Last night I went over to Vancouver to see Iron Maiden in concert. I didn’t even know they were touring, but my friend Lee-Ann called me before she bought her tickets, and I’m so glad she did. It was amazing.

They sounded as good, if not better, live than in their studio recordings. It’s not just the music, though, it’s the full show: pyrotechnics, smoke, fireworks, giant mummy skeleton, huge walking demon cyborg thing. Everything was over-the-top in a cheesy, but awesome, heavy metal way. It’s the sort of music that just shines live.

Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera

It was worth the ticket price, the time off work, the ferry ride to the mainland and back, sitting through Lauren Harris (Steve Harris’s daughter, who opened, and was terrible), and the dodgy hotel room ($120 for four people should probably have tipped us off). Catch them live if you have a chance.