Iron Maiden Kicks Off The Book of Souls U.S. Tour Run in Virginia

Iron Maiden – Jiffy Lube Live – Bristow, VA – June 3, 2017

Iron Maiden continues to prove that if Father Time is actually knocking on their proverbial metal doors, the band must be opening up that doorway and having Eddie beat the ever living crap out of him time and time again.

The band kicked off the current U.S. leg of their Book of Souls tour at the Jiffy Lube Live amphitheater in Bristow, VA this past Saturday with a performance that if had to be described in a singular word, that word would be legendary.

As the day’s twilight faded into the darkness of the night UFO’s, “Doctor Doctor” began to play over the venue’s PA system. This of course is a signal that all die hard Maiden fans know all to well as being the final countdown to the lads storming the stage to begin another one of their vaunted live performances.

One by one Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers sauntered onto the Jiffy Lube Live stage while launching into the opening bars of “If Eternity Should Fail,” the title track off of 2015’s The Book of Souls. Shortly thereafter the 58-year-old Bruce Dickinson creepily appeared atop the Mayan temple the band is using as the theme for their Book of Souls tour run.

Menacingly hovering over a bubbly cauldron for a few moments, while creating an air of palpable tension, Dickinson then launched himself as if being shot out of canon down the temple steps to join his mates in delivering what would turn out to be a 15-song career spanning set.

Iron Maiden’s fans are beyond loyal, thus it was no surprise that even though the band chose to open with two tracks off of their latest release, the audience reaction was still beyond exuberant.

Based on this spirited rejoinder alone you would have thought they had kicked the performance off with something along the lines of “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” a track the band is sadly not currently playing due to some pointless litigation surrounding the song.

Long time fans didn’t have to wait all too long for the band to turn back the clock, as two of Maiden’s classics in the form of “Wrathchild,” which everyone in attendance seemingly sang word for word, and “Children of the Damned,” from 1982’s Number of the Beast, the first Iron Maiden album to feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals, followed next.

The meat of the performance would go on to follow this same formula of Maiden playing a few songs off of The Book of Souls such as “Death or Glory” and “The Red and The Black,” only to have these newer tracks be balanced by classics such as “The Trooper” and the definitely fan favorite, “Powerslave.”

During “The Trooper” Dickinson raced up the pillars of the Mayan temple in his familiar revolutionary times British military garb waving the Union Jack furiously back and forth. At the mid-point of the song the front man even teased a few of the fans close to stage by faux tossing the the British flag directly at them.

It’s safe to assume had Dickinson actually hit a fan in the head with the flag that individual would have probably been eternally grateful for the experience of getting to personally interact with Dickinson himself, even if said interaction came via a head wound, imagine that?

Who knows if Harris Murray, Smith and Gers are taking the equivalent to metal Viagra or Cialis but for a gang of musicians now in their fifth decade of performing the quartet are a non-stop motor of metal hysteria from the very moment the band’s performance begins.

Gers in particular is beyond animated as he and his guitar were a whirling dervish of ferocity throughout the entirety of Maiden’s time on the lighted stage. The guitarist also shared more than a few evil moments with Dickinson as the pair regularly engaged, hamming it up for a crowd that continued to beg for more from their storied British musical heroes.

Harris, who has served as the backbone of Iron Maiden since the band’s inception, never disappoints as a showman, as he too shared countless personal moments with the fans, regularly striking his all too familiar machine gun pose with his trusty Fender bass.

Although a bit less animated than Gers and Harris, and let’s face what musicians would even dare keep up the pair’s live performance pace, Murray and Smith dropped countless surreal guitar solos on the night, while delighting the crowd every time they came together to trade off leads.

Iron Maiden’s beloved Eddie would make his first appearance on the Jiffy Lube Live’s stage during the band’s performance of “Book of Souls.” The beastly mascot stalked the stage attacking band members randomly until his final showdown with Dickinson.

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The front man exchanged a few blows with Eddie until the lead singer channeled his Mortal Kombat “finish him” move by literally reaching into Eddie’s guts, ripping his heart out and tossing the bloody organ into the crowd for the crazies to fight over. If that doesn’t sum up the theatrical and metal lunacy that is an Iron Maiden live performance, what on Earth possibly could?

As the show winded down Dickinson addressed the crowd and the state of the current world we live in commenting, “The world is run by lunatics and I don’t know who picked these lunatics or how they all managed to screw it up.”

The front man also touched on how music can unite the masses and regardless of color, race, creed or religion that we all had come together on the night to have a blast with one another.

Dickinson’s statement might have very well been understated as countless smiling faces, fevered hugs and waves of high fives could be spotted throughout the entire venue before, during and after the band’s performance.

Music, friendship, love, high fives and Iron Maiden. Maybe those things can’t save the world but for one evening in Bristow, Virginia the boys in Iron Maiden sure made 20,000 people believe they can. Well played Iron Maiden, well played.

Swedish metal icons Ghost opened for Iron Maiden and provided what could only be described as a truncated greatest hits set. Highlights included refulgent takes on tracks such as “From the Pinnacle to the Pit,” “Year Zero,” set closer “Monstrance Clock” and the song the band won the 2016 Grammy for Best Metal Performance for, “Cirice.” Tobias Forge, more recognizable known as Ghost’s front man Papa Emeritus, and his current band of Nameless Ghouls, unfortunately received only a mixed response from the Jiffy Lube Live crowd. This certainly couldn’t be attributed to Ghost’s performance as Iron Maiden’s fans were likely just far too focused on Maiden’s impending performance to pay the requisite enough attention to a band that was actually delivering a more than solid set of Scandinavian tinged evil metal in front of their very eyes.