Quick, somebody pass this on to Mel Lastman...

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I was somewhere back in time...

March 16th marked the day I officially travelled back in time; to 1986 (?) when I last saw Iron Maiden in concert.

My wife, at her brilliant gift idea best, bought me a couple tickets to see Iron Maiden for their stop in Toronto.

Of course, I don't don't have my black leather jacket anymore. My long hair is now cropped short. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd look out of place at the show; the answer, was definitely not.

The majority of fans obviously still wear the 'eadbangers uniform in all it's permutations, but the crowd was a great mix of fans old and surprisingly young. It was really neat to see families out at the show... something I don't remember seeing 22 years ago.

So, how would the band's performance hold up after all these years? Of course you could expect that the Adrian Smith and Dave Murray would still be as good as ever on guitar, and that Nicko wouldn't lose his ability to play drums, and for that matter, Steve Harris still plays what to me is the best bass guitar in all of rock and roll and heavy metal. Being pro musicians, these are not skills you would expect they would let slip away.

So the real question becomes: How does Bruce Dickinson's voice stand up to the test of time? The answer to that is almost unbelievably, amazingly well.

If any aspect of the show could have the potential to diminish the overall performance of the band, it would be the state of Bruce's pipes, and I'm happy to report that they are quite intact.

When you consider that Toronto also marked the end of the tour (or at least, this leg of it) and that Bruce has been his been belting out his air-raid-siren-envying best for as many shows as he has, then it's really astounding.

In short, the show was awesome.

I responded by turning back into the howling-screaming metal-head fan version of Rob that my wife hadn't been introduced to yet. I don't think she wants to come with me to the summer stop that Bruce hinted at (I made her come to this one as payback for insisting I attend a David Gray show with her), but I definitely want to go myself.