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Witnessed
Iron Maiden, 2010-08-15
23/09/10 || sly
Well, what would you do if Iron Maiden was playing their first show in Transylvania – actually their first in all of Romania- and you were only a train ride away? Unless you were an avid hater of Maiden or deathly afraid of vampire tales, then, as a matter of course, you would go (not to mention tickets are only 25 Euros).
After spending countless hours trying to find lodging, we booked our train tickets from Belgrade to Timişoara. From there we would catch the next train to Cluj.
I don’t know how many of you have experienced the utter chaos that
abounds during a low-budget Eastern European journey, but I can tell you
that it is no picnic. The further East one goes, the less organized
things seems to be. The train is always on the wrong platform, it never
leaves on time, and if seats are assigned that fact is rarely observed.
At 45°C (113°F) and 80% humidity, the train was a veritable oven. The seats were broken, every bench diagonal, the window in our cabin went down only half of the way. We perspired in this manner for 175 kilometers (108 miles) which, thanks to modern technology, only took six hours.
Okay, fast forward… blah, blah, blah… it’s August 15th, we’re in Cluj.
An excited sea of people ebbed forth across the long overpass which led to the shopping center parking lot wherein the biggest Transylvanian concert event in 20 years would take place. It was an exhilarating sight. It seemed the entire youth of Romania was in attendance. Fathers and young sons were garbed in matching Iron Maiden tees, whilst the mothers stood nearby in their earth-tone fanny packs. There was even that awkward Asian dude that always seems to be around in the most irrelevant moments.
As we trekked up the walk and slowly filled the lot, Love/Hate was roaring from the loudspeaker. We took it as a good omen and our blood began to warm. The stage was set, the air was balmy, and the place was buzzing with beer tokens and the anticipation of 30,000 fans.
The opening act was Timişoara’s Cargo which, frankly, sucked butt. But the Romanians loved them and it gave us an excuse to go for more beer tokens.
At 20h50 the sky darkened to a dusky greyish purple and the drunkenly happy assemblage began to cheer. Our moment of triumph was at hand!
The men marched onto the stage and jumped right into action. At one point in the show someone threw a string of sausages onto the stage and Adrian Smith finished the song with them hanging off his guitar. Ah, Romanians and their sausages…
A lot of the set consisted of newer material and the show seemed to sag a little. Before singing “Blood Brothers” ole Brucey (who’s still wearing that very stupid beanie) said some nice words about Ronnie James Dio and dedicated the performance to his memory. Momentum finally picked up when 30,000 convicted voices belted out “Fear of the Dark” in near unison. Unfortunately, one song later the band bid goodnight and the people weren’t thrilled. We shouted and cheered for a full five minutes before those smelly Brits came back for their encore. We got three more songs and it was over.
The crowd was generally happy but slightly unsatisfied. It was shorter
than it would have been if it was in, say, Paris or London. We didn’t
hear “The Trooper”, “Run to the Hills”, or “Revelations”. No “Aces High”
or “2 Minutes to Midnight”. Okay, the guys are old, it was probably
past their bedtime, and they’re touring their new album. But that’s no
excuse. The point is that these people have been waiting decades to hear
these songs live. But the ugly truth is that they only paid 25€ (in a
country where the average salary is about 300€/mo.), and that’s not much
to the western world.
Despite the touch of disappointment, it was an altogether enjoyable experience. And quite a rare one, too, I guess, since I probably won’t see Iron Maiden in spooky Transylvania ever again.
7.5 Romanian sausages out of 10.
- Who: Iron Maiden
- When: 15 August, 2010
- Where: Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Setlist
- 01. The Wicker Man
- 02. Ghost Of The Navigator
- 03. Wrathchild
- 04. El Dorado
- 05. Dance Of Death
- 06. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
- 07. These Colours Don’t Run
- 08. Blood Brothers
- 09. Wildest Dreams
- 10. No More Lies
- 11. Brave New World
- 12. Fear Of The Dark
- 13. Iron Maiden
- Encore
- 14. The Number of the Beast
- 15. Hallowed Be Thy Name
- 16. Running Free
