Iron Maiden Brings the Future Past to Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas

Chula Vista, CA may have gotten the first night of the US leg of The Future Past tour, but Las Vegas was lucky to get seconds; and they were anything but sloppy!

We got to our seats inside of the Michelob Ultra Arena nestled inside of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, enjoying the sounds of opening band The Hu. If you aren’t familiar, I’d suggest given them an honest listen. I personally am a sucker for when bands take their national instruments and blend them with metal, and The Hu do just that with their Mongolian throat singing, instruments, and stories through the music. The arena chanted “Hu! Hu! Hu!” as the band took a bow before leaving the stage.

This would be my third time seeing Iron Maiden, having seen them twice on The Book of Souls tour. So, when UFO’s “Doctor Doctor” kicked in on the sound system, I knew that the best was yet to come.

The stage set up was a fantastic blend of the futuristic Somewhere in Time style, futuristic, with the classic giant background the band uses for their video and background effects. On each side of the first screen, you could see the Eddie from both the Somewhere in Time album and the most recent, 2021’s Senjutsu, set up like they were about to fight Mortal Kombat style. It was only fitting that the band opened with “Caught Somewhere in Time”.

Iron Maiden sounded flawless as always. Singer Bruce Dickinson still hits the notes with ease, using his entire body as his instrument. Where other metal bands have obviously down tuned live, Maiden continues to play their songs live as they were written, which is pretty impressive. Besides the audial pleasure gracing our eardrums, the visuals when seeing Maiden are the best kind of assault on the senses. Their lighting is always on point but never abrasive and blinding.

On top of the stage set up, you never know what to watch because these guys never stop moving. Dickinson runs the length of the stage as if he is still in his 20s, interacting with the crowd and never missing his cue. Guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers trade off solos and riffs regularly, allowing the audience to watch everyone equally without feeling like you have to ping-pong your head back and forth. Bassist Steve Harris is my personal favorite to watch, but that’s my bias as a bassist myself who, when I began learning, went straight to trying to play my favorite Iron Maiden songs. The classic Harris bend and point of his bass to the crowd always brings joy to any Maiden fan’s face. Then there’s drummer Nicko McBrain; what a beast. I wish his kit was not as obstructed this tour, because watching him play is incredible. I think it is important to point out that after suffering a mini-stroke in January of 2023, McBrain is still going strong as if nothing happened at all, and if you weren’t aware, you’d never know.

Before jumping into “The Writing on the Wall” off of Senjutsu, Dickinson took a moment to thank the crowd for coming out, making them aware that this tour would be full of the recent and stuff from the past, but not full of the “hits”. “We do have songs other than ‘Run to the Hills’, you know.” he joked. This set was absolutely one for the die-hards. No “Run to the Hills”, no “Number of the Beast”, no “Powerslave”… A good chunk of the set was off of 2021s aforementioned album, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Dickinson made jokes about the Delorean vehicle, as the backdrop changed into a Back to the Future style time machine dashboard before breaking into “The Time Machine”, but what stuck with me the most from Dickinson’s crowd conversations is what came before “Death of the Celts” (which, if you didn’t think Harris was a badass, the dude played an acoustic bass on a gracie stand with his signature Fender Precision still on his person during the intro). Dickinson stopped to talk about the Celts still being around despite the mythos of their attempted eradication by the Romans and Saxons. He went on to say that culture does not die. Humans have been trying to wipe out other humans since the dawn of our existence, but thanks to our own personal cultures and stories, we press on.

As soon as the last note of “Death of the Celts” was played, the band took a trip to 1988’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son with “Can I Play with Madness”, which is one of my all-time favorite Maiden songs. The entire band vocal harmony just does something for me. Following “Can I Play with Madness”, they jumped back to Somewhere in Time with “Heaven Can Wait”, which had the entire crowd singing, as well as “Alexander the Great”. We even got an appearance from this album era’s Eddie. Any Maiden fan who doesn’t enjoy Eddie making a stage appearance to battle with Dickinson, in this case, with pyro guns, is a damn liar, and I question them being an actual fan.

It was then off to 1992 with the title track of Fear of the Dark, another favorite of mine. As the opening instrumental began, the entire crowd vocalized along. If you don’t know what I mean, head on over to YouTube and find any live performance of the song. It is incredible and chilling in the best way when the crowd becomes one voice.

The band closed out (prior to the encores) with the title track of their 1979 debut Iron Maiden, marking the nearing end of the almost two-hour show. We were then treated to “Hell on Earth” (another from Senjutsu) before a moment in any Maiden show that you look forward to. “The Trooper” was our one treat off of 1983’s Piece of Mind. The backdrop behind the band of course changed to the Trooper Eddie, flag in hand. Dickinson did not waive the British flag this time around, but the commanded the crowd regardless. When Bruce Dickinson says, “Scream for me, Las Vegas!” you fucking do as you’re told. Closing out the last song of the night was actually the first Iron Maiden song I ever learned how to play on bass, so needless to say, when “Wasted Years” began, it was emotional as well as literal music to my ears. It was equally fitting to end with another song off of Somewhere in Time since this tour seems to be a major nod to that album. As the crowd departed, as is tradition “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian played through the speakers, the crowd whistling along.

All in all, you can’t go wrong when you go to an Iron Maiden show. You aren’t going to be left disappointed. Sure, I wish I had heard “Children of the Damned” (Number of the Beast) or “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Powerslave), and I’m thoroughly convinced I’ll never get to hear “The Wicker Man” (Brave New World and the record that got me into Maiden as a kid) live, but I am not going to complain, because the set list was still incredible, and when you have a band with 45 years of recorded history, beggars cannot be choosers.

Iron Maiden is taking The Future Past around the US until mid-November before heading into Central and South America to wrap things up in December. From there, they will be bouncing over to Europe in 2025 for the Run for Your Lives World Tour, which I hope comes back around state-side, because there I will be again, and I already can’t wait.

Gallery.

Photo Credit: Live photos Courtesy of Iron Maiden/ Funhouse-Ent . Photographer John McMurtrie – Used with Permission- All Rights Reserved.

Fan Photo of Iron Maiden on stage courtesy of Stephanie Muzio used with permission- All Rights Reserved.