Iron Maiden - Madison Square Garden, NYC - March 30, 2016

There's something special about Iron Maiden pre-show festivities when they play Madison Sqaure Garden in New York City and this past Wednesday, March 30, 2016 was no different.



Including myself, we had five of our crew coming down, catching the 3:54 out of Poughkeepsie and arriving at Grand Central Station a little before six.  The train was packed by the time it rolled in and it appeared at least half the passengers who got off were headed over to the Garden.  We decided to walk because the weather was perfect.



We usually hit up the Blarney Rock, but thought about checking out Stout right next door as there was going to be a big crew of the M3 gang there, but it was overly packed and the Rock still had a little breathing room at that point and only a two person deep wait at the bar.  I shall have to wait a few more weeks to drink merrily with my M3 friends down in Maryland.



The jukebox was playing non stop Maiden and as the drinks flowed the sing a longs grew louder. Here's a little "Flight of Icarus" for your listening non-pleasure:

I think there's so few Metal bands left that are big enough to play the Garden (Hell who's left?  Sabbath just did their last two there...other than Maiden, probably just Metallica who hasn't played there since 2009), that when one comes to town, everyone wants to celebrate.  



You share stories of past shows, talk about hopes for that night's set list and raise your pints and sing some more in unison.  Here's a little "Run To The Hills" to make your eardrums bleed (I promise this is the last one...but yes I have a few more).  I apologize as deciding if I want to keep the camera vertical or horizontal during the length of the recording evidently becomes a major challenge after a few Guinness.

We decided to head in about 8:15 so we had time to hit the merchandise booth and to our dismay, all the shirts made specifically for this particular show were already sold out.  I heard it featured the Statue of Liberty (and of course Eddie) and was super cool.  Oh well, next time perhaps perhaps one less drink/song at the bar.



Maiden came on at about 8:45 or 8:50 and honestly I've seen at least a dozen write-ups of the show already so I'll be brief and just share my photos and video I took of "Iron Maiden" which ended the main set.  



For my tastes it was a little too much new album when so many classics were left off the set, but I knew this going in and honestly that's pretty typical for Maiden when they are promoting a new album - they like to play the new stuff like any band does.  



The classics we did get were great and some cool deep cuts that hadn't been played in decades like "Children of the Damned" and "Powerslave" were excellent additions on this tour.



The stage show was killer.  Multiple different Eddie appearances.  The musicianship was amazing.  Bruce's voice was fantastic.  



The set was basically just about 2 hours and was made up of these songs:

If Eternity Should Fail
Speed of Light
Children of the Damned
Tears of a Clown
The Red and the Black
The Trooper
Powerslave
Death or Glory
The Book of Souls
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden (Video Below)

Encore:
Number of the Beast
Blood Brothers
Wasted Years

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MORC Day 2 part 1: Miami FL February 21, 2016 - Paradise Kitty, D-A-D and Iron Maiden - Photos and Video

If you would like to read about MORC Day 1 (with Killer Dwarfs and Lynch Mob) click here.

We all slept well after getting back to the hotel and the last of us was up and ready to go by around the crack of noon on Sunday.  Two things were on our mind before we started thinking about that night's Monster of Rock Cruise party at the Magic City Casino - food and Iron Maiden.

Iron Maiden's airplane, "Ed Force One", was all over the local news as it had landed at the Fort Lauderdale airport a day or two before as Maiden arrived to kick off their World Tour in Florida.  Would it be cool to see the plane in person?  Hell yeah..but where to go to eat first?

Well Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain happens to have a restaurant about 40 minutes away in Coconut Creek called Rock n Roll Ribs.  We piled in the car and got on our way.

We arrived to find we had just missed Nicko by about 10 minutes, he headed off to play some golf.  We also found out that the previous day the whole band stopped in (with the exception of Bruce Dickinson).  Man it would have been cool to meet Nicko, but what can you do. Let's head inside.

Rock n Roll Ribs is a small restaurant but jam packed with an amazing array of Iron Maiden memorabilia including one of Nicko's drum kits.

The staff was super friendly and the food...wow!  This is a place that could draw every metal head around no matter what the food tastes like, but man...I've had some delicious barbeque around the country and I'm going to say it.  These were the best BBQ ribs I've ever had.  Just thinking about it now has my mouth watering and the sides were fantastic too.  I can't recommend it enough.

Here's some photos of the memorabilia:

Filled up and feeling like continuing the adventure, we headed to the Fort Lauderdale airport.  As we approached we wondered how in the hell we were going to put eyes on the plane, but as we approached the exit we saw it far in the distance in a private parking area.

There was no where to stop on the highway and it was all the way on the other side of the airport, so we got off the exit and just started heading around the side of the airport.  We suddenly caught another glimpse of it through some trees and we were about as close as we could get without being on the grounds and luckily, the airport has a long narrow park / running path along that side with a small parking lot.

We parked, got out, walked about a half mile down the path back the way we came to our best vantage point and with the help of my zoom lens I got these shots.  Pretty damn cool!

Who knew this would probably end up being a relatively rare site on this tour as it was just announced how the plane was badly damaged in South America a couple of days ago.  Luckily Maiden said they worked out a contingency plan and the tour will continue with no cancelled shows.  I'll be seeing them at Madison Square Garden in about two weeks and yes, I'll have photos and a review of the show.

We had a couple of hours to kill before that night's party was to begin with doors opening at 4:30pm, so we used the Vinyl District app and found a good local used record store.  I didn't find anything, but my buddies each got a few things.  It was a great day checking out Florida and now it was time to head back to Magic City Casino in time to catch opening act Paradise Kitty.

Paradise Kitty, a Guns n Roses tribute band, was a great way to start the night and they put on a fantastic show.  They are made up of vocalist Jenna Syde, guitarist Priscila Barr, guest guitarist Courtney Cox, bassist Nichole McCumsey and drummer Rachael Rine.

They played a kick ass set of GnR (and one Aerosmith) tunes:

• Night Train
• It's So Easy
• Outta Get Me
• Mr. Brownstone
• Welcome to the Jungle
• Mama Kin (although Think About You was on the setlist)
• Rocket Queen
• Paradise City (video below)

Awesome band doing great renditions of these tunes that had everyone singing along throughout the whole set.  As you can see in the video, they invited all the female rockers in the audience that wanted to join them up on stage for the finale.

Their humorous setlist:

After a short break where once again beer runs went on, the amazing D-A-D took the stage.  You can find that full review, photos and video by clicking here.  Part 2 of Day 2 continues by clicking here.

If you dug this go to the MostPeopleAreBlank Facebook page by following this link and click the "Follow" button to join to be kept up to date on future posts, to comment, share and take part in our giveaways and contests! Click any photos to enlarge them to full screen.  Also follow on twitter @MostPeopleBlank   Then, of course, as always - Rock on and Enjoy - Paul