PRO SHOT - Blaze’s last show Maiden, Brazil 1998

[joey78]

https://youtu.be/pYTnCnkwD9c?si=6q9pO0fAvjuwzdyB

Amazing show . Pure gold . The whole band is on fire .

Everyone in the band - except Blaze - knew it was their last show with him .

[BernieTaupson]

Off key from the first song.

What is reeallllll
Futu reallllll

Every time.

[BernieTaupson]

Next song : The Angel and the Gambler.

Often bands will trim the fat of studio excesses for the live versions. Not here, as they have that annoying Casio keyboard pumping away throughout the song. Steve Harris was delusional thinking a song like this would work as a single in the late 90s.

Oh fuck, we’ve entered the death spiral of the “don’t you think I’m a saviour” part.

RIP.

[BernieTaupson]

Must be discouraging losing all your hair as a young guy. I’m not sure how old Blaze is here but he’s hiding his follicles under a black cap. And his slightly paunchy belly under a black shirt.

He keeps banging his hands together and pulling grotesque faces like Gene Simmons.

They’re still repeating the chorus three minutes later, so my mind is wandering.

[BernieTaupson]

Thank god they wrapped it up.

Man on the Edge.

The car is an oven and baking is wild.

First heard this on Best of the Beast. It’s like an even more irritating Be Quick Or Be Dead.

Man, Blaze is woefully out of tune on this. This was the tour he got in-ears so he could hear the band better. Shouldn’t have bothered.

Faaalling dooown
Falling doooownnn

Gers is standing looking at the crowd over his shoulder like an 80s prostitute.

Song ends with Blaze pulling a face like he just got electrocuted.

[BernieTaupson]

Lightning Strikes Twice

One of the better songs of the Blaze era.

Blaze enunciating the intro like he’s Dr Sam Beckett in that episode of Quantum Leap when he jumps into that retarded kid.

The whole thing just sounds like a thumpy mess. Maybe I’m confused and this isn’t one of the better songs of the Blaze era.

[BernieTaupson]

Steve Harris clearly wants to be a guitarist not a bassist as he’s been strumming chords with his fingertips the entire show. He clearly also wants to be a singer because he stands on the edge of the stage moving his mouth like one of those Christmas nutcracker soldier men.

[Anthrax442]

I'd actually like to have a cleaned up version of this. Blaze always did great with Afraid to Shoot Strangers.

[BernieTaupson]

Big low synthy intro leading into Heaven Can Wait. They overplayed this after Adrian left and it sounded like shit every time. The whole thing is an excuse to bring out the fan club for that silly chant in the middle.

They could have brought out the fan club to sing lead vocals and it would have been an improvement. Blaze just cannot sing this. Chorus totally out of key and he can’t keep up during the verses. Keeping this in the set past rehearsals is just batshit insane. Blaze should have refused to sing it.

Ok, bunch of Maidentards have run out for the chant as expected. Steve’s bass tech always plants himself right behind him as a shield so the fans don’t push into him.

Fuck, Blaze is butchering these vocals.

The prancer swinging his guitar around at the end of the song. He did that a few years ago and it slipped and flew out into the audience.

[BernieTaupson]

Blaze speaking to the crowd for the first time to introduce The Clansman. Blaze looks seriously unhinged when he’s trying to get the audience to cheer. He reminds me of the Alien Bounty Hunter from the X-Files.

One of five Blaze songs Bruce would sing after he came back. Clansman, Sign of the Cross, Futureal, Man on the Edge and Lord of the Flies.

[FreddyFender]

The Angel and The Gambler has to be about Steve Harris losing a bet to some Romanian Gypsy and being forced to hire Blaze as punishment.

Should have brought back Dianno.

[BernieTaupson]

How many fucking reprises and false endings and codas and outros does one song need, holy shit. Get on with the next one.

When Two Worlds Collide.

One of the better songs of the Blaze era.

“For the hundredth time I check the declination”

The rhyme system in the verses is just goofy.

Sounds like someone has a Wah Wah on during the Maiden gallop. Just sounds weird.

Maybe I’m confused and this isn’t one of the better songs of the Blaze era.

[BernieTaupson]

Two Minutes To Midnight with Gers mangling the intro, he never palm mutes it right.

Blaze can’t sing this. It’s painful. He sounds like a baahing sheep during the chorus.

[BernieTaupson]

Oh fuck. Sign of the Cross. Another snoozefest incoming.

