Maiden Tacoma

This past Monday, I finally got a chance to fulfill a life-long goal: to see Iron Maiden, live in concert!

EDDIE

As I mentioned before, Iron Maiden is basically responsible for my wanting to pick up a guitar in the first place. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty stoked when they were scheduled to play in Hawaii, back when I was a teenager. I was also in the high school band, though, and unfortunately, we had to play at a football game on the same night of the concert, so I didn't get to go (later I found out that some of the seniors in the band skipped out on the game to go to the concert. Dangit!)

At the time I figured, ah well, there'll be more opportunities. But then as the years rolled by, they didn't come back to Hawaii, Bruce Dickinson left the band, and another chance to see them never materialized. Even after Bruce rejoined, the stars never really aligned, and I began to think that perhaps I wouldn't ever get to see what I consider to be my favorite band of all time.

So you can imagine my excitement when, about six months ago, I heard that their latest tour was going to be coming through Tacoma, Washington, just a two-hour drive from Vancouver! And it was on a night that I could go! My bandmates in Second Player Score are also fans, so we snapped up some tickets and patiently waited for the big day to arrive.

And arrive it did. We drove up in the afternoon, found parking by the arena, and went to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. Then we went in, bought the requisite overpriced concert T-shirts, and found our seats. After an opening band that featured the son of Maiden's bass player, the moment I had been waiting so many years for was finally here: I was going to see Iron Maiden!

They played a set that was about half newer stuff, half old stuff (what Bruce amusingly called "legacy songs"), and it was great. Yeah, they were a bit loose, and Adrian Smith and Dave Murray kind of annoyed me by not playing the old solos note-for-note, but I still had a great time.

So I guess the moral of this story is: never give up on your goals, because one day you just might accomplish them. Or maybe it's: don't worry if you miss an opportunity, because one day you just might get a second chance. Or I dunno, something like that. I'm still trying to recover from sleep deprivation...

P.S. If you haven't already, check out this video of the Spectraland All-Star Jam Band playing a cover of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" (it starts around the 4:35 mark) at the Book One relaunch party back in 2013!