Yes, British heavy metal at its best, Iron Maiden: pretentious, loud, literary and earnest (they read out portions of Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”), and fit as fiddles after 30 years of touring. They began the show with a speech by Winston Churchill (“we shall never surrender!”) while showing images from the Battle of Britain on the jumbotron screens. The last time I saw the famous brummies was 1987, when I was a Junior in high school. It’s good to see that they’re still touring, still in great shape, and still having a lot of fun (comparing themselves to Spinal Tap, at one point in the evening). Here are some pictures from the show taken by E-Verse consultant and friend Andy, who accompanied us as observer. We gathered beforehand for an Iron Maiden happy hour at the Khyber before embarking for Camden on the ferry.

Maiden Voyage: Rich and Keith throw up the devil’s horns

The HMS Iron Maiden: You didn’t think they would turn up in a plain old tour bus . . .

Horns up and pints down

Lights up, guitars up, bass WAY up

Here they are, with THREE guitarists, all on 11

Tom, the E-Verse bartender, was also there, but he managed to get much closer to the stage for these shots

Obstructed View: Rich, Keith, and Ernie blocking Andy’s view of the stage

During “The Trooper” (a song based on the Tennyson poem “Charge of the Light Brigade,” about the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, in which they take the poet’s Dactylic rhythm literally), Bruce Dickenson pulled out the Union Jack (click on the picture below to watch the classic video)

Flight of Icarus One, the ascent (click on picture below to watch the video)

Flight of Icarus Two, the landing

Eddie as Mummy for the song “Powerslave”

Back to Philly on the ferry

Serenity of moonlight on water . . . we’ll pretend this is how the night ended