In August of 2017 I purchased tickets to see The Iron Maidens and finally my daughter and I were lucky enough to get to see them live in Dallas this past Saturday! The show consisted of three cover bands total.
The first was a local Dio cover band called Holy Dyver. I am not a Dio fan, so I can’t rate the accuracy with which they covered the songs. But I know that they played a variety of his career songs including “Man on the Silver Mountain”, “Heaven and Hell”, “Last in Line”, “Rainbow in the Dark” and “We Rock”. The crowd was definitely into it though, so they must’ve been doing something right! FACEBOOK
Second up was a Metallica cover band called Kill Em All based in the DFW area. The musicianship of the band was impressive, and they definitely had the attitude of the band down! The bass player was playing a Rickenbacher and wearing an old school Dawn of the Dead shirt like Cliff Burton back in the day! Their setlist consisted of all the following songs (I think this is all of them!); “Creeping Death”, “Seek and Destroy”, “Am I Evil?”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “Master of Puppets”, “Hardwired” and “Enter Sandman”. FACEBOOK
Then came the band we were all waiting for, the World’s only female tribute to Iron Maiden, The Iron Maidens! Being a huge Maiden fan, I had been waiting to see this show for months and I did not leave disappointed! The band put on a killer show, the music was better than expected! I wouldn’t think Maiden would be the easiest band to cover but these ladies did an awesome job! The drumming, bass playing and guitar parts were all spot on, but I think the hardest job up there belongs to the singer trying to sing Bruce Dickinson‘s vocals and Kirsten, aka Bruce Chickinson, did a fine job at that! She even had the scream for me Dallas line down to a T!
There were lots of theatrical extras included in the show that I certainly wasn’t expecting that I won’t spoil for you if you haven’t seen them yet, but I will say that it would be hard to expect a much better setlist than what they gave us! The setlist was as follows;
1. Aces High
2. Two Minutes To Midnight
3. Wasted Years
4. Still Life
5. Flight of Icarus
6. 22 Acacia Avenue
7. The Trooper
8. The Duelists
9. The Number of the Beast
10. Alexander The Great
11. Children of the Damned
12. Phantom of the Opera
13. The Ides of March/Murders in the Rue Morgue
14. Fear of the Dark
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name
Now I ask you, is that a great setlist or is that a great setlist? We got Maiden staples and extreme rarities too! There was only one Janick Gers era Maiden song played in the setlist which leads me to the question that I have for them, when are you gonna add another guitarist? HAHA! Just kidding but I wanted to ask them that after the show for a laugh. Oh yeah, after the show the band stayed around and talked to, signed autographs for and took pictures with everyone that hung around to do so including my daughter! They were super nice to her which she thought was awesome! When we left she said I wanna learn how to play electric guitar! I told her she could start with the acoustic that I have at home! I’m pretty sure The Iron Maidens have made not only a life long Maidens fan but they’ve also helped foster her as a Maiden fan which I’ve been working on for years!
To sum things up I will say this, if you love Iron Maiden and you get a chance to see The Iron Maidens, DO NOT MISS IT! You will not be disappointed!
Steve Elliott
