Rob Halford / Queensryche / Iron
Maiden
Live in Mexico, Jan 9th at Foro Sol
Reviewed by El Cid
A crowd that arrived as early as 1pm
eagerly awaited for the show to begin as scheduled by 7 but we all had a
particular feeling that this (as usual) wouldn’t be the case. Much to
general surprise, at 7 pm SHARP the lights went out and Rob Halford
emerged clad in his usual leather attire. The crowd cheered as Halford
began their set with the title track of their new album
“Resurrection”. This song marked the triumphant return of the
“metal God” to the Metal world and it was received with high spirit
among the audience. After this we had a chance to hear a pack of songs
out of Resurrection which included Made in Hell, Locked and Loaded,
Night fall, Silent screams and Cyberworld.
Halford was not going to disappoint
the audience and thus he plunged fully into his earlier years’ work in
FIGHT with Into the pit and then proceeded to please every soul
standing there in the rain by bringing on a full heavy metal onslaught
out of Judas Priest’s catalog which included Metal Gods,
Jawbreaker, Electric eye and Closed his set with the one song
everyone was eager to hear, Breaking the Law which was almost
entirely sung by the audience as a smiling Rob Halford stared in
contempt at the crowd.
As usual the gap between bands gave
us a chance to run out of the mass and buy beer while half an hour went
by.
Queensryche came out next with every
member of the mighty band dressed entirely in black and they gave us a
great show marked by songs from their long lost 1983 EP such as Queen
of the Reich and The lady wore Balck. Queensryche gave us a
great set that included Walk in the shadows from their “Rage
from Order” album, Take hold of the flame from “The
warning”, the title track from “Empire” and Falling down
from their latest effort “Q2K” among others.
Front man Geoff Tate’s work was
impressive as he consolidated his place as one of the best heavy metal
voices out there along with Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson. The lead
man for Queensryche talked to the audience to let them know how excited
he was to be in Mexico for the first time in his career with the band
and to be on top of that, sharing the stage with 2 flagships of metal
such as Halford and Iron Maiden. Sadly Queensryche’ set was everything
but long, the band got offstage without playing many of their classics
which real fans expected to hear due to the bulk of morons calling
maiden out before time… What’s the rush you ignorant fucks?
After a
truly long wait under the rain, being tired, wet and sweaty Iron
Maiden’s intro finally hit and the tension could be felt all around.
Finally The Wicker Man started and the headliners were in the
house. The pure bliss of finally being able to see a classic Iron Maiden
line-up is beyond words and just the head banging made you realize it
was just the beginning. After a strong opening track, on of the favorite
tracks from “Brave New World”, Ghost of the Navigator made
the crowd go wild. After two more songs from their latest Opus (Brave
New World and Blood Brothers, song dedicated to the Mexican fans for
their support) Bruce introduced one of the classics to an ecstatic
crowd. 2 minutes to midnight was the highlight of the night so
far as the entire audience sang their lungs out to the chorus of the
song. Wrathchild from
the “Killers” album was next as the crowd began to cheer and demand
that the band played the classics.
The
Mercenary was next to continue presenting
the new material as Janik Gers, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith made the
crowd go nuts with the onslaught brought by 3 first line guitar players
on stage. A very familiar décor followed in the back of the stage as The
trooper sent the crowd into a slam dancing frenzy while the mighty
Dickinson swayed 2 union Jack flags behind Nicko McBrain’s drum set.
Eddie came out to a gigantic ovation during The Evil That Men Do and
the crowd cheered him endlessly as Gers “battled” him running around
Maiden’s 7th member while playing.
A big
cross rose behind McBrain’s drum set to herald Sign of the Cross to
the audience. Being the first time many of us heard this song live with
Bruce’s in charge of the vox the song was much appreciated even though
the next song totally eclipsed it. As the lights went completely out and
a very familiar guitar intro echoed in the venue, Fear of the Dark began
playing as every soul at the show sang along with Dickinson’s smile
crowning a very awaited performance. Clansman was next as Bruce
Dickinson gave life to one of the songs originally written for Blaze
Bayley. Maiden “finished” their set with a powerful version of Iron
Maiden during which Bruce came out of a giant cage-like Eddie behind
McBrain’s drum set accompanied by 3 maidens clad in white.
After a 10
minutes of demanding that the British 6 piece came out again, the very
familiar recorded prelude to Number of the Beast boomed from the
speakers and the band came back
out for a 4 song encore which also included Dream of Mirrors.
Personally I think all the
show came to the highest point as Hallowed be thy Name crowned a
night full of Heavy metal madness. As in most shows the closing song was
thought to be Sanctuary which was greatly accompanied by one of
Bruce’s characteristic rants but following this Maiden’s front man
announced the last song of the evening as the new single Out of the
Silent Planet.
And
thus ended the headbangers fest 2001 with the crowd absolutely reduced
to shadows of men with energy but leaving the arena with a very special
smile in their faces, until next time we just have to remember the Iron
Maiden’s gonna get you no matter how far!
-
El Cid