On November 18th, I went to see Iron Maiden in The Globe Arena, Stockholm, Sweden. The last time I had been to "The Globe" was in September 2004 when I saw Rush on their R30 tour.
I went with my sister and one of her friends. None of them had seen Iron Maiden before (I had seen them once) so it was really fun for them. We met outside the arena roughly 45 minutes before the show was supposed to start, and found our seats in the very back and quite high up. Not the best view of the stage, but that didn't really matter. We were there and that's the important thing. It also turned out that the sound was great where we were sitting.
We sat and chatted before the opening act, Trivium hit the stage. I didn't have very high hopes about the band, judging from my previous experience with Iron Maiden openers. In June 2003, Murderdolls opened for them and I didn't like them at all. I was with other words pleasantly surprised with Trivium. A little bit too much "thrash" for me, but they did a good show and from my point of view, the rest of the audience liked them as well.
After a break including bathroom visits, Doctor Doctor came on and everyone who had seen Maiden before knew what was about to come. After some classical intro, they opened up with Different World, the first song from their new album. They had played the night before also, and since I couldn't keep from buying the newspaper to read the review, I knew the setlist. That didn't disappoint me too much though.
Setlist:
Entire "A Matter Of Life And Death" album
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden
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2 Minutes To Midnight
The Evil That Men Do
Hallowed Be Thy Name
After hearing the new album at home in my stereo, I wasn't too impressed. However, when they played them live, they got so much more energy and power that I was blown away. One cool part was during "Out Of The Shadows" when everyone got their cell phones out and waved them around like lighters. Also, hearing the last song "The Legacy" was truly a concert highlight for me. When they then launched into Fear Of The Dark, the arena went nuts! Pretty much everyone was standing up and singing/shouting along. The final song before the encore (as always) was Iron Maiden with a huge Eddie in command of a Tank which was cool.
They opened up the encore with 2 Minutes To Midnight and it was nice seeing (and hearing) Adrian playing the intro for once. During The Evil That Men Do, Eddie came out again dressed as a soldier and Janick ran around him, punching him in the balls During the final song, the crowd was absolutely crazy and no one wanted it to stop. When it finally (and sadly) did, everyone walked out of the arena, singing Monty Pyton's Always Look At The Bright Side Of Life, that was being played in the speakers.
Now I'm looking forward to Roger Waters in The Globe on April 27th, and I'm expecting a great experience, based on what I have read here
Thanks for reading!
