Iron Maiden · The Raven Age

A Saturday night with my good friend Carter Salmons at PPG Paints Arena, lower club section, perfect sight lines on what turned out to be one of the most ambitious productions Iron Maiden has ever put on the road. We didn't know it at the time, but this would be one of my last shows for a long while — COVID was about six months away from shutting the live music world down, and this would be my last big arena night before the long pause.

The Raven Age opened. If you don't know them, the connection is right there in the family tree — guitarist George Harris is Steve Harris's son, and Steve has had them out on several Maiden tours over the years. They run more in the modern melodic-metalcore lane than a Maiden direct descendant sound, but they've got real chops. They worked through ten songs from their catalog, with "Surrogate," "Fleur de Lis," and "Seventh Heaven" being the standouts.

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Then Maiden, and the production. The Legacy of the Beast tour took its name from the band's mobile RPG, and the stage was built around themed set changes that turned the show into a kind of theatrical journey through Eddie's various incarnations. The "Aces High" opener brought a full-size Spitfire flying out over the band — full WWII airfield staging, Churchill's speech as the intro tape — and that's just how the show started. "Sign of the Cross" got a gothic cathedral set. "The Clansman" was full of Highland warriors. "Flight of Icarus" had Bruce wielding a flamethrower. "The Number of the Beast" had the appropriate hellish backdrop and giant Eddie. Every few songs, it was a completely new visual world. As big as Maiden productions had always been, this one raised the bar.

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The setlist was deep,** too. They reached for things you don't always get — "Where Eagles Dare," "Sign of the Cross," "For the Greater Good of God," and "Flight of Icarus" had only recently come back into the rotation after years off. The classics were all there: "2 Minutes to Midnight," "The Trooper," "Revelations," "The Wicker Man," "Fear of the Dark," "The Number of the Beast," "Iron Maiden," "Hallowed Be Thy Name," and "Run to the Hills" to close out the night. The Monty Python "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" tape sent everyone home with a smile, the way only a Maiden encore can.

Looking back at it now, I'm even more glad I went. A few months later,** the world locked down, and live music stopped being a thing for what felt like an eternity. Of all the shows to be the last one for a while, I'm grateful it was this one — Maiden at the absolute top of their game, in a great arena seat, with Carter next to me. Not a bad way to close out an era.