Lots of fire

Last week my brother and I went to Great Woods (now called Comcast Center, or Tweeter Center, or Fluffernutter Center, or something silly) to see Iron Maiden. I’ve been a huge Maiden fan since maybe I was 10, when I first heard their new album, Powerslave. While I normally don’t listen to very much metal, I was hooked from that first listen and have been ever since. I think one of the reasons I like them so much is that their music is actually quite complex and melodic, and the subjects of their songs tend to be based around historical events and books.

Anyway, I’ve seen then three other times (1990, 1998, & 2003), but I was most excited when I heard about this tour since they were basically playing almost all of my favorites. I knew it wasn’t a show to pass up, so I called my brother (another big fan) and we went.

Here’s one way to stand out in the crowd at an Iron Maiden show: don’t wear a black t-shirt. I was wearing khaki shorts and a button shirt (nothing fancy) and was, by far, the best dressed person there.

Look! There’s a guy with a gray t-shirt!

Alice Cooper was the opener. I’ve never heard much of his stuff, but looked him up on the YouTubes before the show and was like, “Uh…ok.” I was really not impressed by those clips. When I saw him play, however, I actually was impressed. It wasn’t bad, like I thought it would be (not great either), but solidly good. I will say that he has more props that Carrot Top. It seemed like for every song he had a different outfit and accessory (cane, sword, Igor, guillotine, etc).

Then Maiden took the stage and it was an hour and a half of awesomeness. Here are some crappy pictures that don’t do it an ounce of justice.