Aug 19, 2017 23:57:31 GMT -6

Blaze Bayley
Support: Cadillac Blood
Date: Saturday August 19th, 2017
Venue: Rockpile West in Toronto, Ontario

I ended up getting to the venue way too early. I'm not even sure why I wanted to be early in any way shape or form to this show. The Rockpile disgusts me. I've been here once before and I fucking hated it. And I knew that there were only local bands opening the shows on this tour and that anything they were bringing out would likely suck ass. But the smells of disgusting bar food were really, really good tonight.

Turns out there was only one opening act at this show: some local band called Cadillac Blood. They weren't entirely terrible bar metal. But they're nothing I ever want to hear again in my life and they played for way too long (close to forty-five minutes, despite not having forty-five minutes of material).

I've never been a huge Iron Maiden fan, let alone their dark years with Blaze Bayley singing for them. So I'm not sure what made me come out tonight? My friend Andy said I should go and I told him I would if the show was less than forty dollars. I think it cost twenty-two so there I was. It was a pretty small crowd of diehards and...troopers. So I went into this show with expectations that were less than zero and was pleasantly surprised. Despite playing to a crowd of less than fifty people Blaze and his band gave it their all. Some would call it "sad" or go in with the mindset to laugh at the guy who failed so hard as Iron Maidens singer. But I admire him for doing his thing despite all the hurdles he’s faced. He seemed like a really good guy. And I actually liked his songs. It’s not a style of metal I particularly care for. Some of the ones at the start of the set were really good. It figures my favourite song he played was an Iron Maiden song called Futureal, which I’d never heard before. But I found myself liking all his solo stuff better than all the rest of the Iron Maiden stuff he played. The only song I didn’t really care for was the one Wolfsbane song called Man Hunt that they played (that was his band prior to joining Iron Maiden). I'd never buy any of his albums but for twenty dollars it was nice to go to a different kind of bar show.

Maybe someday I'll go and see that other band he used to sing in live.

Blaze Bayley
1. Endure and Survive
2. Escape Velocity
3. Futureal (Iron Maiden song)
4. Blood
5. Silicone Messiah
6. Fight Back
7. Virus (Iron Maiden song)
8. Calling You Home
9. Stare at the Sun
10. The Clansman (Iron Maiden song)
11. Man Hunt (Wolfsbane song)
12. Man on the Edge (Iron Maiden song)
13. Dark Energy 256
[encore]
14. Lord of the Flies (Iron Maiden song)
15. A Thousand Years

Blaze Bayley








Cadillac Blood