Iron Maiden, Rise To Remain @Hisense Arena, Melbourne(23/02/2011)

Thu 24th Feb, 2011 in Gig Reviews

In a career spanning almost four decades, 15 LPs and plenty of controversy, British new-wave metal pioneers Iron Maiden have garnered much notoriety and adoration from fans and converts alike for their high-energy and impressively tight live-performances. And justifiably so. Very few bands can elicit as much excitement and adoration from a stadium crowd as Maiden do, and there are not too many front-men in the business who can demand the attention and voices of the entire audience, as the legendary Bruce Dickinson does night after night.

Having never been to an Iron Maiden show before (“gig” just doesn’t seem the appropriate word here – because it is most definitely a spectacle), it was difficult to know what to expect. The crowd assembling was a noticeable cross-section of the community. From the young and old to the corporate and blue-collar, all of the queuing crowd bar a very few were sporting Iron Maiden, and their iconic mascot Eddie, on the front of their shirts and all bar none were wearing a look of anticipation and eager-delirium on their faces. You could already tell this was going to be a special night.

A band as globally-revered as Iron Maiden undoubtedly is could most certainly provide a night of metal sans a support act. Nonetheless, young hard-core outfit Rise to Remain entertained the modestly assembled crowd during their prelude to the main event. Fronted by Dickinson’s son, Rise to Remain certainly didn’t lack the enthusiasm required to share a stage with such a legendary outfit. Austin Dickinson constantly attempted to get the crowd amped and moving throughout the set, and the front of the mosh-pit slowly built in energy as people filed into the arena. While Rise to Remain’s musical style was not a perfect cohesion for the headliner’s, there is little doubt they would have won over a reasonable percentage of the audience, particularly the younger segment, and they will no doubt get a fair gathering at their Soundwave set in early March.

After a short break that allowed the crew to assemble Iron Maiden’s almost Flintstone-esque looking stage setup, the huge screens at either side of the stage lit up with 3D sci-fi scenes while Stage 15 blasted out, building anticipation even further. The crowd then went wild as Iron Maiden, all 6 of them, hit the stage and broke into recent single The Final Frontier, from the album of the same name. From there, it was an even mix of everything from Maiden’s huge back-catalogue. Dickinson broke after the third song, 2 Minutes To Midnight to inform the audience, “we’ll be playing some new stuff, some old stuff, and some goodies tonight…. we’re gunna be here a while!”.

Throughout the almost two-hour long show, Dickinson proved what separates him from his front-man contemporaries, commanding control of the stage as not just the singer of the band, but something of a ring-leader. Constantly running from the floor-stage to the elevated one, jumping about and doing mid-air splits, and shadow-boxing to his own songs. And throughout all these antics, his impressive voice rarely missed a beat, further exemplifying exactly why Dickinson is regarded to have very few peers among the best-of-the-best metal vocalists. There were regular breaks in-between songs, which no doubt allowed the guys to gather their collective breaths during such a high octane show (after all, they are somewhat getting on in years), which prompted Dickinson to speak and generally banter with the crowd. At one stage, a makeshift oversized cricket ball, which was being flung around the pit, landed in his arms and seemed to capture his attention for quite a while as he tried to figure out what was written and drawn on the ball. This in turn led to a bit of smart-arsing with the audience as to whose country had the better cricket team, as Bruce pounced on any opportunity to give our cricketers a little bit back after so many years of dominance.

The band powered through the set laden with hits such as Wickerman, Fear of the Dark, and The Trooper, much to the delight of the adoring crowd. Guitar virtuosos Dave Murray and Adrian Smith have lost none of their dexterity through age, and what little they lacked in exuberance was well and truly compensated for by Janick Gers’ guitar tricks, as he consistently threw his axe around, twirled it around his body, and energetically spun around in circles throughout the entire set; giving fans a not-so-subtle reminder of the 80’s hair-metal antics that these guys helped pioneer. For the final song before their brief depature, the band was joined onstage by the latest, and giant, incarnation of their mascot Eddie for a light-hearted moment, as he wrestled with Gers for a while, and later even grabbed a guitar and played along to the last few bars of the band’s anthem track simply titled Iron Maiden.

The guys didn’t make the crowd wait too long for their encore, as it was already obvious there was still so much quality to come. They returned to the stage for perhaps their best known song, The Number of the Beast. This was followed by the highly emotive Hallowed Be Thy Name, providing, for mine, the highlight of an evening jam-packed with them. Iron Maiden always finish their sets with the song Running Free, which left the crowd already wanting more before the number was even completed. The only blight on the night was that certain mainstays such as Aces High and Run for the Hills didn’t get a showing, but one might assume these were being saved for their second Melbourne set at Soundwave.

As the houselights came up and the arena was filled with Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the faces emerging from the sea of people were mixed with mirth and satisfaction, as everyone in attendance were treated to a very special night of heavy music. I had been informed of it before, but can now say with authority that everyone must see Iron Maiden at least once in their life. If you were lucky enough to secure Soundwave tickets this year, be sure to check them out. You will not be disappointed.