IRON MAIDEN
Auditorio Marina Sur - Valencia, Spain
August 21, 2010

Iron Maiden’s last concert for 2010 happened in Valencia, and it was a Saturday.
The special thing about it is that it was not a festival with several other bands playing. No, it was a real Iron Maiden concert, with just one opening band: Edguy.

The concert was held at the Auditorio Marina Sur, a venue that, well, doesn’t exist!

It was just a stage on the Juan Carlos I Marina.

The ticket was collected before crossing a bridge, where the stage was located.

Back in 2008, on the Somewhere Back In Time Tour, Iron Maiden were forced to cancel a show in Spain, at the Metalway Festival.


As you can imagine, all Spanish metalheads had great expectations about this show.

The stage was quite small. That was criticized by several fans, but others, like me, loved it.
There were screens on each side of the stage, but they were too low! So people on the back couldn’t see the stage… or the screens.

It was hot and humid in Valencia and the concert was right by the sea. There was people going to beach, others going to bars and discos, and finally 22 000 metalheads going to see Maiden!

After a very good Edguy show, Doctor Doctor started, followed by this tours intro: Mars Bringer Of War. Then the guys came out to play The Wicker Man.

Man, the audience was completely mad! You might think iis is normal, as The Wicker Man is a great opening song, but during the whole show the audience was incredible.

To compare with the Maiden shows I’ve seen this year, in Stockholm the audience was OK, in Budapest there were more tourists than fans, and I was the only one around singing… but in Valencia everyone was excited!

And the best of all, most people knew the lyrics of every song Maiden played on the setlist.

It’s certainly one the three best audiences I’ve seen for Iron Maiden, the others being Poland in 2005 and Colombia in 2008.

The sound was excellent, clear and not very loud....Except for Fear Of The Dark, when they band had some sound problems.

That was OK to me, but the strange thing is that at the end of the concert the whole place became a giant metal disco… and the sound was way louder than for the Maiden gig!

All members of the band were in an incredibly good shape, jumping moving and headbanging all around.

Janick and Bruce were amazing, but Steve, Adrian and Dave also kept time headbanging during the whole show.

It seems like Bruce wants to follow Airbourne’s Joel O’keefe’s steps. Bruce began to climb the structure holding the amps and the stage!

He also sang incredibly well, reaching high notes even when running and jumping.

Truly amazing, even more amazing when you know that he flew the Bruce Air airplane from London to Valencia the same day at 7AM!

He didn't forget to thank the road crew for the last few months on the road!

Steve Harris played with their good olds Fender Precision basses: the blue one and the red one. It’s been years since I haven’t seen Steve with one of his classic basses!

Eddie appeared during the song Iron Maiden and he was given a white Fender Stratocaster guitar… which was broken by Dave Murray!

Now, how many times have you seen Dave Murray break a guitar? Very few.
And how many times have you seen an outer-space monster breaking a guitar!

At the end of the show Bruce introduced the band during the song Running Free.

As on previous shows, he wasn’t wearing his beanie hat but a British Policeman cap. But the difference in Valencia was that all three guitar players were wearing different hats! Murray had also sunglasses.


A funny way to end a show, and to end the Final Frontier 2010 Tour.

It was a great evening, with lots of beer, laughs with my friend Angéline, good music and an excellent audience.

The show ended with Nicko Mc Brain screaming "Muchas Gracias Valencia!!"

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Setlist Iron Maiden – Auditorio Marina Sur - Valencia, Spain – August 21, 2010

01. Intro: Mars, Bringer Of War
02. The Wicker Man
03. Ghost Of The Navigator
04. Wratchild
05. El Dorado
06. Dance Of Death
07. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
08. These Colours Don't Run
09. Blood Brothers
10. Wildest Dreams
11. No More Lies
12. Brave New World
13. Fear Of The Dark
14. Iron Maiden
————————————
15. The Number Of The Beast
16. Hallowed Be Thy Name
17. Running Free

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