You might not believe me. I barely believe myself. On Sunday March 17th at approximately 9:30 pm I was on stage with Iron Maiden. Not just on stage but on stage in front of a sold out Air Canada Center audience. Granted it was only for a few seconds, but it was still pretty awesome. I have to say it was a night to remember.
After a missed call followed by a text saying "call me now." My amazing friend Deb was asking/telling me I was going to see Iron Maiden. Now to be completely honest, before this night I could not name a single IM song but, I knew they were legends and that this was something I needed to experiance.
I hopped in the first cab I saw to meet deb and three of the four English gentlemen that would be our guardians for the evening. Deb had been serving these gentlemen in the late afternoon. Being the charming, beautiful and genuine person that she is, these men truly wanted to show her and her friend (being me) the rock show of their lives. I can't say I wasn't a bit weary, I wasn't willing to pay anything in anyway to see the show, but I do trust Deb's judgement and quickly realized for myself that these guys were nothing but gentlemen and rightfully believed that the IM put on a legendary live show.
By the time were cramming three English men and two Canadian girls into a cab were were all pretty comfortable with each other. Our escorts were the go-ahead to travel through the ACC's underbelly. It was here that we received our yellow VIP stickers and were declared "Iron Maidens". We also got to meet some of the crew and get just a glimpse of the amount of work that goes into put on a show of such caliber.
This was the last stop on a world tour that not only went around the world but up and down it as well. Flying (on occasion by pilot by day front man Bruce Dickinson) they made 23 stops in places from Mumbai, India to Japan, Australia and Chili. Toronto was the only Canadian stop. Using a majority of their own equipment packed into the back third of the plane the entire tour had reportedly gone off without a hitch. No late shows, no lost gear. As the last stop on this world wide jet ride Toronto was time to give it all. Admittedly, I screamed my face off the entire time.
Entering from the backdoor the concrete hallways turned into carpeted floors then sounds boards lined the walls and finally opened up to the entirety of the 19,800 seat ACC as seen from stage left. Awestruck. Floor to ceiling seats of people cheering and chanting for Maiden, wearing Maiden and drinking $7.00 beers but not caring because they were seeing Maiden.
We headed to a clear spot just behind the sound booth. From here we were able to take in the entire set and feel the energy of the surroundings. Intense. The stage stretched the width of the floor, the backdrop a giant skull sphynx and we were given promises of pyrotechnics.
Before we knew it the lights were down, the crowd was roaring and sounds of airplanes filled the room. On either side of the stage a giant screen gave the audience a video recap of the amazing journey that the band and crew had taken so far. The volume increased and just as its breaking point was about to be reached the notably original Iron Maiden burst on to stage. Some how the volume increased.
We grabbed Deb's completely stoked little bother and friend from the stands and headed up front. Tucked next to the bouncers between the stage and the crowd. I had to restrain myself from reaching out and stealing Yanik' white reebok hightops.
In there somewhere were those unforgettable seconds that we were on stage for. The IM fan club runs a contest for its members, the winners get to run on stage and help with a song during the show in their respective city. Our amazing escorts got us in on this. We were both terrified. Both our eyes had been opened to how hard Iron Maiden rocks however neither of us knew a song let alone could sing one. I admittedly had visions of being booed of stage by thousands of longtime fans but still couldn't resist. To our relief we had may be 20 other people with us, we rocked as hard as we could and did manage to sing along a bit. I also made sure to take a moment to breath in the feeling of being on stage in front of that many people as it is looking unlikely I will ever be in a metal band, let alone "performing" with one to such a big audience.
The rest of the show rocked hard, we returned to our spot behind the sound boo as the last couple encore songs were played and danced to Monty Python's "Always look on the Bright side" as the fans exited around us.
We said out goodbyes and we on our way to the exit when another one of the guys who we hadn't seen since earlier in the night scooped us up and brought us back to reunite with our old chums. Deb and I were riding the high that comes with going to an amazing show and were planning to go out anywhere, in the end it was decided that we ought to go to the after-party, it was the last night of the tour.
We drank and ate and chatted for the rest of the night. Everyone got a least a teeny bit silly and we got to meet some really amazing people. Noting Richie and Randy from Lauren Harris's band (Steve Harris's daughter and opener for the tour) both had some of the greatest hair I think I might ever see in my life, actually all the guys had amazing hair.
The biggest thankyou I could ever imagine to our guys that made this happen. You are truly legends.
10 years ago
1 comment:
!!!!!VERY METAL!!!!!
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