Thus arrived the glorious songs, Maiden's immortals.
'You take my life and I'll take yours too.' Whoa. As the backdrop changed from super-macabre album covers to freaky Eddie-play, Dickinson grabbed the British colours and waved the mast. Indeed, we were seeing him play Trooper the traditional way, vaulting around the stage with tremendous gusto, as guitarist Janick Gers made the song fly like only he can. Unbelievable.
But that's nowhere near all.
Soon we were joined by Eddie himself, larger than life and thrice as trippy. A mammoth tank lumbered out behind the band, and that head creeped out and surveyed us all, eyes glowing bright and fiery as fans headbanged with renewed fury, mosh-pits throbbing.
The Number Of The Beast, Two Minutes To Midnight, The Evil That Men Do. The songs kept coming, each sounding inch-perfect and awesome. The moment Bangalore climaxed was with Fear Of The Dark, their live signature track. We've all growled our guts out to Fear, a raspy, roaring number with a haunting chorus, and we are over-familiar with the version on The Best Of The Beast -- where Bruce does the line and then throws a 'you' to the audience.
And this time he did the line and screamed, instead, "Bangalore." The song, sung in raucous unison by the crowd and the band in its entirety, proved a surreal bonding experience. We were part of that song. And now we pray for bootlegs.
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