Somewhere back in time: THE PLIGRIMAGE

I won't write this one with sapota, my alter ego is too minuscule, when you are talking something as Juggernaut as IRON MAIDENS themselves. There are times in life, when death seems bigger than life and Iron maiden are the masters of death. These are those moments where you think life is worth being given away. Nothing could be bigger or better than this, Insane bliss served in a plate in front of your own eyes. Although I have seen Maidens before, but trust me this one was Mightier and this time they were IRON MAIDEN to the core and they were in groove, and when Maidens are in groove they are merciless and ruthless. I am still in that mist around me, which is revolving round my head and everything seems repeating somewhere on a faded screen.

There are times when your patience has gone for a toss, your cool quotient goes into negativity and anxiety takes you over. I don't have tickets with me and I was waiting for my friend, who ought to have tickets(Thank you Raseel for the tickets and for the great company), my mind was making all forms of stories of mishaps happening around me and me missing the show. Today no hottie could have taken my attention away, I was just in the mood of being drowned in that flood of blood. I saw all forms of devotees wearing all forms of weirdest clothing(I would rather say they were hip and cool.) one can imagine, all possible rock band T-shirts and all Iron Maiden T-shirts manufactured till date.Unlike last time we didn't go inside to see that torture called as Lauren Harris and we even didn't go to see Parikrima, we just waited them to finish. I would say this has saved a loads of torture we suffered last year.

