Oh. My. Fucking. God... 09/07/2008, I was there...
..to see the best fucking band on the planet! It was so fucking awesome that I needed almost a week to put myself together, process everything that happened, and write this post about it. Here's what happened...
Before the show my day wasn't going too well. I had just missed the train and the next one would only arrive 2 hours later. Damn... That meant that I would miss the previous shows. Not much of a problem since I'm not a fan of Avenged Sevenfold and my favourite Slayer song wasn't included on the set-list (it's Eyes of the Insane, btw), but any further delays could prevent me from arriving on time. After embarking on the train shit continued to happen. The train ahead of us had a mechanical problem and we were stuck for half an hour before it was solved. Fuck dammit...
When I finally arrived in Lisbon I quickly took a cab and arrived at the place one hour before the start of the show. That was a close call... After grabbing a beer I enjoyed the rest of Slayer's performance (pretty cool) and when it was over I finally tried to locate the only two people I knew who where there (I later discovered that Profeth was also there, but he forgot his fucking phone, so I had no way to contact him...). Ok, I only knew them from chatting with them on the web, it was the first time I met with them personally, but you can't go wrong with fans of both metal and games.
Mochito and dxvolt, you guys are the best. Too bad we were together for such a short time (damn trains!), but, anyway, such a show is always best enjoyed in good company, so thank you both for providing that. Eventually we started to hear "doctor doctor", the UFO song (they're cited as being a big influence of Steve Harris), so we knew the show was about to start. We were already getting somewhat impatient (although the band arrived only 10 minutes late, nothing compared to other bands who make us wait one hour. Yeah, it happened to me once...), but then we begin to hear Churchill's speech (yeah, the WWII one), and then comes Aces High. OMFG...
What followed was just so fucking incredible... The musicians' performances were just superb, the pyrotecnics were on par with what Rammstein use on their gigs (which is saying alot!), the stage was perfectly decorated, with nice details like sarcophagi with bright red eyes glowing in the dark and great backgrounds (I think the background of Rime of the Ancient Mariner had actual pieces of cloth acting as sails instead of just a picture) and Bruce's costumes were as good as ever. Oh, and Eddie also made an appearance, twice! First as a big ass mummy and then as an android. Really, we couldn't have asked better. I've seen a lot of Iron Maiden concerts on DVD and this was without doubt one of their best, not just because it was the first I attended, but because they really gave it all to make it a memorable night.
When it ended the only way we could express our sheer joy was through a group hug between me, dxvolt, mochito and...fabio, I think? Sorry, didn't catch your name :/ What a great show, what an awesome experience, it was one of those things that only happen once in a life-time...and I was there! Fuck yeah! :D
PS - Dxvolt, thanks for everything, man, really. For the food, the drink and the ride home. I really appreciated it, remember me to buy you a beer when we meet again ;)
