25/07/2002
pics  © Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos

live review by Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos

FOTOS NOW AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH PERSONAL REQUEST  TO  Stefan Vogelaar

 

BRUCE DICKINSON

LYCABETTUS THEATER,ATHENS,GREECE

JULY 21 2002

 

by Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos

                                                                                                

related links:

www.screamforme.com 

www.didimusic.gr 

www.ironmaiden.com 

I arrived at the Lycabettus Theater 3 hours before the gig and there were about 300 fans waiting outside.Bruce is very famous here in Greece and we showed this to him during the concert J I think it was the only headline for Bruce Dickinson on this tour,the other dates from what I know are in festivals only. So he was expected to play more songs and give us a bigger show than others
The concert took place in the Lycabettus Theater a great place for gigs  located at a hill outside Athens. I had to walk the high path up to the doors of the Theater because the stupid taxi driver  didn’t want to drive up all this road and left me at the bottom….
 

Anyway,the doors opened very early,2 hours before the concert. Usually they ‘torture’ us in other gigs by opening the doors 20 mins before and the doors are too small for thousands of people to get in, but this time all was OK.

This theater from a first glance I would say it can take up to 7-8 thousand people. Only 3-4 thousand fans attended this concert but the ticket was a bit expensive in comparison with other times. It costed 30 euros and in the next day Motorhead were playing in the same place with same price,so I guess many of the metal fans chose to see Lemmy’s band instead.

About Bruce’s appearance now. The band hit the stage at 9:35 pm with one of the 2 new songs he had in the best-of cd, called Silver Wings. The band members took  their positions and then Bruce started talking but we couldn’t see him! He said “where’s this voice coming from…? It's behind you!” and he appeared running from the left on the stage. The crowd went mad and the version of Silver Wings with the new line up of the band was very good.

Next song was Back From The Edge, a song from the Skunkworks album.The fans didn’t seem to know this songs very well,as it is from Bruce’s less famous album, but those who knew this song had a great time! This song was not played so good than the band performed it in the Skunkworks tour but it was ok. Bruce’s voice was amazing despite the fact that the other members were not in the same high standards as him. Only the drummer was unexpectably good!
Broken was next in line, another song from the best-of cd and the fans again enjoyed themselves, this is a great song! Then came Revelations, this excellent song from Iron Maiden and it brought madness everywhere. The band also played this song pretty good.
Next was Accident Of Birth one of the best tracks Bruce has written for his solo career. Another great performance on vocals and the other guys were good once again. Darkside Of Aquarius started immediately after the end of the previous song and it was incredible.
The drums and bass started playing the rhythm of the Tower song and Bruce introduced the song in screams from the fans. Bruce was funny during the guitar solo,he threw a towel on his face and pretended he couldn’t see.
 

Then the excellent Tears Of The Dragon was introduced by Bruce saying that this song was written when he left Iron Maiden and it talks about how he felt back then and the uncertainty he had. Also he thanked Greek fans for supporting him on his solo days. The guitar solo was not the same with the studio version, it had some improvisations,cool ones…then when Bruce tried to get in the song again he realised that he had the microphone closed!!

He said ‘guys how are we gonna do this now?…let’s play the reggae part again!”. The band played the part where the vocals join in after the solo again and Bruce continued the song without problems and the melodic outro of the song finished it.  
Laughing In The Hiding Bush was next from the Balls To Picasso album, a cool performance again. When the song finished Bruce screamed…”it's the drum solo!!”.
The drummer did a cool drum solo, don’t expect anything as technical as Portnoy or as fast as Hellhammer!LOL! It was just cool and rather short and the band hit the stage again with another song from the Skunkworks album,Innerspace.
Not many people recognised this song and I saw most of the fans looking around and asking each other which was that song! Of course all the die-hard Dickinson fans knew which song it was and had great fan!
With the ending of this song they turned it into the intro of Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter! Another Iron Maiden song was of course more than welcome J Bruce introduced the members of his band and then the song began.
When he finished he said goodnight and left the stage, but we all knew he was preparing an encore….and of course he came out again to play Tattooed Millionaire! Bruce climbed on the stage columns and sang the last chorus.
When Tattooed Millionaire finished,  he started the intro of Prisoner! Not pre-recorded but he said the intro. Then the other guys from the band kicked in. The guitar players screwed it up a little on the guitar solo.
Next song was another maiden tune….Powerslave! It was great to hear all these Iron Maiden songs live, even from Bruce’s own band. Maiden haven’t played these songs for many years, except powerslave which they did on Ed Hunter tour.
After Powerslave he left again but returned for a final encore. A song that was written from ancient Greek history,Flight Of Icarus. At the beginning we all thought we was going to play Alexander The Great but then he said that it’s not that song and everyone started shouting to play it.
He didn’t make us happy playing it but Flight of Icarus was great anyway. Final song they did was Delilah: a Tom Jones cover!! He introduced it as a song for Alexanders sister. Very cool way to end this show!

All in  was a nice and enjoyable gig, the band played for 1 and a half hour.
The exact set list was:


silver wings

back from the edge

broken

revelations

accident of birth

darkside of aquarius

the tower

tears of the dragon

laughing in the hiding bush

innerspace

bring your daughter to the slaughter

 

1st encore

tattooed millionaire

prisoner

powerslave

 

2nd encore

flight of icarus

delilah

 

The band consisted from the following members:

Bruce Dickinson-Vocals
Alex Dickson-Guitar
Chris Dale- Bass
Pete Friesen-Guitar
Robin Guy-Drums


If I had to rate the members I would give Bruce a 9 out of 10 and the rest of the guys a 6-7, except from the drummer who was pretty good and would take an 8. Bruces’ voice was in very high standards and he proved that he still has an amzing voice. He was very energetic and was moving/running all the time.He urged the crowd to shout and scream.

In this concert we had the chance to hear some good old Iron Maiden songs that they never played in the last 10-15 years such as Prisoner, Revelations etc…As Bruce said, this was not actually a tour to promote an album and he called it a ‘summer holiday tour’. Let’s hope he makes a new solo album soon and visit us again on tour. Thanks for this great gig Bruce!  

Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos

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