Remembering My First Concert in the US

Three years ago and a day before (March 14 2008) was my first concert ever in the US. I went to see Iron Maiden in their excellent “Somewhere Back in Time” tour at the Izod Center in NJ where they played their most acclaimed and popular songs from their old albums (from Iron Maiden to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, with the exception of the song “Fear of the Dark” that appears on the album of the same name).

I can’t recall every single detail because it was a long time ago (I should have blogged about it back then) but all I know is that it was an amazing experience. Before that concert I thought that seeing all those bands I listened to was impossible or very unlikely to happen. And also I thought back then that if I couldn’t go with someone else I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere and enjoy myself. Oh, I was so damn wrong. I had one of the best times of my life that day. Still it took me two more years to start moving by myself without car rides and use the trains to go concerts but at least I got to see this great tour and didn’t miss it like I would have done before out of fear.

While I still had socialization problems (I wouldn’t talk to any stranger at all, and I’m still and introverted person to be sincere) it was great to see that there were a lot of people (kind of) like me in a single place who went to enjoy this epic band. People of different ages and races were all gathered in a single place: Parents and sons/daughters, old schoolers, young people, metalheads, “regular” people, hot chicks, and even some emo guys were there!

Now to the concert itself… the opening act was Lauren Harris (Steve Harris’ daughter) who was a very unfitting opening act in my opinion even if she has legendary blood running through her veins. Her show was very short so I guess that was ok. After that we got the main event, Iron Maiden themselves. Their performance was simply amazing, I think it was one of the best live performances I’ve heard from them. My only complaint would be that the crowd wasn’t really that hot and loud (unlike the Costa Rican crowd that was deafening through their whole show) but the concert was great anyway. We got an amazing stage with the whole Powerslave theme, and it looked kickass. That is something that a bunch of other countries didn’t get during the tour. We also got to see Eddie during their performance of the “Iron Maiden” song (which is something everyone else got haha). And also our venue got featured in the Flight 666 DVD and OST CD :D (To be exact the performance of the song “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”).

The setlist was:

01. Aces High
02. 2 Minutes to Midnight
03. Revelations
04. The Trooper
05. Wasted Years
06. The Number of the Beast
07. Can I Play With Madness
08. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
09. Powerslave
10. Heaven Can Wait
11. Run to the Hills
12. Fear of the Dark
13. Iron Maiden


Encore:
14. Moonchild
15. The Clairvoyant
16. Hallowed Be Thy Name