Photos and Review by John Katic
A first glance, the announcement of a Bruce Dickinson show in a relatively intimate venue, like an indoor show at Stage AE, catches your attention. As the front-man of Iron Maiden they are globally the third highest selling Heavy Metal band of all time. We’re used to seeing him belting to the heavens in soccer stadiums. But this was a chance to see Bruce perform largely his solo material with his hand-selected band. This was a chance to do something very different than the size and scale of a Maiden show.
Opening the night was Pittsburgh’s own Icarus Witch. Icarus Witch is no stranger to the Iron Maiden genealogy having been former Maiden vocalist, Paul Di’Anno’s, touring band back as far as 2010. Icarus Witch’s sing Andrew D’Cagna did a masterful job of being “the guy that had to go on and sing before Bruce”. The band played largly from their last two albums which featured Andrew on vocals. Guitarist Quinn Lukas raised the question of “how did Mike Varney miss this guy?”. Bassist Jason Myers not only filled in the sound spectrum but attacked his Jazz bass with both right and left hand flying. The “new guy” Noah Skiba did an impressive not only keeping a thunderous beat but filling in accents so tastefully. It was was very nice to see Pittsburgh show up for their own and especially sweet to see an unknowing heckler banging his head before they had finished.
At 9pm promptly the band took to the stage. The lights went dark and what do my eyes see? A keytar! This was looking questionable. Then the lights came up and it erased any such questions of the “metal” nature of this show. Bruce was an absolute dynamo on stage. Now in his late 60’s and this being a “smaller” crowd you could maybe think he’d tone things down. He hit the stage like it was Rock in Rio. The band played masterfully and was comprised of of Philip Naslund and Chris DeClercq on guitars, Tanya O’Callaghan (Whitesnake, Dee Snider) on bass, Dave Moreno on drums, and Mistheria on keyboards.
The Mandrake Project was last years release from Bruce and the band performed “Rain on the Graves”, “Resurrection Men” and “Shadow of the Gods”. In all honest it would have been cool to get a lot more of that album. Bruce though did a really nice job of spreading out his set to encompass a breadth of his solo material. “The Alchemist”, “The Book of Thel” and the title track represented Chemical Wedding. “Laughing in the Hiding Bush” from Balls to Picasso and Abduction from Tyranny of Souls. The band also played “Frankenstein” as an instrumental from the Edgar Winter Group as well as “Flash of the Blade” from Iron Maiden. Being that Bruce wrote that song we can’t qualify that as a cover song (argue amongst yourselves).
Deep into the set the band was cruising through “The Book of Thel” when it got significantly quieter. Suddenly the drums where the bulk of what you heard. With a host of monitor wedges on the stage it took the band a minute to realize that the PA system had stopped working. Bruce, the professional that he is, took it in stride and talked to the crowd through his monitor wedge which he propped up. It was somewhat difficult to hear him speak. The PA came back on and the band picked up the song and played on (that goodness for live musicians). During the next song, “Road to Hell” it went to hell. The PA died a final death. Bruce tried to buy some time singing some verses of Revelation and rehearsing the “Star Spangled Banner” (more to come on that). Finally he had to call it a night and cut the show short.
On Sunday Bruce performed the “Star Spangled Banner” before 66,000+ Steelers fans at the Pittsburgh Steelers versus Seattle Seahawks game and neighboring Acrisure Stadium. He did a slightly different take as he had to sustain some notes to line up with a helicopter fly-over.
Bruce Dickinson
Icarus Witch
