The manager of Bucharest’s Beraria H Herastrau says that she’d never seen anything like it. An enormous beerhall in the Romanian capital, it’s not a place unfamiliar with thirsty customers, and lots of them. But as the pre-party for Iron Maiden’s return to the city, hosting the now-customary Eddie’s Dive Bar for this spot on the Run For Your Lives Tour, it was something else.
“I’ve never seen so many shirts!” she says in disbelief. “It was literally everyone, like a uniform. We did kararoke, and it was all Maiden, and some of the people could really sing.
“And,” she adds, somewhat prectably, “We sold so much beer!”
Transferred to a 40,000-strong party at the Arena Națională football stadium, it’s a similar story. But you already know the drill: everyone in Maiden shirts, everyone singing the riffs, everyone absolutely devoted to ’Arry and his team. But even knowing all this, even knowing the setlist from the tour’s kick off two gigs ago in Athens, even having seen most of it at last year’s first leg of this 50th birthday bonanza (bar new inclusion Infinite dreams, appearing live for the first time in 38 years), there is nothing so uniquely thrilling as being part of a Maiden show. They may be getting older, but nothing else is.
In fact, the opening battery of early days cuts Murders In The Rue Morgue, Wrathchild, and Killers finds them brawling onto the stage and getting the audience in a willing headlock with the aggression and “Let’s ’ave it” attitude of lairy young bucks trying to take on the world for the first time. Even with a slight fluff during Killers, it’s a wrecking-ball approach to making an entrance that’s just as effective as their more grand, theatrical hellos of tours past.