The Metal Crypt on Facebook  The Metal Crypt's YouTube Channel
Review: Iron Maiden - Give Me Ed… 'Til I'm Dead Tour
Iron Maiden
www.ironmaiden.com
Give Me Ed… 'Til I'm Dead Tour
Venue: Colisé Pepsi
City: Quebec City, Canada

Show date: August 01, 2003
Guests: Motörhead, Dio

Rating: 5/5

Review online: August 10, 2003
Reviewed by: Pierre Bégin
Readers Rating
for:
Give Me Ed… 'Til I'm Dead Tour

Rated 4.59/5 (91.76%) (17 Votes)
Review

It was a warm and humid evening in Quebec city when the classic heavy metal band Iron Maiden visited us for the 12th time - an absolute record that no other band of any genre have reached yet. A massive sold-out crowd of 10,500 die hard fans came on this hot summer evening to acclaim their heroes. The last time that Iron Maiden reached this number here was for "Somewhere On Tour" in 1986 (the first of eight Maiden gig I have seen). It was also sold-out in Montreal the next day (12,000.) That really proves that Iron Maiden and heavy metal music are alive and well in the province of Quebec, Canada!

Motörhead opened the hostilities with a 40 minutes set. Lemmy, followed by his two bandmates enters on stage, and tells the crowd: "We are Motörhead, and we're gonna kick your ass!" Well, not being a Motörhead freak, the highlight of their set for me was the brilliant Mikkey Dee drum solo. However, I must say that the sound was awful (too loud and too much echo) through all their set, which didn't help. The crowd reacted well during their performance, especially when the band finally started playing "Ace of Spades" just before the last song, "Overkill". They also played "We Are Motörhead", "Sacrifice", "Killed By Death" and a few others. Motörhead did a good warm up gig and received a good reaction by the crowd but the sound really didn't help them. I saw them on DVD and it was better.

Dio was next! It was my fourth time seeing them and I couldn't wait, especially with the return of Craig Goldy on guitar. The latter was Dio's guitarist on the very good "Magica" and on "Dream Evil", my favorite Dio album of all time. They brilliantly commenced their gigs with "Killing The Dragon", the title track from their very good most recent album released in 2002, followed by their classic "The Last In Line". The band played for about 60 minutes with many classics like "Stand Up And Shout", "Rainbow In The Dark", "Holy Diver", Black Sabbath's "Heaven And Hell", and some surprising ones like Rainbow's "Stargazer" and "I Speed At Night". For me, the highlight of their performance was the brilliant "Dream Evil" which they played extremely well. I also dig "Heaven And Hell". The voice of the man- who-doesn't-age was – once again – top notch! Ronnie is still in very good shape and gesticulates a lot while singing.

However, there is something I didn't like during their set: they edited and cut many parts of songs, like for instance on "The Last In Line" and "Holy Diver", possibly in order to play more tracks on their short opening time slot. Instead, they should remove the drum, guitar and keyboard solos to have more time for their set list, specially the guitar one which was deceiving (I expect something more inspiring from Craig Goldy). Moreover, Motörhead's drummer did a fabulous drum solo before, why did they have to do another one? Anyway, on the whole, the band did a very good performance and as far as I'm concerned, I already had my $50 ticket's worth!!! And the mighty Maiden had yet to play…

After an about half hour of waiting, the lights came down, the crowd went crazy, I mean, really really crazy! MAIDEN! MAIDEN! MAIDEN! "Woe to you, of Earth and sea…" echoed thought the old Quebec City building. "The Number Of The Beast" was the opening track of the set immediately followed by another huge Maiden classic: "The Trooper". Wow, what a great start! Next song is for me THE surprise of the night, "Die With Your Boots On"! It's been a very long time since I heard this track live! Bruce told us in excellent French that the next song is about ancient Egypt: "Revelations"!!! Wow, another forgotten classic not played recently! They played three songs in a row from the classic "Piece Of Mind" album! Usually in an Iron Maiden gig, I found that this album was often neglected to make room for all the classics that Iron Maiden have to play. Well, not tonight! (-;

Next is another huge classic, "Hallowed Be Thy Name", followed by a Bruce Dickinson speech all in very good French! "We have made a show at Madison Square Garden," he said. "It was a good show. There are some concerts - and there is THE concert!" The crowd went really crazy, screaming like hell! The roof of the Pepsi Coliseum almost fell down! (-; Iron Maiden received a huge long ovation!

