IRON MAIDEN, Voodoo Six @O2 Arena London 3/8/13

It has been said so much that it is almost a cliché, but it really is true. There is no crowd on earth like an Iron Maiden crowd.

This show – hastily arranged it seems given that it doesn’t appear on the tour T-tshirt – has sold out and there are well over 20,000 people in the O2. Nearly every one of them is clad in an Iron Maiden t-shirt and – judging by the flags that are on show -  many of them have come from all around the world just to be here tonight. Bruce Dickinson says during the encore that it doesn’t matter who you are, what race you are what religion you hold, it is all “one nation under Iron Maiden.” Such a sentiment might seem trite if it came out of the mouth of any other singer, but here, somehow, it rings true.

Iron Maiden are quite simply, the greatest band in the world. They have the best songs, they have the best live show, the coolest logo. The coolest mascot, you name it. Just look at this blog. RTM owns – as we tweeted last night in a state of high excitement – around 8000 albums, and we like many, many bands, but it is only one that we choose to be our backdrop, because Iron Maiden are just the best there is, was and ever will be.

Given this atmosphere, sense of expectancy and downright adulation, it is sometimes difficult for a support act to open for the Iron’s. In that respect Voodoo Six are perfect. First of all they are pretty good and know how to open for bigger bands, second, as everyone in here knows, bassist Tony Newton is Iron Maiden’s sound man. He is also Steve Harris’s mate and 5 a side football partner and if we may torture a soccer analogy, songs like “A Little Something For You” and “Long Way From Home” are really very good, but a little bit too workmanlike to put them in British Rock’s Premier League.

So, at just after 8.35 the strains of UFO’s “Doctor Doctor” go up and 20.000 people go mental. It means, of course, that Iron Maiden are on the way and doing so with the Maiden England show, which by all accounts, even by their standards is spectacular.

A “re-imagination” of the original Maiden England show from 1988, documented so magnificently in the album and DVD which was released earlier this year. What it actually entails is most of the songs of that era being played together with the odd newer track like “Afraid To Shoot Strangers”. It makes for a show that is pretty similar in content to 2008’s Somewhere Back In Time jaunt.

Beginning with the proggy “Moonchild” it is everything we were told to expect for nearly two glorious hours. “Can I Play With Madness” follows, then “The Prisoner” and in the space of three songs Iron Maiden have rendered every other song you ever knew completely superfluous.

Amazingly from here it gets better. RTM has never seen them do “Phantom of the Opera” before, so that is exciting, but the centerpiece of the show is “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.” 10 of the most incredible minutes you will ever see on stage, it really is quite staggering in its breadth and scope, proving – if such a thing needed proving – that those who dismiss Maiden as “just “ a metal band are so wide of the mark its untrue.

Of course the uproarious sing-along of “Fear of the Dark” and “Iron Maiden” follow – complete with flames shooting out of Eddie’s head – his third appearance of the night – and there is an encore of “Aces High,” “The Evil That Men Do” and “Running Free” before we can all get our collective breath back.

It is pointless discussing what makes Maiden so special, you either get it or you don’t, and those that do have had the time of their lives tonight. This is a band that is bigger than ever – all around the world.

Since Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned in 1999, essentially what has happened is that Iron Maiden, with their unbelievable albums (seriously, the last four are almost flawless) and even better live shows (whether they are album tours, or history shows like this one) have been on a massive victory lap which has seen them lay waste to pretty much every other metal band on the planet. No band is better at giving the public what they want, but also doing exactly what they want at the same time. Everything that is good about the band was released tonight in one glorious bust of song, light, pyrotechnics and glorious unbridled happiness, on one incredible evening.

Let’s be totally frank about this right now. Maiden England 3^rd August 2013 was the gig of the year. 

VOODOO SIX, Resin, Piston @Academy 3 Birmingham 31/3/13

Considering the 6.30 start and with it being Easter Sunday, there is a decent crowd in the Academy 3 when Staffordshire’s Piston take the stage. The first thing you notice is the top shape-throwing from lead guitarist Jack, who in addition to having all the moves, is extremely good. Actually, the band as a whole deserve great credit for being ostensibly a twin-guitar group, but sounding nothing like either Thin Lizzy or Iron Maiden, which must be quite hard to do.

They are in possession of a couple of fine songs. “Roaming Around” ticks the boxes, but best of all, perhaps, is “Playing With Fire” which grooves along very nicely indeed. And afforded the luxury of a 40 minute set, they augment with a couple of covers, “Whole Lotta Rosie” is a fairly bog-standard affair (although a million times superior to the version of the song that Guns n Roses murdered at the NEC a few years back) but CCRs “Proud Mary” which they gave their own stamp to, is much, much better.

Resin have come up from Leicester for this show and appear to have brought a healthy entourage with them too. This includes the youngest audience member at RTM has ever seen, but bless them, they enjoyed themselves.

