351. Iron Maiden / Den Bosch 27-11-2006 [Bootleg]. 2006. 4/5.

It had become habit forming in the first decade of the 2000’s to perform a concert that contained one of your own albums (or in Dream Theater’s case, someone else’s) in its entirety. Countless number of bands did it, and some did it with multiple albums over multiple tours. 

It was then no surprise when Iron Maiden announced that they would be performing their latest album, A Matter of Life and Death, in its entirety during their touring schedule of 2006. Perhaps the only surprise was that it was this album they chose to follow this path with. Sure, it meant that the band could actually play songs they had not worn out to death, and no doubt this came to them as a fresh idea that carried a lot of merit.
Of course, fans would no doubt have preferred to have heard Piece of Mind or Powerslave in their entirety. The slight downside with this choice was that, as an album, this can bit a bit slow and morbid in its subject matter and music. To be honest, if it had been me seeing this on tour, I would have felt a little bit ripped off, given there would be lots of other songs I’d have rather seen.

Still, getting back to the subject, this is a good quality audience bootleg from this show. From an interest perspective, it is an experience to hear an entire, newly released album played in its entirety. Generally you might get three, four, sometimes up to six new songs played at a gig, most of which will then never be played again on subsequent tours. Here, we have the entire album, and while the same result will be true for most of the songs, at least we have had the opportunity to hear them all live. 

Even if you weren’t entirely enamoured by the album, it is worth catching this to see the difference the songs take on in their live setting. And if you didn’t see the tour (we in Australia did not) then it is probably the only time you’ll ever hear them played live. 

Rating:  An interesting piece worth listening to at least once.  4/5.