Next is "Wildest Dreams", their first single off their soon to be released album "Dance Of Death". I heard the song a few time on the Internet and it just started to grow on me. It's a good solid song; I can't wait to have their new album next September! After "The Wicker Man", Bruce talked about freedom versus medias (especially radios) that ignore heavy metal music as an introduction "The Clansman". In my words and freely translated: "In the USA, they don't have the freedom of medias. If you are here tonight, it's not a commercial choice, it's because you make a choice with your heart!" Once again the crowd went crazy and loudly approved! Bruce was right on his speech; here also in the province of Quebec and in the rest of Canada, we have the medias which impose what trends we MUST listen to (i.e. insignificant disposable-after-listen shitty commercial stuff and pre-fabricated artists like Star Academy (a.k.a Star Epidemy) (the French Canadian equivalent to American Idol – Ed.), but the Quebec die-hard metal fans didn't follow these trends, even in the middle of the 90s where metal was at its lowest in North America. I'm proud of that fact. Aahhhhhhh, I feel better now! OK, back to the show! (-:

The bass intro kicks in and it's time for two other classics; "The Clairvoyant" from the "7th Son Of A 7th Son" album, during which Eddie made his first live appearance of the night and the excellent "Heaven Can Wait" from the "Somewhere In Time" album featuring about 10- 15 fans backing up the "oh, oh, oh" including a woman who had seemingly lost her top!!! Next is the mandatory "Fear Of The Dark", including the line "Quebec City in the dark!" The song "Iron Maiden" announced us that this is the final tune before the encore. The huge metal Eddie (like on the DVD "Visions Of The Beast"), appeared behind the drum! It was an excellent and beautiful ending visually.

Two more classics were played during the encore: "2 Minutes To Midnight" and finally "Run To The Hills" which ends the one hour and a half long excellent Iron Maiden gig. Bruce Dickinson told us that this is the best gig so far on their North American tour and tonight was a very special night for them; the fans give another standing ovation!

The stage design was sublime with many superb lights effects and many beautiful Iron Maiden sleeves as background curtains. During "The Number Of The Beast", a huge "666" was lighted during the chorus. "The Clansman" artwork was especially brilliant. I also love that the charismatic frontman Bruce talks a lot with the audience. His French is admirable! His voice was excellent! The band is in very good shape and moves and runs a lot on stage. Iron Maiden has always been a collective instead of individual effort which I think makes their strength and unity. The crowd was very very noisy throughout the concert probably the loudest I never heard.

Overall, it was an excellent evening with three legendary bands. Every penny spent on my ticket worth it. Iron Maiden proved that night that they are still the kings of metal. They didn't tour with flavor-of-the-month bands under the moniker "Summer Sanitarium" to be hyped and attract more young people. And they don't need to do that; their two gigs were sold out in the province of Quebec (and there were many young fans), and at many other venues around the world. Heavy metal and Iron Maiden are a way of life! While other bands lost their integrity at the altar of money and stardom, the legendary Iron Maiden are still there and down-to-Earth after 25 years and I'm sooooooooooo proud of them! Now the name of the tour "Give Me Ed... 'Til I'm Dead" take all its signification. Up the Irons!

Note: All photos taken by Dave Darling of Buffalo, NY at the Toronto show. Review written in Quebec City, QC and edited in Ottawa, ON. International enough for ya? :) - Ed.

         

Dio show playlist:

  1. Killing The Dragon
  2. The Last In Line
  3. Stargazer
  4. Stand Up And Shout
  5. Simon Wright's drum solo
  6. Rock & Roll
  7. I Speed At Night
  8. Dream Evil
  9. Scott Warren's keyboard solo
  10. Craig Goldie's guitar solo
  11. Rainbow In The Dark
  12. Holy Diver
  13. Heaven And Hell

Iron Maiden show playlist:

  1. The Number Of The Beast
  2. The Trooper
  3. Die With Your Boots On
  4. Revelations
  5. Hallowed Be Thy Name
  6. Wildest Dreams
  7. The Wicker Man
  8. The Clansman
  9. The Clairvoyant
  10. Heaven Can Wait
  11. Fear Of The Dark
  12. Iron Maiden
  13. Encore:

  14. 2 Minutes To Midnight
  15. Run To The Hills

More about Iron Maiden...
Review: 12 Wasted Years (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: A Matter of Life and Death (reviewed by Chaossphere)
Review: Brave New World (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Brave New World (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Brave New World Tour (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Brave New World Tour (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Classic Albums: Iron Maiden: The Number Of The Beast (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Dance of Death (reviewed by Larry Griffin)
Review: Dance of Death (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Fear Of The Dark (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Fear Of The Dark (reviewed by Mjölnir)
Review: Flight 666 (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Iron Maiden (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Killers (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Live After Death (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Live in Quebec City, July 2005 (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Maiden England (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: No Prayer For The Dying (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Piece of Mind (reviewed by Iwarrior)
Review: Piece of Mind (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Powerslave (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Raising Hell (reviewed by Eddiethe'Ead)
Review: Rock In Rio (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Senjutsu (reviewed by Christian Renner)
Review: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (reviewed by Mjölnir)
Review: Somewhere In Time (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Somewhere In Time (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: The Book of Souls (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: The Book of Souls (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Final Frontier (reviewed by Larry Griffin)
Review: The History of Iron Maiden Part 1: The Early Days (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: The Number of the Beast (reviewed by Eddiethe'Ead)
Review: The X-Factor (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Virtual XI (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Click below for more reviews
Latest 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Various Books/Zines 



The Metal Crypt - Crushing Posers Since 1999
Copyright  © 1999-2025, Michel Renaud / The Metal Crypt.  All Rights Reserved.