Had it been any other band but Iron Maiden leading us from another slow intro to a loud verse and chorus, myriad solo and instrumental sections, and then taking us out with another slow outro (and then repeating the formula for the very next song), I might be a bit more harsh in my judgment - but to see five of the six of them leap and bound across the stage infused the songs with energy and fire that other bands would have struggled to recreate. Dickinson was his usual chatty self, while Janick Gers swung his guitar around so much you were afraid he was going to hit someone with it. Adrian Smith was his usual rock-like self, while Dave Murray waltzed and danced along like he was in his own private rehearsal space. Steve Harris - Mr. Maiden himself - was all of the above (minus Dickinson's chattiness) and more, getting the loudest cheer of the night when Dickinson introduced him at the end of the band's set. How much that one man has influenced heavy metal is beyond all estimation, probably. And even though he and his band were promoting an album entitled "The Final Frontier", you have to think that, based on the strength of the album and the brilliance of their live performance, there's still more gas in Eddie's tank.

"Fear of the Dark" followed, my second time seeing it live, and just as life-changing as the first. It is, really, the perfect Iron Maiden live song: the lights are dimmed, the audience chants and sings along to the guitar lines and Bruce Dickinson's crooning voice, before an explosion of sound and luminescence transported the audience to a musical landscape of nightmares and things that live in the shadows and the dark. True, "Fear of the Dark" continued the formula that we had seen for so much of the evening, but this was the song that started Iron Maiden's journey down the epic songwriting textures that have characterized their musical output recent years (since 1995, anyway). "Iron Maiden" followed, with the evening's only appearance of Eddie, now a grotesque alien - not as cool as Cyborg Eddie from two years ago, but fun to see Maiden become a quadruple-guitar band for a moment. 

When Iron Maiden departed the stage at the end of the song, the cheers and roars for them to return grew louder and louder - until a voice intoned that the devil would send the beast with wrath, at which point the roof of the White River Amphitheater nearly came off. After the build, Maiden took the stage again for "The Number of the Beast", with Bruce Dickinson's scream echoing far and wide beyond Auburn, WA. Its companion from the album of the same name followed, but while "Hallowed By Thy Name" ended the previous Iron Maiden show in these parts, this time it set the crowd up for the true finale. Much as I love "Hallowed Be Thy Name", it never worked for me as the closer for a live show. After its epic conclusion, Nicko McBrain's drum rhythm set up "Running Free", which, along with Dickinson's extensive back-and-forth with the exhausted and hoarse crowd, made for a suitably rousing finish to the evening. 

All things considered, as much as I preferred the music on offer this time, I think Iron Maiden's show in 2008 was better. The songs had much more energy and power to them, whereas what we saw this year lacked that same energy and spark. Cosmetic changes - only one appearance of Eddie, while we saw him two or three times last time, and no pyro at all, only puffs of smoke for "The Number of the Beast" - made the whole show seem a bit more low-key than 2008. That shouldn't take away from the band themselves, who were on-key, on-song and on fire. This is Iron Maiden, and you get every cent of your money's worth. And had it been any other band out there, I may have been more damning in my sentence. But when Messrs. McBrain, Murray, Dickinson, Harris, Smith and Gers take the stage, strap yourself in. It's a hell of a ride. The final frontier looms, and Iron Maiden are the soundtrack.