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

(Review only version - most bloggy portions removed...)

(North American rock fans had a lot to choose from during the summer of 2003. It was one of the busiest concert seasons of recent years with the annual outing of Ozzfest, Metallica’s Summer Sanitarium, KISS / Aerosmith, The Misfits Fiend Tour, the return of Lollapalooza.  But as the tours were announced there was only one that I knew I absolutely could not miss and that was the one I nicknamed the metal legends tour, since all three bands have been featured in our “Legends” series. Of course, I’m talking about Iron Maiden, Dio and Motorhead. One of the most potent package tours to rock North America in a decade. 

I’ve seen Motorhead a few times but on this night they were in rare form. Lemmy simply captivated the audience and held them in his grasp; fists pounding in the air, it was really something to see and my first thought was his control of the crowd was bit like those old films of Hitler holding sway over a sea of people. Not to compare Lemmy to the evil dictator but he seems to win the crowd over in a similar fashion. 

Motorhead doesn’t go for theatrical stage sets, they don’t need it. They have rock n roll and that’s more than enough. Standing on stage backed by a wall of amplifiers, Motorhead gave the crowd what they came from. Phil’s incendiary guitars, Lemmy’s fist in your face vocals, Mikkey Dee’s heart stopping beats. They roared through their set like there was no tomorrow, “Shoot You In The Back”, “Metropolis”, “Dr. Rock”, a killer tribute to the godfathers of punk with “R.A.M.O.N.E.S.,” then they launched into “Sacrifice” with an amazing drum solo from Mikkey. 

It looked like at that point they were just getting started, which would have been the case with a headlining show. They next busted out “Killed by Death” and then brought the house down when they launched into “Ace of Spades”. Hard to top that but Lemmy and Co., closed out the night on a high note with “Overkill”. 

All in all it was an amazing performance and reminded me of something punk icon Texas Terri told me last year. I ran into her outside the Cat Club in Hollywood one night and we were talking. Motorhead had just completed a string of So. Cal headlining dates and Terri was telling me she never misses them because “Motorhead are the Godfathers of metal”. I asked her, “I thought Ozzy was considered the Godfather of metal?” Without missing a beat, she responded with her quick wit, “Ozzy may be the Godfather, but Lemmy is GOD!”  This show just proved Terri right once again! 
 

One problem with photographing shows is you are so busy snapping away that you don’t really get to pay attention to what’s really happening onstage, so I pretty much missed “Killing the Dragon”, “The Last In Line” and “Stargazer”. After the three songs we were allowed to photograph during were over, I headed back stage to get my gear all put away and then returned to the hall to catch the rest of Dio’s set. 

They were half way through “Stand Up and Shout” once I got back out into the arena and got situated but I was just in time for Simon Wright’s drum solo. Great stuff! I had seen Dio at the House of Blues last November when they were headlining their “Killing the Dragon” tour and that show proved that Dio still has it. Ronnie can stand up to any of today’s young turks and blow them off the f***ing stage. I didn’t expect Dio to top themselves this time, since they gave such an incredible show the last time I saw them, but to my amazement they were even better this time around! 

Ronnie belted out the hits, Jimmy Bain’s basslines and Simon’s drums pounded out the bottom end with Scott Warren adding that patented Dio keyboard sound to the mix but it was Ronnie and guitarist Craig Goldy that stole the show. They roared out a killer set of songs that spans Ronnie’s career, both old classics and new that included “I speed at Night”, “Dream Evil” which ended with a masterful guitar solo from Craig. But they saved the best for last and the screams of the crowd almost blew the roof off Long Beach arena when the band launched into “Rainbow in the Dark”, which they only topped with an amazing “Holy Diver” and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better they broke into “Heaven and Hell”. 

Those in the arena definitely knew it was August as the sweat poured off us. I don’t know if it was the heat in the venue or the heat on stage that produced the most sweat, but Dio had just delivered a blistering ten song set that would be almost impossible to top. 

The show could have ended there and I would have been more than happy. 
 

....I got settled in and picked a prime spot to get some photos, joked around with a few of the other photographers, and waited….  The lights go down, it’s pure pandemonium in the arena with the crowd roaring for Maiden!  They hit the stage running with “Number of the Beast” and it was on! 

Iron Maiden’s known for their elaborate stage sets but the truth of matter is they could play on a stage with nothing on it but amps and they’d still blow the crowd away. We’re not only talking amazing musicianship here, we’re talking a high energy performance with everyone bounding across the stage like their adrenal glands are in overdrive, which they probably were! But the leader of this rock n roll happening is Bruce Dickinson, who makes sure he works the entire stage from the catwalks above the amps on either side of Nicko’s huge drum set to the eaves, which stretch out slightly on the right and left hand side of the stage. 

Nicko said a few days later that the band was bit hung over for this show and it’s wasn’t their best performance. But I couldn’t see how they could have improved upon it. For their second song, “The Trooper”, Bruce brought out a huge Union Jack which he waved furiously from the catwalks during the instrumental breaks in the song. At one point Dave Murray, Steve Harris and Janick Gers formed a line at the edge of center stage and played in unison, the crowd ate it up. 

This tour wasn’t like Maiden’s last one where they only played a few of their old favorites and instead concentrated on their latest album. They gave fans both old and new what they wanted, a look at the group’s entire career and they continued that with the third song, another favorite from Piece of Mind, “Die With Your Boots On”. 

Bruce is one of the best frontmen to ever grace the stage but when it comes to musicianship the entire group make up one of strongest lineups in rock n roll. The three guitar assault was just that, an amazing assault of complex leads with each playing off each other perfectly. Then there is Steve Harris, who not only penned most of Iron Maiden’s best songs but is easily one of the best bass player you are likely to ever hear. With that strong of a presence on bass, you need a worldclass drummer and Nicko is just that. They don’t come any finer.  Together they make up an explosive combination that has made Iron Maiden one of the most popular metal bands in history.

The trip down memory lane continued with “Revelations” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, which unlike a lot of metal bands that made their mark in the 80’s, these songs don’t sound in the least bit dated. The band had a special treat up 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 monies worth. They had come to rock and Motorhead, Dio and Iron Maiden had done just that. 

...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 that 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.