Iron Maiden – Can These Guys Ever Win?

Iron Maiden fans all over have been so pumped that our boys have hit the road once again for an extensive tour here in the US. Opening night in Dallas, TX on June 9th and the end results had an audience split pretty much 50/50. Iron Maiden has always been “fans band” and over the years achieved a huge cult following that mirrored not only the loyalty of Deadheads but also the intense criticism of Deadheads as well. See, back in the day, Deadheads were not afraid to call The Grateful Dead out for a crappy show or a bad choice of songs in a set list. When you’re a passionate fan that’s what you do. You expect nothing less than the best and when you don’t feel like you get it, you let them know. I am the same way with any other band I am passionate about whether it be Phish, Iron Maiden or any other band.

Over the past few years it seems that Iron Maiden just can’t win. Let’s take it back a bit to when Steve “‘arry” Harris decided upon former Wolfsbane singer Blaze Bayley to replace long time singer Bruce Dickinson after he had left the band to pursue his solo career full time. Right off the bat this seemed like a horrible idea which was totally confirmed with the release of “The X Factor.” When I first heard this one something just didn’t sound right about it. Nothing seemed to click on this album. There were a few good songs but for the most part it was pretty much a huge let down. The band released a 2nd album with Bayley titled “Vitural XI” and at that point the fans were screaming bloddy murder to bring Bruce back. They brought Bruce back in 2000 and they managed to record a great album called “Brave New World” which seemed to be a return to form. The band embarked on a few tours mixing new material with some classics yet they were met with complaints of them playing the same old material. “Play some deep tracks” every yelled and moaned.

Iron Maiden answered with “The Early Days” tour in which they performed nothing but songs from the first four Iron Maiden albums (Iron Maiden, Killers, Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind.” This had so much potential to be a great tour but yet again, the band played a hand full of “deep cuts” but were met with more complaints that they were playing the same old songs. The band a few years later hit the road in support of their album “A Matter of Life and Death” and on this tour they played the album in its entirety along with an encore of Iron Maiden and maybe one or two other classics. Once again, the fans replied with a anger saying that they should have played “classics.” Do you see a trend here?

Fast forward to summer of 2010 and the band who is on tour for the upcoming “Final Frontier” album decides to mix it up. This time around the band is playing a set list that is VERY heavy on the “2000-era” of Maiden. This means that the bulk the set list is made up of songs from Brave New World, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death with a few “classics” thrown in and the song “El Dorado” from the upcoming “Final Frontier” album. The fans are once again divided down the middle on this one.

Iron Maiden fans seemed to be comprised of die hard fans and casual fans. Their body of work is so vast that you could totally be a “casual” fan for many many years. If all you ever owned by Maiden was “Live After Death” and Powerslave, then those are the songs that you will always want to hear. If you’re a fan like myself and Jammin’ Jaymz, you own nearly everything (EVERYTHING, if you’re Jaymz) so you’re knowledge of deep cuts is a bit more vast. I also feel like that die hard fans are more forgiving and more open to Iron Maiden taking chances and doing set lists like this. Now don’t get me wrong, we’ll still be very critical about the selections and how they’re played but we’re going to be open for them to do something different.

It just seems that no matter what, Iron Maiden can’t win but there’s a reason why their fans keep coming back for more. The reason is that no matter what the band is playing, at that moment in time, there is nothing better than an Iron Maiden concert. You know you will be getting a top notch performance and you will be getting a band that gives 110% no matter what. Ok, so you’d rather hear “The Trooper” as opposed to “Blood Brothers” but I can guarantee you that they will play “Blood Brothers” just as passionately and intensely as “The Trooper.” No matter what, Iron Maiden is our and we will always be there because they have given us all that we have asked for and then some. Maybe its time we let them put on the show that they want to give us.

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