That day you could hear everywhere "The Dream is True"! Years and years waiting for that show...some were thinking it couldn't ever happen. Well, finally it was here, the Iron Maiden show in Colombia playing only songs from the 80's.
Recent Iron Maiden albums have had good sells in Colombia, but well, Powerslave is still one of their favourites. I really think they came on the right tour for a first time.
I went to their hotel in the early afternoon, as it was very near from home. I spoke to a roadie that told me that according to the band, the best audience on the current tour, until then, was Costa Rica, 2 days before. I didn't see him after the gig, but I think they might have changed their minds after this.
Honestly, I've been to some 20 Iron Maiden concerts, and I have never seen an audience so unchained as the one tonight!
I left home quite late actually, and I couldn't get a cab to the show (taxis are very cheap in Colombia) so I had to take a bus and got stuck for an hour on a traffic jam.
Just when I got down, I saw the police trying to catch some people that were trying to get to the show for free, jumping over the barriers of the Simón Bolivar Park. This was an organization problem: Doors opened at 4pm! It's not enough time to get 50 000 people inside!
Here's a video of the flag
Anyway, no one got hurt bad, altough a policeman was injured. It was not a big riot (Iron Maiden is not Guns'N'Roses! lol), fights lasted just 10 minutes. I walked to the other side to find the "Platino" line (there were 2 types of tickets, 5000 "Platino" and and the rest "Preferencial") and got inside at around 8 pm.
I missed the colombian opening act Intrspección as well as Lauren Harris. As soon as I got trhough security check "Doctor Doctor" from U.F.O. started to air.
I started to look for my friends, but "Transylvania" began, with a video showing the band and Ed Force One, soon followed by "Churchill's Speech" and "Aces High"...The audience was singing the words and the music, unbelieavable! If you have seen the "That One Night" DVD from Megadeth you'll know what I mean!
During "2 Minutes to Midnight" the band was surprised by "The biggest Iron Maiden Flag I've ever seen", on Bruce Dickinson's own words! A 30 meter long flag of Colombia with the Iron Maiden logo! It was larger than their stage!
They took it up and couldn't totally unfold it on stage...amazing!
And before they continue with the next song, 50 000 people started singing "Happy Birthday" to Adrian Smith, in English and Spanish!
Then we had a Bruce speech about Colombia, thanking the people that came from Medellín, from Cali, from neighbouring Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela, and not forgetting the folks that were camping outside for a week!
About that, another organization matter, the tents were taken by the police during the night, so more than 2000 people had to sleep out in the streets...still on the line but without a tent. Bruce said several times during the show how sorry he was about that.
Finally the show continued with "Revelations" and the long awaited "The Trooper", where the audience became even crazier! And it might well be one of the best versions of this song I've ever heard.
Bruce told us that it took a very long time to come to Colombia, but that it was definitely worth, and will come back. He dedicated the song "Wasted Years" to the loyal fans.
"The Number of the Beast" was total euphoria, but "Run to the Hills" was madness! What happens when 50 000 people jump at the same time?...Yes the ground shakes! It was amazing to feel that, the floor was trembling under our feet...
The Condor is Colombia's national animal, and Bruce spoke about those great birds: Condors... and albatrosses... to introduce "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". A 13-minute ecstasy that hadn't been played for 21 years... The background of the stage was an old ship's deck, and Bruce changed clothes to sing it. Is he becoming Axl Rose? LOL!
It was followed by Powerslave. I found my friends during that song.
Then came "Heaven Can Wait", where contest winners got on stage with the band. You can find high resolution pics from Iron maiden's site here, here and here.
After that, they played "Can I Play With Madness?" and "Fear of the Dark", the only non-80's song, and one of the greatest tunes live. The first lines of the song were sung so loud by the audience, that just before the song speed up we heard Bruce say "OK, I quit!"
During "Iron Maiden", no big Eddie but a great surprise, the "Somewhere In Time" Eddie and cover on the background. Amazing!
Then came the time of the encores, with another song that had't been played for almost 2 decades: "Moonchild"! It was followed by "The Clairvoyant".
The last song was "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and the ground started trembling again!
The concert ended, the band promising that they will come back. I hope they will! Rod Smallwood's tour diary from Colombia ends with the sentece "Magnificent crowd, beautiful country -- we will return one day!!!!"
Set List Iron Maiden Bogotá, Colombia, February 28, 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
And this was another surprise from that evening: bass player Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus , Death, Iced Earth, Testament, Dragonlord...) was at the show!
I spent some time backstage with him at the 2004 Gods Of Metal festival in Italy, and he actually remembered a funny story that happened that night (No, I don't think I'll tell you about it...lol...OK, we were dead drunk and we started to cheat each other and I put some peanuts in his beer...).
Anyway, it was a surprise to find him there so I asked "Hey, what are you doing here?", and he answered..."What are YOU doing here!?!"...And then he said "Colombia is my little secret paradise", and told me he came quite often here.
It's really cool to find people that don't feel scared about what the news say, go to the country, and fall in love with it.
On this pic: Germán, Jaime and Felipe from Thunderblast, Lina, Steve DiGiorgio and me :)
