“Heavy metal is a family,” Bruce Dickinson announces halfway
through Iron Maiden’s near-two-hour set at Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena. Dressed
in cargo pants, black vest and beanie hat, he doesn’t look particularly heavy metal; but regardless, he holds a screaming sell-out crowd in his palm. He waves
them down after a moment and looks uncharacteristically serious. “Family looks after our own. There’s been some
tragedy this past year. Christchurch, Japan, Egypt… Norway. There’s been Iron
Maiden fans caught up in all of that. So tonight, we’d like to send this one
out to them.”
A solemn prologue to their 2000 reunion epic Blood Brothers but that reflection elevates
it as the band – long-term veterans of the scene – deliver with an elegiac grace
that showcases their brilliant understanding of sonic textures. Iron Maiden may
have become known as merchants of taut, punchy metal anthems but bassist and
main-man Steve Harris’s roots lie with Genesis. They have evolved to finest
purveyors of prog-metal; but it’s hard to deny they are riotously exhilarating and exciting.
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| Iron Maiden play live in 2011. (Courtesy of Blogspot) |
Touring behind fifteenth album The Final Frontier, Maiden are winding up the final leg, a
homecoming in big British venues, having conquered four other continents on
their jaunt across the world in custom Boeing-757 Ed Force One (piloted by
their frontman, who is also an Olympic-class fencer and novelist). Thirty-five
years into their career, they could treat it as an extended victory lap of
classics; but Maiden have unshakeable faith in their new material and so split
the setlist fifty-fifty between older hits and songs recorded since Dickinson and
guitarist Adrian Smith rejoined the band in 1999.
On paper, the chosen songs represent a superb set; in practice,
they appear to misstep early on. Of the five songs they cull from The Final Frontier, all but one feature in
the opening half-hour. The title track packs the pugilistic clout of their
eighties heyday; lead single El Dorado
insistently gallops off in classic Maiden fashion around the snarling guitar
licks of triple-six-string threat Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers. But reception
is lukewarm from their audience, and when it doesn’t improve after anti-war
anthem 2 Minutes to Midnight, alarm
bells start ringing.
But Maiden pull it back in style. The twisting-prog of The Talisman is superbly rendered, all
Celtic-lilts and full-tilt driving bass. Power ballad Coming Home elicits lighters in the air, in a proper heavy-metal
throwback. Then comes the breakthrough; a one-two of the gothic Dance of Death and The Trooper, the latter seeing Dickinson prowl the stage in a red
military jacket waving a Union Flag like a man possessed. Sheffield erupts into
a moshing frenzy and never lets up for the rest of the night.
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| Bruce Dickinson performs live with Iron Maiden in 2010. (Courtesy of Wikipedia) |
Arguably the best frontman in rock, Dickinson never falters, an energising presence that brings out the best of the crowd throughout. “Scream
for me, Yorkshire!” he hollers, before sprinting across the stage, wrestling
his microphone during The Wicker Man,
his vocals coiled around sharp, brutal riffs. He bleeds passionate sincerity;
on sprawling apocalypse opus When the
Wild Wind Blows, he is mesmerising. He professionally duals an animatronic
Eddie, the band’s iconic mascot, during The
Evil That Men Do. He sometimes strains with the higher notes but during
closers Fear of the Dark and Iron Maiden, he rises to the occasion
with aplomb, perched upon the stage set (made up like a disused space station)
as a giant Eddie head looms ominously behind him.
Absolute showmanship is hard to find, but Dickinson taps
into a rich seam that is thrillingly entertaining, delivering fire on quintessential
Maiden track The Number of the Beast whilst
the pummelling drums of Nicko McBrain, kit adorned with Sooty puppet, drives magnum opus Hallowed Be Thy Name
forward. They finish with Running Free
from their self-titled debut, a rollickingly fun rock-and-roll number. And that’s
the key to Maiden’s success; as the house lights come up and Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
blares over the PA, there are mile-wide smiles plastered across the faces of
the audience as they head for the exits. They may have transformed to
prog-metal masters; but Iron Maiden know how to have fun. And that’s something
music will always need.
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