IRON MAIDEN: On Stage

Iron Maiden
Support: Raven the Age
25.07.2023 – Dortmund, Westfallenhalle

High-performance musical sport at all levels

You can only take your hat off to the show that Iron Maiden put on last Tuesday night in front of a crowd of around 16,000. The British Heavy Metal legend gave their first of two performances in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle. Since the beginning of the eighties, the formation has been playing in the same line-up as we were able to experience on their “The Future Past” tour this year. For almost fifty years, Iron Maiden have been one of the most successful and consistent bands of all time and founders of their genre. The band members have almost 70 years under their belts. You don’t notice any of that at all. Fit and fresh and not a bit tired – that’s how Iron Maiden has always been known.

Family heritage?
As support for Iron Maiden, the Londoners from The Raven Age opened. A relatively young band that released their first album in 2017. Musically they belong to the groovy, melodic Metal. There is also a clear Iron Maiden influence. Must run in the family, because the band’s guitarist George Harris not only shares a last name with Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris. The band sounds independent and significantly harder than their idols. Charismatic, clear vocals, excellent guitar solos and an excellent knack for catchy songs stood out. It rained applause and the band could leave the stage with their heads held high after an uncompromising 45-minute set.

Incendiary Storm
A brief respite remained to gather for headliner Iron Maiden. By now, the Westfalenhalle was packed. The crew was still rebuilding the stage and a short time later “Doctor Doctor” by UFO rang out of the speakers: it’s the classic-traditional intro of every Maiden show. The lights went down, the spotlight came on and Iron Maiden stormed the stage with the first songs, the classics, “Caught Somewhere in Time” and “Stranger in a Strange Land”. The stage design was all about cyberpunk and science fiction, but singer Bruce Dickinson with his gray coat and mic stand reminded more of a wizard from “The Lord of the Rings” … only with cyberpunky sunglasses. And like a magician, the frontman captivated the audience right from the start. The 64-year-old skipped, danced and jumped across the stage in a carefree and seemingly effortless manner. The rest of the band also went full throttle right from the start. Steve Harris and guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith never stood still and had obvious fun. The stage resembled a sports field. The greatest acrobatic, sometimes artistic interludes on this evening, however, was reserved for guitarist Janick Gers. He threw his guitar in the air, twirled it around, spun around, ran around, caught the instrument again with an ease and immediately started another guitar solo. The audience seemed visibly impressed by his interludes. Only drummer Nicko McBrain was hardly to be seen behind his drum kit, in front of all the scenery and drums. But he was very much heard. The sound of the band was good. Powerful, clearly defined, nice and loud.

Robot cowboys, Cyborgs and Samurai
The setlist on this tour consisted mostly of songs from the album “Somewhere in Time” and new tracks from the current album “Senjutsu”. On the huge LED walls we saw, matching the respective songs, again and again players and animations in sci-fi look. Band mascot “Eddy” was, as it should be, also part of the party. Once as a robot cowboy, a few songs later as a Cyborg and towards the end again dressed as a Samurai. Not a second went by without a cell phone being held aloft for filming. Understandable. Props and scenery looked coherent, consistent and professional. At no time did you get the feeling that the production was cheesy or overloaded.

Apocalyptic goose bumps
With “Fear of the Dark” there was another highlight of the show. Almost the entire hall sang along in the chorus during the intro. Impossible not to feel goose bumps at this scenario. No one was left sitting on their seats in the Westfalenhalle. With “We are Iron Maiden” as an announcement to the song “Iron Maiden” the band ended the concert then apparently. The song was the oldest they played that evening. Bruce Dickinson thanked the German fans and the band disappeared from the stage. Whether to shout “Encore!”, “Hey, hey, hey” or “We want more”, the audience didn’t really know. But the men from London fortunately hadn’t had enough yet and entered the field again. Last but not least, it became very apocalyptic once again. With the over ten-minute track “Hell on Earth”, the band made a statement on the tense situation the world is currently in. Iron Maiden were more than aware of their role as artists and role models. But they didn’t want to send the audience into the end of the day with this feeling. The crowd went wild and sang along to almost every lyric line during “The Trooper” and the last song, “Wasted Years.” A more than successful evening came to an end. Up the Irons!

Text & Photos: Fred Gasch

Setlist:
„Caught Somewhere in Time“ • „Stranger in a Strange Land“ • „The Writing on the Wall“ • „Days of Future Past“ • „The Time Machine“ • „The Prisoner“ • „Death of the Celts“ • „Can I Play with Madness“ • „Heaven Can Wait“ • „Alexander the Great“ • „Fear of the Dark“ • „Iron Maiden“ ••• „Hell on Earth“ • „Trooper“ • „Wasted Years“

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