September 30, 2022 Iron Maiden
I felt a press of human flesh surround me. Energy pulsed through the crowd and we moved with an ebb and flow as music filled the air. A sudden push and we moved closer to the front. The crowd behind pushed hard and I held my ground and stood like a pillar in the chaos.
Except I was too small to be any more than a pebble in the wave of the chaotic mosh pit.
***Three hours earlier***
We arrived at the arena in Spokane just after 6:00 pm. The doors to the show opened up and we stood in the queue to await our turn. My British friends called it a queue anyway. We laughed as we stood in line in anticipation of the upcoming concert.
Iron Maiden was playing in Spokane for the first time since 1987. The city was alive with excitement.
When we got our tickets they said GA3, I worried that we would not get to the front because they had separated the floor with GA1, 2, and 3. But when we walked into the venue the floor was wide open, with a crowd forming at the front it looked like if we went off to one side we could get pretty close. I saw them in Calgary before covid and managed to get really close to the front of the stage but off to the side.
This time my friends went straight to the middle of the floor and stood in anticipation. It would be at least an hour before the opening act took the stage and then another 2 hours until Iron Maiden performed. Time can be subjective, standing waiting for a concert made time flow like the crowd that grew around us.
The next thing we knew the lights went down and the opening act Trivium took the stage with a thunder of sound.
That’s when the crowd pressed forward and the energy level ramped up to the rafters. Lights flashed and the music pulsed in our ears and through our bodies.
Out of nowhere came two guys who pushed everyone aside and began to bounce off everyone in the middle of the crowd.
Just like that, we were in the mosh pit.
My friends and I pushed our way forward and to the right. It was all I could do to stay on my feet and not get swept away. There were a couple of big guys who pushed back at the two neanderthals that barged into the middle.
It was intense.
The music was lost for a moment as the crowd surged and pushed. I moved with the bodies that were surging in unison. Before I knew what was happening I was almost to the front of the crowd. The stage was only four people away and the music was in full heavy metal intensity. I didn’t know the opening act but their music was heavy and loud.
And the mosh pit rolled on.
It was all we could do to stay away from the worst of the pressing bodies. I kept getting pushed forward and at times I worried I would be split up with my friends. Margaret held onto my shoulders and her husband David held onto her. There we were, three friends moving with the mass of human flesh.
And the bodies flowed to the music.
It was a workout just keeping up and staying in place. More people pushed forward but we had our spot.
And we weren’t losing the space we had gained.
Soon the opening act was over and there was a respite in the madness. I needed to go to the bathroom and prepared myself to find my way out of the crowd. But the big guy next to us looked back at the sea of people and laughed, “if you leave, you aren’t getting back.”
So I stayed.
I let go of nature’s call and stayed in front of the massive crowd. I was excited to see Iron Maiden again; this time, it would be from front and centre. Before we knew it the lights went down and the music went up.
The energy of the crowd was at an 11 on an intensity level out of 10. And the music lifted us to another level again. I felt my body and my spirit soar with the songs. The crowd continued its push but we managed to stay out of the worst of the mosh pit.
Right behind us people were still pushing and rushing each other. Amazingly, when someone fell, the people in the mosh pit would stop and help that person back to their feet. I stood with only four people from the stage and leaned each way around the head of a tall young guy whose hair bounced upwards toward the roof.
I got pushed into his back and suddenly he turned. I worried for a brief second if was he going to be mad at me. Then like some sort of scene from a movie he looked past me at the mosh pit and suddenly just pushed his way toward the other people pushing each other.
Just like that I was third to the stage and had an unobstructed view of Bruce Dickinson and the rest of the members of Iron Maiden.
I felt a rock ‘n roll glory, every beat of the drum and pick of the guitar lifted my spirit to another level. It was a tribal connection between the crowd and the band. There was no fear and no hesitation, everyone was there to share in the exaltation of the musical ecstasy.
And the music rocked and rolled on into the night.
I couldn’t believe the energy of the band members who are at least in their sixties. Incredibly they do this at least five days a week for months on end. I could only hope to be in that kind of shape. Iron Maiden is that much more impressive that all the members were in the band thirty years ago and five of them were with the band in 1984. That’s 38 years of rocking hard, and the crowd was filled with people who weren’t even born back then.
They played four encore songs and ended the show the way they started the one I saw in Calgary in 2019. An inflatable British Spitfire circa WWII flew over the stage while the band played the song Aces High.
The music flowed into the night and the connection I felt was one I won’t soon forget. For two hours on a beautiful fall evening in the city of Spokane music took me to another dimension.
Here are a couple videos from where we were standing at the show.
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