The band are highly rated too and are clearly fine musicians. Boy, they write an opening riff. The problem to RTM – who it must be said in mitigation have never been huge fans of alternative metal – is that once the riffs are over there is very little else. The lyrics are rooted in the mid-90s stuff of Live and Candlebox and arguably their best song the Alice In Chains-esque “Fake” goes on slightly too long. In fairness, though, they do deserve immense credit for getting the word “procrastinating” into a rock song.

Strangely, the crowd is at its lowest when Voodoo Six hit the stage. But after the Great Escape theme tune finishes they are launching straight into “Like The Others Did” from 2010’s fantastic “Fluke?” album. A track that encapsulates the band at their best, meaty riffs and a decent chorus, it is followed by “Aint No Friend Of Mine” from their debut 2008s “First Hit For Free” and “Falling Knives” from last year’s EP. So far so good.

Then things go a touch awry. This lengthy UK tour is in advance of album number three “Music To Invade Countries To” and the songs they air from that – on first listen – don’t quite match up. One of these (which appears to be called “Don’t Lead Me On”) is a little dull, and while “Ship Goes Down” is much better, it does lack a chorus.

On stage for 80 minutes the band play magnificent “Fluke” trio “Take The Blame,” “Take Aim” and “Something For You” maybe a little too early in the set, which means a lot of new songs that no one has heard yet, in one go.

After “Long Way From Home” ends things, they are called back for an encore of “Live Again” with frontman Luke Purdie joking they don’t have enough material for any more songs.

Throwaway remark, maybe, but it perhaps rings true. The band are about to go all around Europe with Iron Maiden, by virtue of, let’s be frank about this, the fact that bass player Tony Newton is Maiden’s soundman and Steve Harris’s mate and that is perhaps where they shine. A superb support band, stick them in front of anyone for 45 minutes and they would win a crowd over, but given the chance to headline they perhaps lack the material at this stage for a full set.

That might change in the future, but with the new songs failing to initially convince, they might be stuck in British metals lower leagues. 

ADRENALINE MOB. Voodoo Six @Academy 2. Birmingham 1/7/12

It must be frustrating for Voodoo Six. If their debut album was good, then the 2010 release of “Fluke?” was brilliant (perhaps the best release of its type in the last few years). By rights they should be right at the heart of the thoughts of British hard rock fans.

That they aren’t perhaps says more about the way the music business is these days than anything else, however it has seen Voodoo Six become almost the perfect support act. The band have some fantastic songs, “Take Aim” and “Something For You” not least among them and moreover they aren’t fazed in any way whoever the main band is, rather they are just free enough of flash and ego to get their heads down and get on with it – rather like a journeyman boxer they turn up anywhere and give their all.

Which is just what they do here. Even the temporary loss of main man Tony Newton (the bassist is in the US doing his day job as Iron Maiden’s live sound man) can’t spoil the show. New song “Stop” from last year’s EP is a stomping affair and front man Luke Purdie is confident enough to split the crowd in two for a sing-a-long by the end. Job done, as always.

Russell Allen and Mike Portnoy. We may as well get it out of the way first. Yes the Symphony X man and former Dream Theater legend are half of Adrenaline Mob, but no the Mob aren’t Prog Metal. Instead AM are a very American sounding hard rock band. And boy has this upset the critics.

The same critics who loved the awful new Shinedown album and refuse to acknowledge Black Stone Cherry haven’t been any good for years have had their knives out. As such The Mob’s “Omerta” album has received a kicking in the magazines, reviewers making mention of the fact that this is a rather brainless brand of music compared to their usual work. This might be true to a point, but it rather neglects the point that if they had called themselves Symphony Theater and trotted out some Prog then that would have little point. “Omerta” is instead about fun, and for RTM’s money it is a largely fabulous affair.

As might be expected the whole album is played during the course of the main set. Things are initially hampered by Disturbed man John Moyer’s bass (he is the third man to make this group the prefix “Super”) being way to high in the mix during opener “Psychosane.” Happily this is fixed and the rest of the hour or so is a tasty run through the rest of thne debut. Yes there are bits we could do without  - as a hater of the power ballad RTM was never going to like a live version of “All On The Line” – but really we defy anyone who likes hard rock to not enjoy “Hit The Wall” and set closer “Undaunted.”

When they return Allen (who produced the album with his friend, guitarist Mike Orlando) is anxious to tell us that this is no mere side project, but a bona fide band. This hardly needs pointing out, as anyone who had seen Orlando play his blistering solo at the end of “Angel Sky” knows that he means it.  Actually, it was the largely unheralded Orlando, with his fine fretwork, who perhaps emerged as the star of the show, which when you consider the genuine stars he was onstage with is no mean feat.

The show closes with a couple of Sabbath classics in the shape of “Mob Rules” and “War Pigs,” – the most metal songs of the evening – before the played off, perhaps inevitably given the Mob moniker, by The Godfather theme.

AD are always going to be up against it in the eyes of many, who refuse to accept that musicians can play different styles. The rest of us can just enjoy what was a fine gig from a fine band.