It’s a hot and sticky summer day in San Antonio, Texas. As you walk out from your air-conditioned hotel foyer into the sweltering outdoors, possibly to head down the road to The Alamo, where famously took a drunken piss many years ago, the effect is like being subsumed in hot custard. The natives, as you might imagine, behave as if temperatures that edge towards the 100 degrees mark are the most normal thing in the world.
The British, however, are stopped in their tracks and compelled to pull stunned, slightly alarmed faces. It’s seriously bastard hot here and were it not for the fact that Iron Maiden are in town and about to hit the stage at the AT&T Center, one of the city’s major indoor venues, would probably be found cowering in a jumbo-sized refrigerator somewhere, in between bottles of Mexican beer. But this is the third show of the metal titans’ brand new tour; a tantalising precursor to the release of their 15th album, , and every self-respecting metalhead from the surrounding area understands their solemn duty.
Sixteen thousand of them are crammed into the venue and making a vast amount of noise, primed by support act and whipped up to fever pitch by the simple fact that there is no such thing as a half-arsed Iron Maiden gig. In keeping with the science-fiction vibes of the new album’s artwork and lyrical themes, show kicks off with a suitably space-orientated intro and some ominous, otherworldly lighting, before guitarist marches out onto the stage playing.
