I go to the club around 5:45pm, walked in, and sat down. There were a bunch of metal guys in from of me at the bar, as I sat in the back waiting for Bob Ward(Bruce's Manager) to show up. He said he wasn't sure where Bruce was and that sound check should be in a couple of minutes. As I was sitting there with my brother, Adrian cruised on by and through the double doors to the front of the club. We followed through the doors trying to see where he was. My brother went to the bathroom and came out and said, "I think he's taking a dump." Good enough, I waited then I went in to relieve my self when, in the midst of urination he walks out and like an idiot I said, "Hey Adrian."(like we were old buddies) He said, "Hey!" I felt like an idiot, but would soon forget about it. Anyway we resumed our seats in the club and we heard someone playing guitar. After about 15 minutes of that the person stood up and it was Adrian playing the classic Les Paul. He played some Eric Johnson and other odds and ends. After another 30min of getting up and looking for Bob and waiting with baited breath until finally Bruce just walked on stage and was chirping on the microphone. Finally, the sound check! They played "Accident of Birth." Midway through the song, Bruce jumped off the stage and was 2 feet away from us checking the sound. I was in awe! Anyway, after the song, the sound check was over and they exited stage left. My brother and I then went outside to await the interview(Stay tuned for the transcript in the next week).
The first band played was a local band. They called them selves Division. No one really cared for them, except for their friends that were there to cheer for them. Personally, they were far from good and good from afar.
Next was Geezer. I was kind of looking forward to seeing them, since I was a big Sabbath fan from the old days(I'm only 25 so not from the real old days). The rumors around were that Geezer were some type of death metal band or something of the sort. Needless to say once I heard the first note I knew they would suck and sure enough they did. There were no positives from their set except for when they said "good night!"
There was about 400 people packed in the Jaxx and all were eagerly anticipating the show. After about 30 minutes of restructuring the gear, Bruce hit the stage, which was around midnight. Of course, they played the exact set list on the US tour except for one song, which I will mention later. The show fired up with, "Accident of Birth," which was so powerful, it made my arse vibrate. On the next song Toltec/Star Children, this is when the fireworks started. Bruce had watched some gentleman punch his way to the front and with an intense look on his face you could tell Bruce was pissed. Suddenly, Bruce said, "You're a d*!# head!" Then he went on the beat the piss out the guy with the microphone. I think it was about 4 to 5 punches. Bruce's microphone was a little damaged but came back into the song at the chorus with out missing a beat. After the song, Bruce asked if everyone in the front was ok and went on to say that the guy had hit him in the mouth, so that is why he punched him. Then the crowd went crazy, when Bruce introduced Mr. Smith and "2 Minutes to Midnight." The rest of the set list followed the one he was using on the US tour, until the first encore. Bruce came out and said, "we are not a maiden cover band, we do this because we want to." Then he asked the band if they still remembered it and introduced it by saying, "we have played this since the European tour." And they played "Run to the hills." That was great. No one missed a note. They followed with, "Flight of Icarus," which again, was incredible. For the final encore Bruce called the Geezer band to the stage and invited them to see who could jump the longest while they played "Laughing in the hiding bush." Bruce actually ended up jumping and singing most of the song and out lasted everyone else. The final song was, "The Prisoner." Again, it was great!
Some other little sayings of Bruce was during the middle of the show Bruce said that Geezer gave Roy Z. some advice which was if you eat a lot of bananas then he would end up looking like Geezer. Roy did eat about 4 bananas that night. Also, before 'Road to hell," Bruce said that when they were deciding whether or not to include this song on the CD, two guys came down to get there autograph and they played them the song and they said the song rocks, so Bruce and Adrian decided to put it on the CD.
They ended up playing about an hour and a half. At the end of the show there was about 100 people standing outside of the tour bus and the security guy said it would be another 20 minutes before they came out. That's when I decided to call it a night and drive back home, which was only 90 minutes, but the other two bands drained the life out of me. Crappy bands do that to me.
The sound was good though at times Bruce was drowned out by the crowd, but overall it was fabulous. For most of the night. Bruce was standing on the makeshift wood guard rail, with the help of the fans. He did wear the infamous tight shorts, but you really could only see him from the chest up even when he was on the guard rail. When he introduced Adrian, he said, "if the stage was 3 feet taller you could see Adrian." I do not think anyone thought they(Bruce and Adrian) were that short. What a show.
The interview hopefully will be up by next week.
Here is the set list Set List:
Accident of Birth
Toltec 7 / Starchildren
2 Minutes to Midnight
Darkside of Aquarius
The Magician
Road to Hell
Tattooed Millionaire
Tears of the Dragon
Powerslave
----Encore----
Run To The Hills
Flight of Icarus
----Encore----
Laughing in the Hiding Bush
The Prisoner