Iron Maiden at the Bell Centre

Perhaps they’ve always been around, but I guess I was a bit more conscious of it last night. Around 6:30pm, the metro was taken over by swarm of greasy, long-haired, mostly underweight (or so it seemed) heavy metal fans. It was an hour before show time and the masses were making their way to the Bell Centre for what everyone hoped would be a concert for the ages: the return of the legendary Iron Maiden to Montreal. I know I’ve mentioned the Quebecois love of heavy metal in the past and the sold-out venue adds weight to that argument.
I’ve got to admit, I was excited to see the show. I’ve never been a huge fan of Maiden by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t own any of their albums, never bought any t-shirts. Heck, I haven’t even downloaded any of their songs. But any decent metal fan knows at least SOME Iron Maiden tunes. So it was in that spirit that I headed out to see one of the Monsters of Rock.

I met up with Phil out front of the St Hubert and then headed in to find our seats. When we had originally looked on the seating chart, we had thought that we’d scored pretty good seats. Turns out we really weren’t familiar with the layout of the Bell Centre because the White section left us on the 6th floor, in semi-nosebleed seats. The opening band was called Bullet For My Valentine or something like that. Mercifully, they only played a half hour. They weren’t bad, I suppose, but I don’t think that Maiden goes well with speed metal. The band maintained a sense of humour about things, acknowledging the fact that no one had any idea who they were, but thanking the crowd for the support nonetheless.

The stage was set up like some sort of burnt out, war torn city block with sandbags disguising the monitors. All in all, it looked pretty cool. They also raised a prop tank up out of the stage on hydraulics and out popped Maiden’s mascot, Eddie. During the encore, Eddie made another appearance, standing close to 12 feet tall and carrying a machine gun. Bruce Dickinson also won points from the crowd by addressing the audience entirely in French.

Now here’s where I risk the wrath of Maiden fans everywhere. The show was pretty weak. Yes, I know they just released a new album. Yes, I know that there’s a certain responsibility to promote the new album. But when I drop $55 for nosebleed seats, I expect to recognize the songs! Instead, they chose to play the ENTIRE new album.

While I’m sure some of the songs would grow on me over time, I found myself zoning out several times. It wasn’t until the very end of the set that they played something familiar: Fear of the Dark. The crowd erupted. It was pretty obvious that THIS is what the crowd came to see. Unfortunately, this was all just a tease. In all, they played 3 encores (possibly 4) and the crowd definitely wanted more. I heard some fans complaining at the song selection, so I know I’m not alone in my assessment of the show.

Overall, I can’t say I was impressed by my first Iron Maiden show. I don’t think I would see them at the beginning of a tour, if I had a choice. Til next time…