Wedding Skulls: non-wedding Iron Maiden post, ahoy!

I interrupt the usual programming to wax lyrical about the KICKASS, AWESOMELY EPIC Iron Miden concert I attended last night, along with CDH, FIL, and several of our awesome bogan buddies. Iron Maiden haven't returned to NZ for sixteen years, so 18 000 eager bogans packed Mt. Smart Stadium (where the BDO is normally held) to witness the SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME TOUR.

This be the third time I've seen Maiden. The first - Earls Court, England, in Dec 2006, was on their Matter of Life and Death tour, where they played the entirely of their new album. The second was when CDH and I travelled to Sydney to see them on the first leg of the SBIT tour last year. I think there's something to be said about seeing a band like this in your home country, however. It's something special.

SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME is a tour for the fans, where Maiden break out their classics, the songs their new fans missed out on all those years ago. They've rebuilt and redesigned the Powerslave stage set, and brought back cyborg Eddie. They played 'The Trooper', 'Aces High', 'Moondance', 'The Evil that Men Do', 'Number of the Beast', 'Run to the Hills', 'Iron Maiden', 'Powerslave' and, as a special treat, all 13 minutes of 'Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.'

You'd be hard-pressed to beat these boys live. Note perfect Bruce Dickenson can grab your balls from right at the back of the arena, even if - like me - you don't have any balls. They're absolutly electric. If you've never seen a metal concert before, you should go see Maiden, just to know what you're missing out on.