[BernieTaupson]

Bruce had a stage gimmick of a cross that he would be lifted up on to sing Sign of the Cross during the Brave New World tour but it reportedly broke during the Rock In Rio show, so it’s not on the DVD. There’s a big pause and a big clanking noise before they play the song that they left on the DVD.

[HueyRamone]

The whole band is on fire .

lol. the whole band includes Blaze. You're out of your mind. You've been left in an oven car and baking is wild.

[BernieTaupson]

Afraid to Shoot Strangers : one of the few old songs that Blaze could sing.

[BernieTaupson]

Hallowed Be Thy Name : One of the many old songs that Blaze can’t sing.

[BernieTaupson]

Fuck that was brutal and it got worse and worse. He tried to hold the big note like Bruce at the end and it wasn’t in tune.

Say what you want about Tony Martin, Cherone, Ripper Owens, Anal Painey-OuchOuch … at least those guys could sing the back catalogue properly, which is 90% of the job when you join an existing band.

[BernieTaupson]

The Evil That Men Do :

Someone needs to spit on him. This is fucking embarrassing.

Walk On Eddie wearing the stupid Maiden football jersey. They repurposed the same one into the Ed Hunter walk on Eddie and then again for the BNW tour after they realized the walk on Wickerman Eddie they built just looked fucking stupid. It had big flailing straw arms like a scarecrow wearing pajamas.

[BernieTaupson]

Fear of the Dark :

The only song the crowd has been into.

He was quite good at the intro but has completely lost it by the chorus.

[BernieTaupson]

Iron Maiden :

He can’t sing Dianno stuff either. Maybe he just can’t sing in general.

Interesting he only did one introduction, and that was for Clansman.

The finale Ed for this tour was like the SIT inflatable one, they had inflatable hands on the sides of the stage and lowered this big goofy inflatable head down from the ceiling. It keeps bouncing around and looks more like a Mr Potato Head.

A fitting way to end a disastrous show.

Pity about the vocals because musically you couldn’t really fault it, Gers aside.

[BernieTaupson]

Oh fuck there’s more.

NOTB. Trooper.

To be expected. Shit.

[BernieTaupson]

Sanctuary.

Blaze attempting to be a front man and get the crowd chanting at the end. You just feel sorry for him really.

End of review.

[GoodJudge]

Blaze attempting to be a front man and get the crowd chanting at the end. You just feel sorry for him really.

Last week I listened to Wolfsbane's live album Massive Noise Injection - which I was at the recording of - and it was all kinds of great. But it's obvious that although his level of frontmanship worked very well in a club (The Marquee held about 750/800 iirc) it wouldn't ever translate to arenas and stadiums. He'd have had to radically change his style, and he couldn't.

I've never actually listened to Blaze-Maiden: at the time I was pissed off with him breaking up one of my then-fave bands, and since then I've read little but negativity. Even though Bernie, in general, is about as curmudgeonly as the late and unlamented twat Michelish, he's probably right here.

[Zander]

I've never actually watched an entire Bayley-era Maiden show from start to end even though there's no shortage of those on Youtube, only selected bits here and there and they were enough to convince that Bayley was very out of his depth.

But thanks to Bernie, his rundown of this gig was probably much more entertaining than the actual footage .

[LurkingAtWork]

I've never actually watched an entire Bayley-era Maiden show from start to end even though there's no shortage of those on Youtube, only selected bits here and there and they were enough to convince that Bayley was very out of his depth.

But thanks to Bernie, his rundown of this gig was probably much more entertaining than the actual footage .

Agreed. Highly entertaining thread!

[JizzySynatra]

After finally getting around to listening to the first Wolfsbane album, it would have made more sense if Blaze joined Van Halen and Cherone joined Maiden

[HueyRamone]

After finally getting around to listening to the first Wolfsbane album, it would have made more sense if Blaze joined Van Halen and Cherone joined Maiden

Cherone def seems boring enough to get along with Steve, Adrian and Dave

[BernieTaupson]

I've never actually watched an entire Bayley-era Maiden show from start to end even though there's no shortage of those on Youtube, only selected bits here and there and they were enough to convince that Bayley was very out of his depth.

But thanks to Bernie, his rundown of this gig was probably much more entertaining than the actual footage .

Agreed. Highly entertaining thread!

Happy to review something else, as long as it’s not absolute dogshit.