Iron Maiden June 16, 2017 The XCEL Energy Center St. Paul, Minnesota, USA The Book of Souls North American Tour Tradeable
1 Blu-Ray Geoff Goold / dimebagdary179 Audience (1080p - 24fps - H264 - 128kbit - AAC).mp4 dimebagdary179 Master JDownloader 2 Pro > Seagate HDD > HD 1080p Authored and Edited to BD with Roxio Pro / Audio conversion done with Sonic > TLH NTSC 16:9
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If Eternity Should Fail
Speed of Light
Wrathchild
Children of the Damned
Death or Glory
The Red and the Black
The Trooper
Powerslave
The Great Unknown
The Book of Souls
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden
The Number of the Beast
Blood Brothers
Wasted Years
Review: British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden filled St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center Friday night in the band’s first Twin Cities concert in 17 years. More than 14,000 fans spent the two-hour show making up for lost time, shouting, singing along and pumping their fists.
While Iron Maiden fill their records with apocalyptic anthems and pseudo satanic imagery, it’s ultimately more about campy fun than, you know, animal sacrifices. In terms of giving the audience exactly what they want, they’re far closer in spirit to New Kids on the Block (who headlined the X on Wednesday) than Tool (who were here last Friday).
They performed on a vast stage inspired by an ancient Mayan temple surrounded by flames and smoke. And, of course, the band’s ghoulish mascot Eddie – the creature who adorns both album sleeves and t-shirts – made several appearances, starting with an animated blockbuster movie-style opening film and wrapping when an oversized Eddie head emerged behind drummer Nicko McBrain as they played “Iron Maiden” at the end of the main set.
It was all a far cry from Maiden’s last show, which took place next door at Roy Wilkins Auditorium and drew a meager crowd of 4,000. At the time, the band was still finding their feet after lead singer Bruce Dickinson had recently rejoined Maiden following a six-year absence.
Friday, though, it felt like the guys were playing an outdoor festival in front of 100,000 people on New Year’s Eve. Dickinson turns 59 this summer, but has managed to maintain much of his vocal ability, putting folks like David Lee Roth, Joe Elliott and Axl Rose to shame. In addition to his powerful voice, Dickinson is clearly in terrific shape and spent much of the show sprinting from one side of the stage to the other, at times even taking acrobatic leaps in the air. (It is worth noting, though, that he dresses like a dad and wore a black hoodie and tan cargo pants.)
Iron Maiden’s trio of guitarists – Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers – also kept things hopping with endless, effortless solos and wide grins (when they weren’t rocking serious guitar face, that is). If they weren’t actually having a blast up there, the guys are terrific actors.
It probably helped that much of the set was focused on Iron Maiden’s most recent album, 2015’s “The Book of Souls.” For reasons unknown, Dickinson wore a monkey mask during “Death or Glory,” and later donned a red soldier’s jacket and waved a Union Jack flag for 1983’s “The Trooper.”
Dickinson seemingly acknowledged the band’s 17-year absence when he said “it has been a while” while adding “this place has been totally sold out for a long, long time.” Then again, he repeatedly referred to being in Minneapolis, rather than St. Paul.
While almost entirely male, and many wearing Maiden t-shirts, the age of the crowd ran from teenagers to baby boomers. At one point, Dickinson asked how many people were born after 1982, and the roar was impressive. He used that to introduce that year’s “Children of the Damned” and said “if you were born back in 1983 or 1984, it could just be that your mom and dad may have been getting it on to this.” And, yes, he did first warn the fans he was going to “raise (the) terrible prospect of mom and dad sex.”
Iron Maiden started strong and ended even stronger, with a three-song encore of classics “The Number of the Beast,” “Blood Brothers” and “Wasted Years.” Dickinson even took time to give the crowd a rousing plea for peace: “We don’t care who you are. We get together. We drink beer. We love Iron Maiden.” by DIMEBAGDARYL79
