Iron Maiden
Saturday night
Scotiabank Arena
RATING: *** (three out of four)
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Halloween came a few days early as British heavy metal vets Iron Maiden brought their skeleton monster-friendly show — hello mascot Eddie — to Scotiabank Arena for a sold-out show on Saturday night.
Lead singer Bruce Dickinson, 66, suggested as much after band members, who celebrate their 50th anniversary next year, opened their almost two-hour concert with Caught Somewhere in Time from the group’s seminal 1986 album, Somewhere in Time.
“It’s coming up Halloween, and we have a lot of songs with spooky and scary things,” said Dickinson.
And props, too, given the presence of three different walking versions of Eddie — one engaged in gunplay with the singer on stage during Heaven Can Wait, also from Somewhere in Time.
The Future Past Tour includes songs from Iron Maiden’s most recent studio album, 2021’s Senjutsu:The Writing on the Wall, The Time Machine, Death of the Celts, and Hell on Earth (which featured plenty of fire bursts and fog), as well as Somewhere In Time’s Wasted Years, Stranger In A Strange Land and Alexander The Great.
Dickinson proved to be not only a captivating vocalist but also a crowd conductor, leading fans to scream, clap, wave their arms or punch the air while he twirled his microphone stand in the air.
The singer explained Mongolian folk-metal opener’s The Hu were a no-show because their bus had broken down in Chicago.
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He told Toronto fans: “How are you? I can see you! I can hear you! I can smell you!”
Then it was time for the first new song, The Time Machine, as Dickinson explained his fondness for the DeLorean car made famous in the film, Back To The Future.
“It’s not a toaster!” he joked. “It’s a car made out of stainless steel. It has one redeeming feature, though. It can travel through the portals of space and time. Shall we do a bit of serious shouting, Toronto?”
The stage had an upper catwalk that Dickinson paraded around, with two large screens on either side and a middle main panel for lots of eye-catching graphics.
Talking aside, Dickinson’s operatic voice proved to be in good form all night, especially the high, long note he held at the end of Alexander The Great, which was no easy feat alongside the loud and impressively mighty guitar trio of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, while the rhythm section — bassist Steve Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain, held down their end nicely, too.
Iron Maiden’s almost half-century as a band, founded by Harris — the only original member — has certainly paid off in a live setting.
“The combined f—— age of 400 years; here we are!” joked Dickinson.
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SET LIST
Caught Somewhere in Time
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Writing on the Wall
Days of Future Past
The Time Machine
The Prisoner
Death of the Celts
Can I Play With Madness
Heaven Can Wait
Alexander the Great
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden
ENCORE
Hell on Earth
The Trooper
Wasted Years