IRON MAIDEN, Lauren Harris
10.02.2009 Belgrade,В "Beogradska Arena"В 

words by Steffan Yordanov, photos: Steffan Yordanov.

150 Bulgarians in 4 buses enjoyed the “honour’ of being escorted or rather pushed by three police cars all the way from the Serbian border to one particular hall in Belgrade, where Iron Madien started their 4th leg of SBIT tour. Reason remains unknown. Probably some Serbian custom officer had a bad pre-menstrual morning or it was some inefficient euro complex of deficiency, we’ll never know.

In the end of the day we survived all the psycho attacks and successfully arrived at Beogradska Arena. We won’t see a concert for 20 000 people in Bulgaria during the witnter simply because there’s no such hall. Probably we don’t need it? Or somebody already decided for us? Anyway. I personally observed the Serbian standard of living and it made me think over the Bulgarian European validity.
But we are here to see Iron Maiden- easily the best heavy metal band in the world.

The gig starts with Lauren Harris, who slowly but surely takes over the conservative maiden audience. She has a couple of new songs and they sound really awesome, but Lauren’s voice remains a little bit annoying sometimes.

Non-Balkan and Balkan countries’ national flags are waving over the increasing mass of people down there in the fan pit area. I can clearly recognize the Bulgarian one too.

UFO’s “Doctor, Doctor” triumphantly declares that the real show is about to begin in a few minutes. Then Churchill delivers his speech and two giant screens reveal some sacred and very well known documentary shots used in the “Aces High” video. Brilliant!

The traveling in time has just begun. Maiden have reorganized their set and now it’s even more adequate to the time period the whole SBIT tour refers. As Bruce promised 5 songs  (“Revelations”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “Can I Play With Madness?”, “Moonchild”, “The Clairvoyant”) were replaced with another 5 (“Wrathchild”, “Children of The Damned”,”Phantom of the Opera”, “The Evil That Men Do” и “Sanctuary”).

Although they messed up a little the beginning  of “Phantom of the Opera” and Bruce repeated one of the verses of “Powerslave” 2 times by mistake, these minor flaws were professionally covered up and turned into positives. The fireworks were amazing. Really.

Such epics as “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “Fear Of The Dark” contributed with each other even better than the last time I saw the band live. Of course, with so many classics under the maiden’s belt, there are always people who complain over the choice of songs, but the fact is that every piece of this musical puzzle went down really well.

Speaking of emotions, the audience looked like a stormy sea with several very dangerous vertigos in it. In 23.14 the time traveling was finally over. It finished too soon, but it’s always like this. Monty Python’s …Always look on the bright side of life… was the last thing, coming from the PA. That night the gigantic spectacular show of Iron maiden was in Belgrade. Today it’s on its way to Dubai and then it’s flying to India. Looks like some kind of a fairy tale.

setlistВ BELGRADE 2009:

1. Aces High
2. 2 Minutes To Midnight
3. Wrathchild
4. Children of the Damned
5. Phantom of the Opera
6. The Trooper
7. Wasted Years
8. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
9. Powerslave
10. Run To The Hills
11. Fear of the Dark
12. Hallowed Be Thy Name
13. Iron Maiden
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14. Number of the Beast
15. The Evil That Men Do
16. Sanctuary