maiden!

So, yes, for the price of free, Michael and I thought it would be fun to see Iron Maiden at the Garden. We are talking about a classic band here. Did we go just to say we did? Okay, there's some of that. I think I'm drifting into midlife-crisis territory here, and I would like to consider myself still a person who will rock out now and then, rather than fall asleep on the couch catching up on whatever HBO is serving up.

Having partied with the burnouts during high school in the mid 80s, I consider myself, shall we say, "sympathetic" to metal. Not really a huge fan, but I always felt like I "get it". I've spent a few lost afternoons and evenings watching Alice Cooper concerts on video. And "Spinal Tap". I can hardly begin to describe how fun it was to watch "Spinal Tap" with a bunch of actual teenage metalheads who LOVED the music and wanted to know does the band still tour, and did say these exact words "I know it's supposed to be funny, but it's really good." Moments to savor for a lifetime. I'm doing it right now.

The audience ranged from old dudes in black t-shirts to younger dudes in black t-shirts, and one confident gentleman loitering about in a kilt and black t-shirt. He looked like he knew his way around a Highland Games.

The Iron Maiden show was, well, fine. We had our earplugs to take the edge off (they've taken enough abuse already). A highlight was the tribute to recently departed Ronnie James Dio, who is credited with the creation of the "devil horns" salute. Bruce Dickinson said, "You will never catch me doing this at a concert, except right now, for Ronnie." So we all gave the salute to Ronnie in heaven. Also, the band seems to have missed the memo on not smiling onstage, they seemed genuinely grateful to the fans, and appreciative of the loyalty. And please buy the new CD.

Because we are old, we skipped out early and caught the 10:30 train home.