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Iron Maiden rocks the Paramount. Really.
A guy stood up in the front row, peeled off his shirt and swung it above his head tonight at the Paramount. A movie was playing. On the giant screen was a thrashing metal concert. Iron Maiden was performing “Number of the Beast” in the loud and engrossing documentary “Iron Maiden: Flight 666.” The guy suddenly believed he was in Tokyo or Mumbai or Mexico City or wherever the film was at that point and simply had to rock.
The show drew a surprisingly big crowd of black-T-shirt-sporting (not a surprise) enthusiasts, including about 30 members of the official Iron Maiden fan club, who were, of course, the show’s special guests.
The gist, via SXSW’s description: In a “customized Boeing 757 with 12 tons of equipment and 70 crew, Maiden traveled over 40,000 miles in just 45 days playing sold-out concerts from India to Los Angeles to the tip of South America.”
The upshot is a classic backstage concert doc, with scads of live footage judiciously edited for maximum punch and minimal boredom. Bandmates, now in their 50s, prove funny and smart and human.
We witness the rigors of touring: the jet-lag, the excruciating logistics, the play, the fans and how they differ in manners and passion from nation to nation (Latin Americans are the most fiery and demanding and adoring).
We hear all the best older songs, watch fire-bombs billow and mushroom during “Number of the Beast” and follow perpetual motion machine Bruce Dickinson’s calisthenic theatrics during “The Trooper” and “Aces High.”
Also: We see Adrian Smith play tennis and Nico McBrain play golf. That kind of stuff.
And this: The pilot of the 757 is singer Dickinson himself.
Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn directed the rock doc. You know you’re in able hands, because they also made the essential doc “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey”, which world-premiered at SXSW in 2006.
“Flight 666” screens again at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Austin Convention Center.
Steve Harris: bassist, mensch, madman.
Right HERE for details about the film and its Saturday screening.
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By Rod
March 20, 2009 12:00 PM | Link to this
Could not make it as I still have a job. I stumbled onto Maiden in the winter of 1977 as a 12yo out drnking with some friends. We were pub hopping and came by the Bridgehouse in London and Maiden was playing, they actually were using keyboards then but were good none the less. I have seen them probably 25 times or more since then and always enjoyed their shows as they are very good in concert. I took my kids to their shows and recently took a couple of my grandkids as well.
Up The Irons