I cannot recall if he just shoved a tape of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in my hands or whether he gave me a bunch to choose from and I selected it. Perhaps having a 10 minute title track appealed to my love of progressive rock epics. Regardless, I went home with a copy of the band's seventh studio album.
Now, my bedroom had a bathroom en suite which was quite nice. When big storms rolled through, the bolts of lightning would really light things up as the flashes would come through my bedroom windows as well as the bathroom's. Such was the case the night I gave Seventh Son of a Seventh Son my inaugural listen.
As best I can recall, it was the summer of 1988. A cold front had moved in and its clash with the hot summer air resulted in a fine storm. I decided to listen to the album as I went to sleep that night as claps of thunder shook the house and bursts of lightning rent the darkness. I lived out in the country and so, absent a full moon, the nights were quite black.
The raging storm and stygian darkness outside lent the perfect atmosphere for lying in bed listening to an album with lyrics such as "Be the devil's own, Lucifer's my name" and "Restless sleep, the mind's in turmoil/One nightmare ends, another fertile".
Side 1 ended and I found myself enjoying the album immensely. It was moody yet had a keen melodic sense. The guitars left room for the judicious use of keyboards and the songs had fun twists and turns. The epic title track opened side 2 with its barrage of cymbal crashes and washes of neo-Mellotron choruses that heightened the dramatic guitars which seemed to herald the arrival of Lucifer himself. It all sounded big and Wagnerian to my teenage self.
The thunder outside continued its roar and lightning flashes gave me brief glimpses of my room in its stillness as the song wound its way to a slow, moody spoken word section. A hi hat and Squire-like bass set a tense pace as the words were intoned...
So it shall be written
So it shall be done
The bass drum began pounding out a ritualistic rhythm as that hellish chorus sound returned along with waves of menacing guitar that moved from left to right. The guitar bursts became a steady beat that ratcheted up the tension and then suddenly
CRASH!
What sounded like a small explosion in the bathroom shattered my concentration on the music. The song kicked into overdrive as I slowly rose from bed and approached the bathroom. Trepidatiously I turned on the light not knowing what to expect. Would there be some hideous creature from the bowels of Hell there waiting for me?
As it turned out, no. Instead I found that the glass shower door had splintered into thousands and thousands of pieces.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And so last Tuesday I and 4 friends hopped into a luxurious rental SUV and headed south to see Maiden at the Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Illinois. Chicago traffic being what it is, it look a bit but we finally rolled into the parking lot of our hotel which was the exact opposite of luxury. No biggie. We were not the only Iron Maiden fans there who would be making do with the mediocre accommodations.
On the way to the venue I was getting excited and hopeful that Maiden would play at least one tune from my beloved Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Megadeth, another band I'd never seen live before, were opening and I found myself eager to hear them play "Hangar 18".
We were herded into the venue where signs advertised beers that cost $17.50. Uff da! Another one noted that this was the Run For Your Lives World Tour 2026 with songs from Iron Maiden through Fear of the Dark - a greatest hits kind of thing. I was mildly disappointed as there are songs post-1992 that I would have loved to hear such as "Ghost of Navigators", "Writing on the Wall", and "Paschendale". I would just have to make do.
I think Megadeth started a bit earlier than the 7:15 start time that was advertised as we could hear them as we made our way to our seats at about a quarter after. Just as we started down our row, they launched into "Hangar 18"!
I sang along to the chorus:
Possibly I've seen too much
Hangar 18, I know too much
Excellent!
They also did another of my favorite Megadeth tunes, "Symphony of Destruction" and so I was very happy.
Dave Mustaine introduced "Tornado of Souls" as being about the ex-wife of an ex-friend. "Bitch," he muttered before striking the first note. This made me think of my ex-wife. Ha!
While the sound for Megadeth left something to be desired, their set was great.
After what seemed a rather short period of time considering the complexity of the stage set, "Doctor, Doctor" by UFO came on. It was easy to hear their sound in Maiden's. When it had finished, the lights went down and the giant screen in back showed a short video which took us through the dingy streets of 1970s London as the bars where they played in their early years went by while "The Ides of March" played. The camera settled on a wall with Eddie on it from the cover of Killers and the band launched into "Murders in the Rue Morgue" as the lights came on a-flashin'.
It was marvelous!
A quartet of Paul Di'Anno tunes came first followed by the initial Dickenson era tune, "The Number of the Beast". Oh, it was glorious and I sang "666!" along with thousands of my fellow fans.
Dickinson then said they were going to play a song they had left out of setlists for 36, 37, 38 years...that was about dreams. Infinite dreams, in fact.
Woo hoo! Something from my beloved Seventh Son of a Seventh Son!
The song started slowly but Dickinson proved his pipes still had it as he screamed and the band kicked into overdrive. It may have taken 38 years, but my dream finally came true.
Basically every song was a highlight. The 3 guitar attack added real heft to several of the tunes such as "Powerslave" during which Dickinson donned his mask. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was sublime as it chugged along at the perfect headbanging speed for middle aged folks. We then got a respite for the spoken word section in the middle before things picked up for the finale. A wonderful video of this performance was up at Youtube but has since been taken down.
But "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" wasn't the only epic they played that night.
They also did "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" which had me in seventh heaven. It was just glorious! It too was up on Youtube but then taken down. D'oh!
Eddie made 2 or 3 appearances and it was a hoot to finally see him in-person.
He looked none the worse for wear. The band were all in their late-60s(ish) and had slowed down but only a little. Steve Harris still wore shorts and ran around the stage until he found a monitor he liked and staked his claim by putting his foot on top of it. Janick Gers was usually found at one end of the stage where he slid his guitar around his thin frame and, at one point, twirled the cable like he had joined his own personal rodeo. He just always seemed to be having the time of his life. Adrian Smith and Dave Murray effortlessly traded solos like they've been doing for decades while new drummer Simon Dawson pounded the skins in deference to Nikko McBrain but not in slavish imitation.
The show came to a conclusion with a rousing rendition of "Iron Maiden" which found me singing, "Iron Maiden wants you for dead" with aplomb, if not exactly in tune. Footage of the Battle of Britain let on what the first encore song was to be and that bit from Churchill's 4 June 1940 speech had me reciting it. As I said, "We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender", a tear came to my eye as I thought of my brother. Had he been alive, he would have been here doing the same.
Sadly, they played no songs from No Prayer for the Dying (I'd have loved to have heard "Running Silent, Running Deep" or "Mother Russia".) but we did get the title track of Fear of the Dark as a second encore. Dickinson donned his Victorian coat and hat along with a lantern for the occasion. And it provided a chance for Gers to solo for one of the few, if not only, times.
The night ended with the admonitions of "Wasted Years" and twenty whatever thousand people went home happy. Or mostly so. It's funny how quickly fans can start complaining about the songs that weren't played.
Personally, I was thrilled to hear a couple songs from the album that got me into the band on that stormy night all those years ago along with many other classics. And I got to do so in the company of my wonderful friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment