydney show had sold out within five minutes of the official release date and it looked like at least half of those people were crowded in to the Homebush Bay Brewery before the gig, singing along to any song that was even remotely heavy metal.

Inside Acer Arena, Steve Harris' little girl Lauren was opening the show. I'm not sure if many people saw her set as I can't find anyone who did; I certainly didn't catch it.

Of all the bands that could have followed, apparently Iron Maiden chose Behind Crimson Eyes. In other countries, where Maiden has gone out with acts like Funeral for a Friend, this may have worked. But Australian metal audiences are ridiculously parochial, and BCE quickly learned that an Iron Maiden show was no place for them to be. Despite the fact that they are awful, Behind Crimson Eyes gained a modicum of respect from me just for trying. As a totally inappropriate choice of opening band, to their credit they tried to make it work - sometimes way too desperately - and their cover of "Ace of Spades" was diabolical. They received possibly the worst reception from any crowd I've ever seen but somehow they battled through it. It was major level ownage, but maybe Behind Crimson Eyes will take something away from it. No longer calling themselves a metal band might be a good place to start.

After that the anticipation was simply incredible, and when the stage lights went down to the tune of UFO's "Doctor Doctor" there was an enormous roar that almost drowned out the intro. Then with a blast of flame and a high-kicking leap from Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden was on stage, ripping into "Aces High" and for the next two hours the capacity crowd at Acer Arena was treated to one of the most dynamic live bands in the world. In front of their gigantic movable backdrop and classic ancient Egypt set, Iron Maiden played through their best known songs and the whole room sang along.

On stage, Iron Maiden is amazing, a spectacular, well-oiled machine. Even without all the trappings they would be an incredible band to watch. Liveliest of all is Bruce Dickinson, who is never still for a moment and the focus of the band's entire show. While the others criss cross the stage and Janick Gers carries on with his wild acrobatics, Dickinson is singing, running, leaping, flag-waving and even changing costumes throughout. The set list was a non-stop parade of classics, faintly echoing the running order of Live After Death, the DVD of which has just been released (and shot to No.1 according to Dickinson) but with a few others thrown in to the mix. This is of course meant that the sublime "Revelations" got an airing, one of my favourite songs of all and done brilliantly. The immense "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was also rolled out once again, at long last. It was one of the highlights of the World Slavery Tour and it was again tonight, with a massive backdrop of a rotting ship looming above the band and smoke filling the arena. Before it began however, one of those transcendental concert moments happened: as the band paused for Dickinson to do his introduction, the entire crowd began to spontaneously chant, clap and stomp, completely unbidden. For a long moment, it seemed even the mighty Iron Maiden was overawed and Dickinson, for once, was completely speechless. It's rare when something the crowd does can be the high moment of a show, but this was one of those times.

"Heaven Can Wait" was another high point when a huge group of competition winners got to join the band on stage, and it was great to hear "Wasted Years" get a run too, along with "Moonchild" that opened the encore.

If there was one criticism, it lies with the mix, which was remarkably uneven throughout the show, but most noticably during "Powerslave" where the guitars were incredibly muddy and virtially non-existent for much of the first verse. My only other beef was with Eddie, whose cameo during "Iron Maiden" seemed terribly lame. That could be just a minor nit-pick however, because otherwise the whole performance was pretty much flawless. The band looked like they were truly enjoying themselves, and it would have been hard not to have been revved by Acer's vast crowd tonight, who were clearly relishing every moment.

Bruce said at least twice that Iron Maiden will return to Australia again soon, and after the reception they got tonight it would be hard to argue against it. They may have left it a long time to come back, but they tonight they almost made it worthwhile.

Full set:

• Transylvania (recorded intro)
• Churchill's speech/Aces High
• 2 Minutes to Midnight
• Revelations
• The Trooper
• Wasted Years
• Can I Play With Madness?
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Powerslave
• The Number of the Beast
• Heaven Can Wait
• Run to the Hills
• Fear of the Dark
• Iron Maiden
• Moonchld
• The Clairvoyant
• Hallowed be Thy Name