Message for those who are not heavies or have not felt heavies At least in some period of his life: they miss it. He heavy metal It goes from what happened last night in the Metropolitan. To feel the importance of the moment without reaching an intellectual explanation. You had to be there, with Eddie’s black shirt; Let the rhythm hit the stomach; Chorate the lyrics even if you don’t have the slightest idea what they are talking about (it also happens if you know English); Close your fist and shout the neighbor in the “Run to the Hiiiiils” face and he replies “Run for Your Liiiiives”; Let Bruce Dickinson’s bellow free your demons; Feel, as the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa says, heavy irredentant, “existential transgression.” Exaggerated? That is that they were not last night at the Atlético stadium. The 55,000 who filled the enclosure felt as is. The liturgy was offered by Iron Maiden, the largest active of the genre.
This happened despite, they have guessed it, the poor sound of the enclosure. The Metropolitan is not a space to celebrate concerts. It has a lot of rebound and the echo, especially in the high stands, is unpleasant. The instruments suddenly disappear. He spent especially last night to Dave Murray’s guitar. We will not get tired of repeating that the scam is paid for 150 euros to receive this treatment. We should demand a perfect sound. We should demand that they return the money if they do not guarantee it. Unless they reimburse somewhat by the way. It’s just an idea …
Despite this serious inconvenience, we will say something to those who consider that the heavy metal It has been body for years. Seen the last night, the fact is that the dead still has a pulse. And he is also living oblivious to Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Spotify, Tiktok … He at his roll and convinced that he has come out with his. Go if you have done it. While the kings of the genre (at the level of call) in their classic version maintain the impetus demonstrated last night to the one who comes to give the extremeacción to heavy He is sent for a walk with a kick.
Complicated to find an artist who dispatches so many t -shirts. In the Metropolitan, the one that did not have a chest stamped to Eddie, the English monster of the English, the perfect registered trademark. And no shirts bought in an Inditex store. No, no: acquired in the official positions of other recitals of the band. Even some exhibited that of the eighties tours in the Real Madrid pavilion. Marvelous. Just as nice to see, in addition to a talludo public, adolescents with their parents, hitting family berridos. And let the mobile go to hell.
The tour is called Run For Your Lives, He celebrates 50 years of the band’s career and focuses on his first nine albums, from Iron Maiden (1980) a Fear of the Dark (1992), the most excellent stage of his career. They deployed classicazos, known songs, not a valley moment in two hours of show. Iron Maiden lives with the challenge of not coexisting only from the income of the past, and the best proof of this is heard in its complex, risky and splendid last work, Senjutsu (2021). This tour, however, is an exception, a challenge they raised to their followers: Ey, friends, we are going to fill stadiums throughout the planet, we will show the world that the world heavy There is no one who knocks him down. And for this they needed their most recognizable repertoire.
Although any of the six members of the group calls at the doors of the seventies, the band retains the hair and fits clothing heavy: Leather jackets, pants with stud, bullet belts … The group demonstrated a state impeccably. Steve Harris, the boss, with his foot stepping on a monitor and his under Black and Black, pointing to the public. Move your still long hair up and down. Is the image of heavy metal. At least one of the most iconic. Beside him, Bruce Dickinson, clinging to his hands at the foot of the microphone, with a voice that may have lost some power, but has won in poses and emotions. The three guitarists move with discretion (except Janick Gers, not for still), concentrated in sliding their fingers precisely. Behind, Simon Dawson, the new drums after the resignation of health mishaps of the friendly Nicko Mcbrain. The beginning of the concert was impetuous, fast: Murders in the Rue Morgue, An ancient theme, 1981, from the second album of the English, Killers.
Dickinson served as an effective spokesman, charismatic, addressing the public, joking: “What is in this cantimplora of which I drink is water, you believe us.” The scenic invention consisted of a huge screen in the back. While there was natural light his contribution turned out little. When the night fell, accompanied by a pleasant fresh air, the thing changed. It happened right in Ecuador, in the interpretation of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, With progressive rock developments (Harris is a fan of the genre), where a ship furrowed an enraged sea that seemed to engulf the spectators, especially those located on the grass. From that moment on, the realism of the projections built striking dramaturgies inspired by the songs. In Iron Maiden An eddie gasping and hungry seemed to throw himself on the public. Some theatricalizations offered somewhat ridiculous images, such as Dickinson interpreted Hallowed Be Thy Name involved in a cage. Caray, with how fantastic the song was complicated to enjoy it with that man caged there.
In a repertoire of great successes every fan surely missed, but the truth is that they offered what all those who were needed there: Killers, with an Eddie of three meters threatening musicians with an ax; The colossal Phantom of the Opera; The Number of the Beast; The Trooper, where the vocalist first waved a flag of the United Kingdom and then one from Spain: perhaps an rainbow had proceeded, taking into account the day it was; Powerslave, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Run to The Hills, Seventh Son of a Seventh Sonwhere Dickinson’s voice reached an admirably long and penetrating note, tremendously meritorious for a man who years ago went through a throat cancer.
The last two themes produced a communion of hugs, sweat exchange, fists high and accompanied by “oeeeees”: Fear of the Dark, With a shocking projection where a full moon was seen illuminating a cemetery while Dickinson walked and sang buffer dress with a hat, a layer and a candil in his hand, and an a-po-te-ó-si-co Wasted Years. The last image we saw was Steve Harris machine -giving the public with its bass. And next Saturday, in the same place, AC/DC.