We're a little bit backed up on getting my concert
photographs up here on The Old Blog. I suppose we will catch up at some
point, but this would be a good time to remind you that my concert photographs
can be seen in a much more timely manner by visiting V13 Media,
which you can do by following the link. If you'd like an even more direct
route to my photographs, you can visit my personal page over there but using
the following
link. Way back in
the summer of 2008, the heavy metal festival Heavy MTL was born. Headlining the very first night of that
festival was none other than Iron Maiden.
The Heavy MTL festival may have disappeared, but its spirit lives
on. Here we are, more than twenty years
later and people from all over the world have once again assembled at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Who better than to once
again
headline the night than the mighty Iron Maiden! The
seemingly immortal metallers from London brought their Run For Your Lives world
tour to Montréal. A tour so large that
no building to contain it. Luckily, the
facilities on Parc Jean-Drapeau were available.
This line-up would have knocked over Place Bell, flattened the Centre Bell and probably finished off the Olympic Stadium once and for all. This was
Heavy MTL, just with a smaller line-up.
That is also the only time the word ‘small’ will be used to describe
this event. 45,000 people made their way
onto the island that sits in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Parking lots overflowed with cars. The metro station had people lined up around
the building, while a 
hot and humid sun beat down on the black clad longhairs
waiting to get into the site. It was a
beautiful mix of age and communities. I
heard at least five different languages being spoken amongst the masses, and a
wide array of flags from countries all around the World. Iron Maiden does more for global unity than
the United Nations. The NWOBHM originals have been coming to
Montréal for decades now, and every show seems to be even bigger than the
last. This set began with an awesome
video that highlighted versions of every Iron Maiden album through the years. These scenes would return through the show as
part of some awesome video backdrops.
There was a unique one for every song. A blast of
pyro set the night ablaze and Bruce Dickinson raced to the front of the
stage. Iron Maiden began the show with
“Murders In The
Rue Morgue”. Though he
complained about having a rough voice due to a cold, his wail seemed to be as
powerful as ever. As is the case with
Iron Maiden’s visits to Montéal, he chatted with the crowd almost exclusively
en français. Save for the usual rallying
cries of “Scream for me Montréal! Scream
for me Canada! Scream for me les
Québecois!" “Wrathchild”
played with a post-apocalyptic Parisian background. During this time, Steven Harris stalked the
stage with bass in hand. Guitarists Dave
Murray and Adrian Smith played with near surgical precision. Meanwhile, fellow shredder Jannick Gers was
thrashing about the stage like a man possessed.
We were treated to extended versions of each song that was played as the
music seemed like it would never stop. Beloved
mascot Eddie made his first appearance during 
“Killers”, trying to behead the
band members with an axe. A swarm of
flies also descended on the stage, creating a Biblical scene equal to the
locusts descending upon Egypt. Bruce
mentioned them a few times and it even added a little added touch to the
Egyptian themed background for “Powerslave”.
A little bit of politics were played as well when Bruce mentioned how
the band had crossed over Lake America, err Lake Ontario to get to the
show. The
set-list read like a greatest hits album.
“2 Minutes To Midnight”, “Aces High” and several more fan favourites
burst through the Thursday night sky.
There had been a threat of heavy weather, but it was Iron Maiden that
ended up providing all of the thunder and lighting. The summer may be coming to an end, but the Anthrax,
Megadeth and Iron Maiden had turned up the heat. All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths. Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Iron Maiden while they performed on the Parc Jean-Drapeau stage.
