We’ve seen Iron Maiden at this venue before.  When we saw Iron Maiden at White River the last time it was a nightmare getting to the venue.  We left Longview around 4:00 pm and should have made it to the venue and in to our seats in time to see the opening act.  That time, we did not.  We walked in to the last flourish of the opening act.  On the last trip we encountered a traffic jam on the exit from I-5 all the way to the site.  It took us more than two hours to make it the twelve miles or so from there to the venue.

This time with Dream Theater opening we wanted to make sure that we arrived in time.  So, we left town much earlier.  We arrived the venue before the parking lots opened at 5:00 pm.  There was no traffic jam.  We hung out on the side of the road for 30 minutes or so until the parking opened.

So with the car safely parked, we then hung out outside the gate for an hour in the “blazing” sun.

Once the gate opened, we had 90 minutes to kill before Dream Theater would take the stage.  We bought shirts, found some food, and then set about watching the people.  This was fortuitous as we encountered some old friends from high school (this was a first in some 25 years of concert going).  We hadn’t seen them since the last class reunion.  I had never realized that one of the people was such an Iron Maiden fan (more than 30 shows!).

Dream Theater - 01

Dream Theater - 02

The Dream Theater set was marred by an old fat guy.  He came down from several rows behind us and insisted that we sit down during the show or he was “going to call security.”  My son actually had the conversation with this clown as he was sitting on the end of the row.  This is a heavy metal show.  In heavy metal it is a sign of respect to stand and to remain standing throughout the entire act.  The guy looked like he had been to metal concerts before.  I fail to fathom how he did not understand that.  Sure, we probably didn’t need to stand to see over the people in front of us, but that’s not the point.

In between the Dream Theater and Iron Maiden sets we were treated to a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier.  The picture below doesn’t quite do the mountain justice.  If the day wasn’t so cloudy, the view would have been just gorgeous.

Mt. Rainier

Also between the sets, we also ran across a girl dressed in lingerie.  It was quite the “interesting” sight.  This picture also does not do the sight justice.  She clearly wanted attention and was getting it.

Girl In Lingerie

The Iron Maiden set was great.  Bruce Dickenson has an amazing amount of energy while on stage.

Iron Maiden - 01

Iron Maiden - 02

Our seats were good, but they didn’t allow us to take really great pictures of the show.  One of the surprising things, at least to me, was that the pictures where the state was lit in blue, green, or white turned out reasonably well given the distance while the pictures when the set was lit in red did not.  Some of the red ones did result in cool effects, however.

Iron Maiden - 03

Iron Maiden - 04

Iron Maiden - 05

Iron Maiden - 06

Iron Maiden - 07

Iron Maiden - 08

Iron Maiden - 09

Iron Maiden - 10

Iron Maiden - 11

We were not able to get a good picture, but when Eddie was on stage some of the interactions with the band members were shown on the giant screens from Eddie’s perspective.

Iron Maiden - 12

Iron Maiden - 13

Iron Maiden - 14

Iron Maiden - 15

Iron Maiden - 16

Iron Maiden - 17

Iron Maiden - 18

Iron Maiden - 19

Iron Maiden - 20

Iron Maiden - 22

Another great Iron Maiden show!

Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Dream Theater released their latest studio album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, yesterday.  Their work is hard for me to describe.  Of course, it’s progressive metal.  This album is up to their usual standards and is as complex as ever.  It is going to take me some time to figure out what I really like about it.

One song that jumped out at me early on that I really like is on the “Bonus Disc”:  Too Tame A Land.  This is their take on Iron Maiden’s classic work about Frank Herbert’s classic novel Dune.  The song is great (both versions).  In this version I really like the effect that the keyboards bring to the song.  It really makes it sound more desert-like, more futuristic, more exotic than the original.  If a band is going to cover an already well-done song like To Tame A Land, Dream Theater is definitely the band to do an excellent job.  For me, this one song makes the purchasing the album a wise investment.

P.S.  I’d love to see them perform To Tame A Land live, but they so rarely come to the Pacific Northwest.