Dream Theater & Iron Maiden - San Antonio, 6/12/2010

Here are some of the best pictures I got from the incredible concert last Saturday night. I went in with expectations too high for DT's (my favorite band) performance. Not that it wasn't good, but it was only 40 minutes long. And if you know anything about Dream Theater, you realize how short that seems for them - it was only 6 songs. They started playing "Pull Me Under" at about 8:10, and I was like, "why are they playing this?" and that became, "why are they playing it NOW?" The answers were obvious in about 8 minutes.

So I stewed for the entire time in between bands - wondering if it was warranted to have paid this much for my $28 ticket (Ticketmaster piles on the charges to a sum of $49, then there was $15 for parking, and the $6.25 16-oz. beer I bought after finding my seat -- That's over $70 for a 40-minute DT show.. you get where I'm going with this.) As always, they were amazing! I've seen them 6 times now. See, I keep track of all this stuff, and my notes said I've seen Iron Maiden twice before. The first one is crystal clear, since that was my 2nd-ever concert back in 1989. (Yeah - that's 21 years ago!) The second one had to be within a few years afterward. Nevertheless, it's been a long, long time. And you know what? These guys can still nail it after all this time!

It only took me about 30 seconds into the Maiden show to realize to make this "worth it" I've gotta get the most out of the rest of it. And that I did!! I was thoroughly impressed that I enjoyed Maiden's 2-hour set, especially since they stuck to their guns and played mostly newer stuff with which I wasn't very familiar. Yet it was still as if I were, you know?

Anyway, here is a selection of the very best of the 119 (doh!) pictures I took: Click images to enlarge!









































The Steve Harris pic is meaningful because my friends and I shook his hand back in 1989. Short little guy with thick, stubby fingers. Bad-ass bassist! Nicko was obviously an idol growing up as I played more Maiden than probably anything besides Rush. Hence the love of Dream Theater and Mike Portnoy.

Here were the set lists:

Dream Theater
1. As I Am
2. A Rite Of Passage
3. Home
4. Constant Motion
5. Panic Attack
6. Pull Me Under

Iron Maiden
1. The Wicker Man
2. Ghost Of The Navigator
3. Wrathchild
4. El Dorado
5. Paschendale
6. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
7. These Colours Don't Run
8. Blood Brothers
9. Wildest Dreams
10. No More Lies
11. Brave New World
12. Fear Of The Dark
13. Iron Maiden

~Encore~
14. The Number of the Beast
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name
16. Running Free



Here's what I missed. YES, I left at the end of "13. IronMaiden" - I knew I'd miss "Number of the Beast", but not sure what else. And when I found out that they did "Hallowed..", I was upset I left. Because yeah along with the recent live performance of Running Free as I'm now preparing a solid live threesome, I don't know what the hell else I'm doing. Oddly, it was this clip of their version of "Phantom of The Opera" that even led me to finalize this post with this set of video clips. Remember, this is what I missed.


~Encore~
The Number of the Beast


Hallowed Be Thy Name


Running Free


Well then obviously, I had to go find the live version of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which leads to the climax of this post.





Peace!