As I've come to expect from Iron Maiden, the music was flawless, the set spectacular and the song selection was good. The lightshow was new and different but not unpleasant. Since Bruce Dickenson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band, they've been playing with three guitarists which adds a very fat sound to each song, not to mention a bit more length to already long songs. On most of the songs, at least two of the guitarists play an abreviated solo so they tend to get a little tedious. Not to sound overly critical, since I do enjoy they three-guitar approach but at times it gets a little overdone. Dickenson also has a tendency to get a bit preachy at times. There was one point where he was talking about the forthcoming new album and downloading that I thought would never end. He DID make his little rant worth it with the line, "We know you like to share our music with your friends, which we really don't mind, UNLIKE a certain band that begins with an 'M'." He proceeded to tell everyone that if you liked it to go buy it but if it sucked, don't. I really respected that, quite actually but he was far too long-winded at times.

Here's Nicko McBrain's (Iron Maiden's drummer) take on the show

All in all, this was one of the best concerts I've seen in a long time. If this tour is coming anywhere near you, I would highly recommend picking up a ticket. Here's the rest of the dates for the U.S. leg of the tour:

22/07/2003 USA - Hartford - Meadows Music Theater 23/07/2003 USA - Philadelphia - Tweeter Centre at the Waterfront 25/07/2003 USA - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center 26/07/2003 USA - Wantagh, NY - Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach 29/07/2003 USA - Washington DC - Merriweather Post Pavilion 30/07/2003 USA - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden 01/08/2003 CANADA - Quebec - City Colisee de Quebec 02/08/2003 CANADA - Montreal - Bell Centre 03/08/2003 CANADA - Toronto - Molson Amphitheatre 05/08/2003 USA - Cleveland - Blossom Music Centre 06/08/2003 USA - Detroit - DTE Energy Centre 08/08/2003 USA - Pittsburgh - PA Post Gazette Pavilion 09/08/2003 USA - Columbus - OH Polaris Amp - Germain 10/08/2003 USA - Chicago - Tweeter Center 13/08/2003 USA - Dallas - Smirnoff Music Centre 15/08/2003 USA - San Antonio - Verizon Wireless Amp. 16/08/2003 USA - Houston - Woodlands Pavilion 18/08/2003 USA - El Paso - U.T.E.P. 20/08/2003 USA - Denver - Fiddler's Green 22/08/2003 USA - Phoenix - Cricket Pavilion 24/08/2003 USA - Irvine - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater 25/08/2003 USA - Long Beach - Long Beach Arena 26/08/2003 USA - San Diego - San Diego Sports Arena 28/08/2003 USA - San Jose, CA - Shoreline Amp 29/08/2003 USA - Concord, CA - Chronicle Pavilion 30/08/2003 USA - Sacramento - Sleep Train Pavilion