Rock Blogs from antiMUSIC's staff. Iron Maiden, Dio & Motorhead August 25th, 2003 – Long Beach Arena Long Beach, Ca By Keavin Wiggins

Back to Part II

The trip down memory lane continued with “Revelations” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, which proved further that unlike a lot of metal bands that made their mark in the 80’s, Iron Maiden's songs don’t sound in the least bit dated. The band had a special treat next for the crowd, a brand new song from their as yet unreleased album “Dance of Death”. The crowd roared their approval of “Wildest Dreams” which segued nicely into the big hit from the band’s last studio album a little ol’ track called “The Wicker Man”; of course we got the line we’ve been waiting for all night during the song…”SCREAM FOR ME LONG BEACH, SCREAM FOR ME LONG BEACH….. Your time will come….” 

Then it was time to revisit music from the band’s middle years; “The Clansman” from Virtual XI, “The Clairvoyant”, from Seventh Son, “Heaven Can Wait” from Somewhere in Time, and “Fear of the Dark”. 

It was clear at this point why this tour had been so successful. It’s not just the fact that you had three metal legends touring together. That was enough to get people in the seats but even after all these years all three bands still have “it”. And most of their nu-metal counterparts don’t. By “it”, I mean not only the songs, which are great, but also the delivery. With most of today’s newer bands you can get by with only a CD, since their concerts don’t really offer much more. But with the bands on this tour you get far more. It’s not just a rock show but more of an event. Something you can’t miss and will remember for years to come. 

Iron Maiden returned to Long Beach Arena to rock the faithful in sort of a right of passage and a homecoming since their “World Slavery Tour” 4 night stop at the venue was immortalized on “Live After Death”. They more than delivered and they weren’t even done yet. Next they went all the way back to the beginning and played “Iron Maiden”, when the opening notes of the song began the noise level from the already loud crowd jumped in volume. 

That excitement only increased for the final two songs, “Two Minutes to Midnight” and the show closer “Run To The Hills”. As the crowd left the arena they were buzzing, they had gotten far more than their money's worth. They had come to rock and Motorhead, Dio and Iron Maiden had done just that. 

***  After the show I went backstage to hang out for bit. Iron Maiden was doing a meet and greet but I begged off of that and instead kicked back and talked with some of my friends who were there. Phil Campbell came by a few times and offered a cigarette and then went off to mingle. Harry introduced me to a few people including Motorhead’s manager and Ronnie James Dio’s wife and manager Wendy, who was really cool. Harry told her about an article I was working about Ronnie for our Legends series. (at that point it was still in editing phase, I got a bit carried away and wrote 10,000 words but I managed to cut it down to around 4,000 before I published it in mid September). 

Peter Green and his friends came by and we chatted for a bit. I talked with Scott Warren for a few minutes. Then Harry asked me if I wanted to meet Paul Gargano, the editor of Metal Edge, who was standing a little bit away talking to some fans. I said thanks but no thanks. I had meet him at a previous show a couple years ago and I’ll leave it at I didn’t care to speak with him again.  I hung out for about and hour and decided it was time to head home. 

It had been a night of music I will not soon forget. I have seen all three bands before, Iron Maiden probably a dozen times but I have to say this was probably the best show I had seen from any of the groups. I don’t know if it was the fact that they were touring together and it made for a potent combination. I don’t know if it was a matter of each group pulling out all the stops since there was stiff competition from their touring mates to bring the best show possible to the stage. It really doesn’t matter why, the truth of the matter is on this one night in Long Beach, all three bands showed us one again why they are legends and in an age where most bands are forgotten after a couple of years, they are still kicking ass and taking names.