The whole Satan "Schtick" was a bit much. I wasn't really offended, because I couldn't understand most of what was being said. I just thought the costumes and make-up were silly, more than cool. There was a moment when the lead singer was asking the crowd if they would sing along....Lead Singer: "will you sing the song with us"........Crowd: "YESSS!!!".......Lead Singer: "Will you sing the song for Satan".........Crowd: "?".........Lead Singer: "That one not so much, huh?"
The Ghost music was good. It had a pretty good groove, I thought the bass player and the drummer were particularly good. After a few songs though, It felt sort of repetitive, and I actually felt myself getting bored by the 5th or 6th song. (This may be down to the fact that I was there to see Iron Maiden and didn't really know much about Ghost. A co-worker made the comment that she had seen Ghost in person and they scared the $%#@ out of her. I wasn't scared, just ready for them to wrap it up, so Iron Maiden could have the stage.)
After roughly 45 minutes of breaking down the Ghost set and putting up the Iron Maiden stage...the real show began. Iron Maiden played a total of 15 songs, they are as follows:
If Eternity Should Fail
Speed of Light
Wrathchild
Children of the Damned
Death or Glory
The Red and the Black
The Trooper
Powerslave
The Great Unknown
The Book of Souls
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden
Encore:
The Number of the Beast
Blood Brothers
Wasted Years
Iron Maiden may be getting older, but they can still put on a great show. Bruce had the crowd eating out of his hand all night and the musicianship and vocals were spot on, and top notch all night. Nicko's drumming being a stand out for me. The dancing of Dave and Janick could use a little work though (Janick jumping around in a fit of hyper activity and Dave was doing some weird two-step waltz thing).
Adrian Smith has always been a favorite guitarist of mine and it was great to see him in person and watch him play his solos to perfection. Steve Harris did the Steve thing, he looked and acted exactly like every video clip I have ever seen of Maiden. Steve is an amazing bassist.
Overall I thought it was a great show.
