the date with the demons

“Scream for me, Dubai!”... was the anthem of the night on Friday as thousand of headbangers and metal fans converged on Dubai Media City... to witness what is for me once in a lifetime opportunity... a dream... to see the legendary British metal band IRON MAIDEN perform... and they did... rip some...

Fans of all ages, including different generations - there were fathers and mothers who'd come along with their kids... and both wanted to stay away so no one gets in each other's way... while each chose his/her own method to worship , to headbang and cheer , as the "Demons" played hit after hit from the first dozen years of their 30-year career.

The show was opened by Lauren Harris... she sang couple of sangs from her yet to be released album... I found out this only today that Lauren Harris is the daughter of the band's Bassist Stephen harris... anyways while this was happening... I lied down on the ground... no disprespect to the rocker but honestly I was way to eager to listen to MAIDEN... than waste my time and energy on some "britney-voiced-pretending to be-rockstar-girl" singing and jumping across the stage...

Ten minutes later... "Somewhere Back in Time" happened...

For the first song... it still had to sink... this was no Bon Jovi... this is no Maroon 5... this is not Shakira... this was f*cking MAIDEN...
We are talking about IRON MAIDEN... the big daddy's of Metal

I don't remember, but somewhere between the first song and the second I had forgotten about the world... around... I headbanged like I never did... I jumped... I cheered... like a crazy maniac set on loose... and this was not me... this was the music that was making me do all this... there were two others with me... who were as grooved in as I was... infact the entire arena with 10000 ppl ( though 10000 luks like nothing for an Iron Maiden concert) was buzzing out... it was electrifying... it was just __________ ( damn I need a word to fit this expression...)

The songs he played... couple of them Bruce declared as song's that were written in the band's early days but somehow never get played on tour... I guess, part of "somewhere back in time" concept...

Wrathchild, a 13 minute song called Rime of the Ancient Mariner (based on Samuel Coleridge's poem the Albatross), the Trooper (a must for an IM concert), Run to the hills, Two minute to Midnight, Iron Maiden, hallowed be thy name (again a must for an IM concert), Fear of the dark (probably the only song I knew the lyrics by heart, my personal favorite too), Number of the Beast...

and Bruce said... "we'll play here again"...

oh yes this time around they were acoompained by eddie.

While I'm writing this... my limbs are aching... my neck refuses to stay straight without support... and I've got a soar throat...

Never before experience...