Iron Maiden

Last week I went with Mark to the Iron Maiden concert in Den Bosch. Both of us are old-time fans and neither of us had ever visited them before. We kinda lost contact with the band after the return of Dickinson and the last album we knew well was Brave New World.

We kinda left Zoetermeer late but managed to get to Den Bosch within 1.5 hours which is, considering the rush-hour, a very good time. When we eventually entered the hall Trivium was already playing. I had time to observe the crowd, which was a very strange mix of parents with 8-year-olds on their hands, 40-something year old businessmen wearing their 80s Maiden outfit, a large Goth contingent, the average metaljunks and lots and lots of people like Mark and me: 20-30ish male, clad in black but without the long headbanging hair probably due to work restrictions - or simply getting bald like in my case ;) -. The concert itself rocked, Dickinson was as energetic as always even though I understood that he was not feeling well. The first hour or so they played their new album in full which was cool but didn't really get the crowd off their feet. I think about 75% of us really was there for the 80s and 90s hardrock. When they eventually started playing 'Fear of the Dark' the hall exploded which was continued with hits like '2 minutes to midnight', 'the evil that man do', 'Iron Maiden', 'Hallowed be Thy Name' etc. All in all about 6 or 7 old songs before they left. No extras no nothing. This turned the crowd at our end sour and for a second things felt very aggressive. The organizers did an amazing thing of crowd-management at that moment; they switched to playing the tune of 'Dad's Army' - Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler, when you think that we're on the run? - followed by Monty Python's 'Always look on the bright side of life'. The masses left singing...

Getting back home was hellish. It took over an hour to drive 15 meters across the car park, another hour to get out of Den Bosch and to the highway and another hour to get to Zoetermeer. All in all the concert was finished around 2245 and I was at home and in bed by 215.