Maiden Voyage

In my 36 years I have to admit that I've gone to very few rock concerts. I'd say there were only 3 real concerts I've attended.

I went to my first show in Grade 9. It was an all Canadian ticket featuring Glass Tiger and Honeymoon Suite right here in Brandon, MB. It seems kind of lame now but to the 14 year old version of myself it was the bomb!

My next show was Lollapalooza '92 in Minneapolis. That was an awesome event! Pearl Jam, Ministry, Soundgarden, Chili Peppers and more!

My last show was Primus in 1995 in Vancouver. 13 years ago!?? Wow! That's a long time!

So you can see how few shows I've been to.

This puny list is dwarfed by the list of concerts I regret missing out on. The top three concerts I wish I'd seen are Paul McCartney in Winnipeg in 1993, Pink Floyd in Winnipeg in 1994, and Slayer in Vancouver in 1998.

Anyway, about a year ago I was watching Iron Maiden: Rock in Rio and I was thinking how cool it would be to see Maiden live. I immediately dismissed the thought and filed Maiden under "Concerts I Regret Missing". After all it had been at least 20 years since they'd been to Winnipeg and I didn't think they would be popping up in this neck of the woods again anytime soon.

Well, imagine my surprise when I was cruising a local forum site last week and found out that Maiden was going to be coming to Winnipeg for a show on June 9th.

It took me a minute to digest this new information.

Maiden is coming to Winnipeg?

I like Maiden!

I want to see Maiden.

I NEED TO SEE THIS SHOW!!

I immediately started to look for a good recruit to go with me. Within 15 minutes Corporate Guy was on board.

Tickets weren't available until March 28th so we had to wait while the Iron Maiden fan club members presale and the other advance ticket promos ran their course. We were at ticketmaster.com right at 10:00am when the tickets went on sale. By that time all of the floor tickets and the 100 level tickets were gone. Damn that fan club! We still managed to get some good 200 level tickets. Not exactly where we wanted to be but who cares. IT'S MAIDEN!!

By the 30th the show was sold out. In fact all of the western Canadian dates sold out really fast. Calgary, Edmonton and Regina were sold out in one hour! Calgary took just over 30 minutes.

Here is a little write-up about the show from the MTS Centre website:

This tour revisits the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on their classic 80’s period in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which is based around the legendary Egyptian Production of that ‘Powerslave Tour’ as portrayed on the Live After Death DVD. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented. Furthermore the band intends to bring along for this summer leg of the tour the colossal mummy of Eddie, as featured on the Live After Death DVD, along with various other elements of the show that would not fit on their 757 on the first leg of this tour.

Woo Hoo!!!! This show is gonna be awesome!!!