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My Seventh Deadly sin, the last one for 2008.
When I arrived in Warsaw August 7 I saw an Astraeus Boeing 757 parked on the Tarmac of Warsaw’s Frederic Chopin Airport. I think it was the plane that flew the band, but I didn’t see anyone from Iron Maiden.
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Anyway on the next day, after a great lunch in Warsaw’s old town, I took the metro to the Gwardia Stadium. Everywhere around it was full of Iron Maiden fans, from Poland of course, but also from the UK, Lithuania, Russia, Spain, Italy and other countries. This was no surprise for me: Iron Maiden fans don’t mind to cover huge distances to see the band, and moreover this was Bruce Dickinson’s 50th birthday.
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The opening bands were Lauren Harris and Made Of Hate.
As for most of the shows, the pit was divided in two. Just before the beginning of the show I managed to have a bracelet to get to the first pit and see the band from the first rows. |
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Once again, I chose to watch the show from Adrian Smith’s side, he is one of my favourite guitar players.
When “Doctor Doctor” started to air on, we all knew what was coming next. “Transylvania” and “Churchill’s Speech” completed that intro, soon followed by fireworks right at the start of “Aces High”. All six members of the band were doing great, jumping, moving and headbanging all around the stage. |
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Of course the crowd didn't forget that this was Bruce's 50th bithday, and since the begining of the show, before "Revelations" we tried to start singing... But it seemed that Bruce didn't wanted to hear about it. He just said "Thank You" and continued on with the show. But a few songs later the crowd started to sing a song really loud, and at the end Bruce, surprised, asked "Is that happy Birthday in Polish?"... And everybody screamed "Yeeeeees!!!". It's absolutely not the same version of "Happy Birtday" that we know, it has a very different melody.
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Bruce was in a funny mood today. He introduced "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" saying “We are a bit far from Gdansk, aren’t we? It was in Gdansk where I once had an albatross sausage!”
Bout the crowd he asked how many of us were born before the wrote some of the song they were playing that night. A lot of people screamed, and indeed there were lots of young folks in the audience.
Another funny quote from Bruce was "Next year when we come back with Iron Maiden, every one of you will come…with a friend! They'll have to build a bigger stadium for that!”
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Indeed, the crowd was great that night. I have already seen Iron Maiden in Poland back in 2005 and I have to say that, with the one from Colombia on this tour, it's the best audience I've seem for Iron Maiden. |
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There was a big flag from Poland around. It wasn't as big as the one in Colombia, but it was anyway absolutely impressive! |
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They played the same setlist as everywhere else, delivering great versions of their classic songs. I remember being quite sad and nostalgic during "The Rime Of the Ancient Mariner"... I thought that this was probably the last time I would hear this song live... |
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Heaven Can Wait was also beautifully performed, but some fans got on stage to sing, a girl started to run and try to catch Bruce Dickinson. That pissed him off. What did she wanted? Give him a birtday present? Or steal a kiss? ;-) |
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Bruce promised that the band will come back with a brand new album. I love Iron Maiden classic songs but I also love their recent works. Can't wait to hear the new album and see them on stage again! I wonder how this tour will influence them when writting the new record?... Wait and see... |
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Finally the song "Iron Maiden" came with the sarcophagus and the big Eddie mummy, just like on the World Slavery Tour back in 1984 and 1985. It's without any doubt one of the most impressives stage sets o Iron Maiden's carrer... but also of any band.
I really can't describe the excitement when the Sarcophagus opens with fire all around and Eddie comes out!
Bruce thanked the crowd as they were singing happy birthday again. Actually I was expecting that some roadies were going to throw him a cake on his face, but this didn't happen. I've seen a few pictures from the 80's with Nicko McBrain and Adrian Smith with their birthday cake on their face, but this didn't happen tonight. |
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This was the first time I attended an Iron Maiden show on the exact birthday of one of its members. Athens in 2007 was in march 11, the day before Steve Harris' birthday and Bogotá was on the day following Adrian Smith's birthday. |
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I wasn't invited to the birthday party after the show, so I took the subway to my hotel thinking about this great show and this great Iron Maiden Tour.
My friend Danny went to the Prague show on the next day (here's a pic), but I couldn't make it to that one. Instead, I went to Gdansk and tried to find one of those famous albatross saussages ;-)
Mission accomplished: 7 Iron Maiden shows in 2008, 7 times I went Somewhere Back In Time, 7 Deadly Sins.
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Absolutely no regrets! One of the best tours I've ever seen!
Set List Iron Maiden Warsaw, Poland, August 7 2008:
01. Intro - Churchill's Speech
02. Aces High
03. 2 Minutes to Midnight
04. Revelations
05. The Trooper
06. Wasted Years
07. The Number of the Beast
08. Run to the Hills
09. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
10. Powerslave
11. Heaven Can Wait
12. Can I Play With Madness?
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
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15. Moonchild
16. The Clairvoyant
17. Hallowed Be Thy Name
Links:
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden Live In Warsaw 2008 on Flickr
Flickr Slideshow
Iron Maiden Tour Travel Guide
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