I was banging out to Iron Maiden at Wacken last night, live-streamed on arte. It was fully metal. 80,000 in a rain-soaked and muddy field so loud they drowned out Maiden’s amp stacks. Around 11:30pm in their encore, Bruce Dickenson is doing his intro for Blood Brothers, “… it doesn’t matter what religion you are, doesn’t matter what race you are, doesn’t matter what gender you are …” pauses there then says, “there used to be two, now there’s a few more.” Fucking majestic. Iron Maiden, at Wacken, in front of 80,000 metalheads and live-streamed to the world, saying that. Followed it up with “we’re just here to drink beer and headbang! Plus brown rice!” Then Nicko McBrain led everyone in a round of Happy Birthday for Bruce.