Bombay is not usually cold or something, but this time it was colder and wind was blowing, but inside with strong audience it didn't felt that much. Stage was dark and some veil was covering Maiden art, but it was mostly visible because of the that useless veil. Suddenly they played some song with initial drum thumping, people started shouting and all, thinking it was Maiden, but sooner everyone starting swearing for creating this false drama. Inception of gods is always wonderful and when you know they are here, you are awe-stuck. Two giant screen, both showing video of fighter planes from world war 2 and damn it, you this goddamn riff, Oh Mah Fuking God this is "ACES HIGH", Gods are here; As soon as lights are switched on you see Bruce running here and there madly, Crowd roar in joy, jumping, head banging , air guitaring, all devotees are offering their initial offerings to the deities. I can't believe my eyes all KNIGHTS of metal there standing right in front of my eyes, second time; my joy has multiplied more times than i can count. Before you can think anything, here comes another killer "2 minutes to midnight", Oh my god, entire band is standing lined up and playing it in killer fashion, flawlessly. After the song Bruce starts talking, you love him when he talks, what a frontman!!! His first sentence is "How are you Mumbai?" and audience screams madly. Then he takes out his cap and while rubbing his hairs he says something to which audience laughs hard. Bruce Dickinson is known for his fantastic English sense of humor in which he mixes audience pretty well. This time Bruce was wearing some short jacket over some shirt or something and wearing a trouser with many patched pieces of cloth like leaves on a tree; this reminds me of one of the greatest maiden concert live after death, in fact "Somewhere back in time" was no lesser. The next song which they played was "Revelation", Oh my fucking lord please have mercy on my soul, I could not recognize this one and felt like killing my self for this grave sin. In fact not much were able to recognize it either, I began to understand that this time Maidens are on killing spree and playlist is going to be insane. In between the song Bruce raised his hands to indicate something, I don't know what am i suppose to do, I have never seen this song live before. not just me but entire crowd was lost, none of them were familiar with this one. Next song was Tropper and Bruce was running maddly with Union Jack, waving it all across and singing on the raised thin platform on the stage. He did one insane thing this time, he threw union jack across the stage and it stuck as if were suppose to be held there. One funny incident happened that the flag got stuck somewhere and it got torn, but Bruce is smart enough, he managed it pretty well. Now here came his Signature cry " SCREAM FOR ME MUMBAI" , with all my might and force I screamed madly and so did everyone. Then he started making some English jokes and crowd looked here and there, since they seemed least familiar with english humor.
Next came "run to the hills" and "number of beast" in a row my heart sank with joy. In between you can see Janick Gers moving guitar around his body insanely, Oh man what a site. Next Bruce came with a large mask, he looked like some prehistoric nordic creature, he sung Powerslave entirely with that mask on. Now he started talking about this tour and his love with India and a city called as Bombay, which he read in some book. Finally he said that next song is about a bird and is an old song and then he gave many hints, I knew that rime of ancient mariner is coming, Bruce came with bird like attire, I always wished to see this song live and this was like living in an intoxicated dream. Since it is a very long song and in-between this song literally stops and then some small leads and riffs plays for few seconds, crowd thought the song is finished, I thought "what the fuck!!!! what a fucking bunch of posers are here", they did not know this song??? anyway the song picked again and this time Andrain smith played some face melting solo. Next came Moonchild, the beginning of this song is awesome with Dave Murray opening song with acoustic guitar, "Seven deadly sins Seven ways to win Seven holy paths to hell And your trip begins Seven downward slopes Seven bloodied hopes Seven a re your burning fires Seven your desires". Bruce finished this song with his killer high note scream hitting fourth octave. Now he talks about wasted time and all and made a clear inception of Wasted Years. Next came this song which leaves people perplexed "Iron maiden cant be faught, Iron maiden cant be sought. Oh well, wherever, wherever you are, Iron maidens gonna get you, no matter how far. See the blood flow watching it shed up above my head. Iron maiden wants you for dead. " How fucking true, I wanted to offer my heart taken out with my own hands for such a great song, Thank you Maidens. This song is simple song but with Powerful operatic Vocals of Bruce Dickinson, song reaches its peak. They said we are leaving and you want us next year, I thought this is time for an encore, but sad enough Bombay fans were fucking lame, they don't know how to greet the Holy Maiden, bloody filthy wannabes, knows nothing about metal concerts and Eddfest rituals. And some one from crowd shouted "want my money back", I thought how dare you "fucking dirty slimy motherfucking son of a stinking whore" dishonor the GREATEST HEAVY METAL Act on the planet. I just wanted to chop of his balls and mince them and mix with blood from his dick and feed it to dirty swines.
Anyway, Maiden came back and this time they had come to give an ultra fatal dose of what is going to pop your eyes out. They started with Clairvoyant, Raseel went mad at this song, he almost felt like crying, man what a riff, Steve Harris was using his Bass guitar as Machine gun killing everyone in crowd, I stretched my hands and bow before him. Eddie came in between doing some tricks with Andrian Smith, wow!!! a 10 feet tall live Eddie. Then came this sublime and clean stick work of Nicko McBrain, Jesus christ!!! this is it!!! "The fear of the dark", the hand goes automatically in the air "ho ho ho ho" and then that killer lead you just start jumping and head banging. Bruce pushed it little higher with that typical Devilish laughter, I was mad in frenzy, what a vocalist. Next number was still a madder one, "Can I play with madness" , Oh God, I am still playing with it. Then Bruce started introduction asking some one from crowd his name, then he said every one can't be introduced, so he said all of you are maiden fans, and he introduced all band members one by one and finally himself. Then came the moment everyone waits for when Maidens are playing, "Hallowed be thy Name". Dave Murray played killer lead with his cute smile and effortless finger motion on his guitar. My neck was aching with whiplash, my throat was hoarse, my feets were killing me, but I sang and banged my head, both my hands raised in honor of gods. I sang and banged throughout the song as if it will never happen again. The concert came to end with band members throwing drum pads to audience and Adrian Smith doing acrobatics with his guitar madly. Oh Holy Goodness!!! what a concert ! I am in eternal bliss, I want to cry my heart out, I want to kneel on my knees and thank the beast for all its brutality. As my feet started moving towards the gate, I feel a heaviness, I am undergoing a trauma, a pain and a pleasure of memories, I am heavily under Post Gig Depression, I have no cure for this one. I am just waiting to some more heavy shit in near future to get out of this depression.