On Saturday Lane and I and a couple guys from my ward went to see Iron Maiden in Irvine, with special guest Anthrax opening for them. As we waited in line to get in, we had a chance to scope out the other fans there, and it was exactly what you would expect. There was a fair share of women who may or may not have been hot 20 years ago, but who clearly weren’t now, but who definitely thought they still were based on how they were dressed, which was both funny and disgusting at the same time. Then there were the guys in their 40s or 50s who thought they were still 20, with their long, thinned-out stringy hair, and their bellies spilling out of their Iron Maiden shirts. And of course, there were a whole mess of 20-year-old long-haired hessian lowlifes, who I didn’t know still existed, but a group to whom I once belonged. Surprisingly there were also Maiden families, you know, dads and moms bringing the kids out for a nice night of pot smoking. Other than the few (but noticeable) kids, it looked like we were at Rikers, and I wondered aloud if we were gonna get shanked before the night was over.
Anthrax was pretty good, but maybe that’s just because I always kinda liked them back in the day. They have a new singer, so that always takes away from a band, but guitarist Scott Ian is always fun to watch jump around and stuff, and on this particular night his 8-inch goatee was the brightest red I have ever seen, as you can see here.
Iron Maiden, however, was awesome. They pretty much only played stuff from the mid-80s, which was before my time, but when they were in their prime. I actually like that older stuff more than the stuff they were coming out with when I discovered them, kinda like how everyone who likes Metallica will tell you they like old Metallica more than new Metallica. The set was awesome, featuring huge murals of the albums they were playing songs from. And Bruce Dickinson jumped around like a monkey the whole time. It was like it was 1985 all over again, only I wasn’t 9, and I knew who Iron Maiden was, and I didn’t have to ask “what’s that smell?” whenever someone would light something other than a regular cigarette.
At the end of the night, we left very happy. Maiden had played pretty much all of their classic songs, and none of us had been shanked. There were also a few garbage fires burning up on the lawn, so the show truly had a little something for everyone.
