Now this is a fucking show. Of course, prior to the show, my pals and I had to go to one the local watering holes and get our drink on. A Metal show is not a Metal show without some pre-show brews. I chose to wear my brand spankin new Manowar, “Hail To England” shirt to this auspicious event. I was soon greeted by the resounding howls of “MANOWAR!!!!” This lasted the entire evening. I should’ve known…times haven’t changed much. If the howling was any indication of record sales, Manowar should be selling 8 million records by now.

In to the Garden we go for a little Motorhead. We missed the 1st song but that didn’t matter. The venue was half empty which is nothing to squawk at considering that’s still a nice chunk of people. Motorhead were in top form, loud as ever. Lemmy looks exactly as he did 15 years ago. I’m convinced that he’s found the key to suspend the aging process. They barreled through tunes like “Motorhead” and “Killed by Death.” And of course the requisite closer, “Ace of Spades.” They even paid homage to The Ramones by blasting out a couple of covers. Motorhead never disappoints.

Dio was up next. Now, I’ve gotten quite a bit of slack for being a Dio fan. All of you haters can suck a fat back of dicks. That dwarf motherfucker rocked. Last in Line…Holy Diver…Stargazer by Rainibow…Heaven and Hell by Sabbath…Rainbow in the Dark. How could you go wrong? I do have to say that the 8 minute drum solo was a bit unnecessary but he more than made up for it with the tunes. Thanks elfin one.

Iron Maiden…what else needs to be said about these Masters of all that is Metal. This show was billed as a return to their roots and it sure lived up to it. Opening with the intro from “Number of the Beast” as well as the backdrop to the aforementioned album they exploded on to the stage with the title track from the now classic album. One thing I found strange about the “Number…”backdrop was that the little priest was absent from the art. Is Maiden getting PC in their old age? No matter because they quickly stepped it up into “The Trooper,” then “Die With Your Boots On,” followed by “Revelations.” With each song the backdrop changed to reflect the album that that song was pulled from. Sweet!!!! Bruce Dickinson seems to be in tiptop form, prancing and kicking as usual. These guys are all business. There was a bit of a lull in the performance when they decided to pull out a 9-minute rendition of “The Clansman,” which is not even Dickinson era Maiden. And, the 10-minute history lesson didn’t help either. What the F, play a fucking song already! They made it up to me by encoring with “2 Minutes to Midinight” and “Running Free.” Though I would have preferred to hear “Aces High” or “Rime…” instead of some of the newer Maiden numbers, you can’t have everything. Great show!