I desperately wanted to have a write up of the concert, this stupendous concert that happened on June 11. The desperation, more so because of not having written accounts of any of the 3 concerts that I'd attended till then - AR Rahman, Shankar Mahadevan and The Scorpions, in that order.
I was never a Maiden fan. All I knew is that they had performed in Bangalore twice, (both of which I shamelessly missed), they were from UK and they are all really old. Till I went to the Scorpions' concert in Bangalore, I didn't realise that people who are 60+ can have a great amount of energy.
Anyways, with Maiden, I started listening their songs much later, much much after I started listening to Scorpions. The first songs I had liked was from the album, 'Seventh son of the seventh son'. I really liked the way they linked the songs and had a theme, then moved on to Como estas amigos months, maybe years later. I never fancied them that much, you know.
All hell broke loose when Chetan and I started having discussions about 'Lightning strikes twice'. That went on from song to song and eventually I had a couple of favourites. All through this, strangely, I'd never heard of their entire work. Only after coming to the US, with a little more time devoted to listening music, I got their whole discography and went berserk.
Then, it was 'Flight 666' that made me really know about the band members and worship them. Maiden's songs are one of the highest rated and played on my iTunes. I'm very strict with rating, I must mention. No matter what state of mind I'm in, I listen to those leads of Dave Murray and it makes me cry.
So, when I learnt about their concert in Houston, I didn't want to miss the chance. I'd a fairly decent knowledge about their songs by then, and I knew how a live concert would be like. Just imagining Steve Harris and Dave Murray play gave me goosebumps.
With no much adventures on the way, we reached the venue near Houston at Woodlands. There were quite a bit of people, I must say. Dream Theater started the concert. I'm not a big fan, yet.
When Maiden came on stage, it was exactly the way I'd imagined it to be. Adrian Smith started off the leads of The wicker man, the rest came running in and then it was just explosive. I couldn't believe I was seeing them live. The ambience, the aura, their guitar riffs, Bruce Dickinson's vocals, simply put, everything.
Deftly, they moved from song to song, played most of my favourites - Blood brothers, Ghost of the navigator, Brave new world, Dance of death, Wildest dream, No more lies, Hallowed be thy name and lots more. The only songs I missed were Trooper, Revelations and Rime of the ancient mariner.
But nevertheless, it was like a dream. Listening to someone whom you adore so much, someone whom you worship. I still can't believe I saw them live. I remember, I couldn't hold back tears during Blood brothers and Brave new world. Gosh! It was a once in a lifetime experience. Shame on me for having missed their 2 concerts in Bangalore!
Up the irons! \m/
No comments:
Post a Comment