Iron Maiden / Alice Cooper @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto ON, July 13, 2012
By Kieran and Sean Palmerston ; Photos by Albert Mansour
As longtime readers of this webzine probably already realize, outside of running Hellbound.ca I am also married and have kids. Two of them, in fact, and the older one has started to appreciate some of dad’s music over the past few years. I wouldn’t say that my son is a huge metal fan, but for only being nine years old he has a few favourite albums and even owns a few CDs. One of those is Iron Maiden’s The Final Frontier.
I had an extra copy of it when it was released and he asked me for it so, being his dad, I told him he could have it. To this day he still claims it to be his favourite album, so when it was announced that Iron Maiden was coming to Toronto again on tour, plans were laid out to surprise him by taking him to the Toronto show. He only found out days before and was super excited to go.
This review is the recap of Kieran’s experience at his first major concert: Iron Maiden and special guest Alice Cooper at Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre earlier this summer…
Kieran on Alice Cooper: “I thought wow, this is really awesome! Honestly, his set was so good. The sound was loud but really clear – it was better than Iron Maiden. I heard every word that Alice Cooper sang. I was really amazed when my dad told me how old he was and that he could still perform so well. I think he is as old as my grandpa. I really liked his stage show. I thought it was amazing that the guillotine chopped off his head, but really didn’t chop off his head. Weird! I loved all the songs, but I really liked hearing “School’s Out” at the end of their concert, because it is the summer for me right now, between grades three and four. Sometimes we listen to Alice Cooper’s radio show on Y108. He’s a DJ too.”
Kieran on Iron Maiden: “Like I said, Alice Cooper was clearer sounding than Iron Maiden. They were too loud, my dad said it was distorting. I could barely hear the lyrics at all, which I didn’t like, but the music was really good. The stage set up that the band had was very, very artistic and good. I liked all of the special effects – the giant Eddie, the big amount of fire they used on the stage. All of that was pretty good. They played a few songs I know from my dad – “Running Free”, The Trooper” and “Run To The Hills” – but they didn’t play anything off my favourite album The Final Frontier and I was kinda pissed off about that. I still think all of their music is awesome, I guess, but I really like that album. About the whole show, I just loved it. My dad bought me a t-shirt, so I bought my brother some Iron Maiden buttons too. Thanks for taking me, dad, it was so awesome.”
I had given Kieran my iPod Touch to take pictures at the show, but most of them were of planes taking off from the nearby Toronto Island Airport, or out of focus pictures of the big screens at the Amphitheatre, so we will leave those ones out. Needless to say, I think young Kieran had a good time and now his little five year old brother has been asking if he can go next time too. Cripes.
