Girl at the Rock Shows

Welp, for better or for worse, I survived my trip to Las Vegas over the weekend for the When We Were Young festival. It was a whirlwind and a fantastic time with some amazing friends. It was hard to come back to reality, but luckily, I had a massive show the night after I got back to help me get back into the swing of things. Sure, after being in the crowds of Las Vegas for nearly five days, being in a massive, sold-out arena show was not quite exactly what I wanted, but I knew I was about to be given a show that was sure to make me forget about being stuck in such a massive crowd of people when all I really wanted was to be alone.

Mongolian folk-metal band The HU (pronounced as “The Who”) was the first and only opener for the sold-out show at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul on Tuesday night. This is an interesting band and one that, although I don’t listen to on the daily, will always go see live when given the chance. They are, first and foremost, a metal band with symphonic metal tendencies and a load of energy that makes their performances engaging and exciting, but that’s not what sets them apart from the rest in this oversaturated field. They are one of a kind because of their use of traditional Mongolian instrumentation including the morin khurr, the tovshuur, and all the way to, you guessed it, throat singing. Yeah, it’s a bit bizarre, but the way this band incorporates these otherwise “weird” sounds into their more standard metal sound is genuinely genius.

The HU kicked their nine-song set off with “Gereg” and instantly caught the audience’s attention. I’m sure there were some there who had no clue what was about to happen and were a bit confused throughout the first track, but by the time this band closed out their set with “This Is Mongol,” it was clear that they had won nearly everyone in the sold-out arena over. What I really like about this band is their almost intimidating energy. Beyond that traditional outfits and the weird drone of that aforementioned throat singing, there’s just something oddly larger than life about this band. My fear, with them opening up this massive show, was that their sound and performance wouldn’t fill the room, but it quickly became apparent that The HU had no problem filling such a giant space. It didn’t matter where you were sitting in the arena; you felt the power and uniqueness of this band all the way down to your bones, and it made for the perfect opening set for the legends who were about to take the stage.

A lot of my friends had parents who grew up in the heavy metal scenes of the 80s. Because of this, my friends grew up listening to the legends like Dio, Sabbath, and Priest. I am not one of those people. That being said, I know the major players and know that time is fleeting, so when Iron Maiden announced their show, I knew I had to be there because, even though I don’t have the history with this band as many others do, I know that I owe a lot to this band because, when it comes down to it, they really paved the wave for so many of the bands that I listen to daily. This is why, as the house lights went down and “Doctor Doctor” by UFO started pumping through the speakers, I couldn’t help but jump out of my seat, excited about what was to come.

Iron Maiden are kings—heavy metal royalty. There’s no other way to put it. Fronted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson, Maiden have been doing their thing since 1975. Although there have been many changes both within this band and throughout the world since then, they are still on top and proved that with their performance on Tuesday night.

I may have been dragging and, quite frankly, exhausted, but seeing 66-year-old Bruce Dickinson literally storm the stage and seeing the energy that guitarist Janick Gers was giving made me forget about any aches I still had in my body after my weekend in Vegas and the fact that I was truly exhausted. For a bunch of old men, this band felt fresh and energized in a way that even some of the younger bands I saw at When We Were Young over the weekend didn’t, and even though I couldn’t sing along to the fifteen-song set like those around me, I felt utterly enraptured by Iron Maiden’s performance from the beginning to the very end.

Many things struck me about Iron Maiden’s performance on Tuesday night. The first was how Bruce Dickinson took some time before playing “The Time Machine” to mention (and dedicate the track to) original vocalist Paul Di’Anno, who sadly passed just a day prior. It was a touching tribute to a hell of a vocalist who really put Iron Maiden on the path to success. The way he spoke about Paul was so perfectly delicate but also very much full of love and heart. I honestly wish I could say more about this, but it was one of those moments that was truly touching and clearly came from a place of love that radiated throughout the enormous arena.

Another thing that really struck me about Iron Maiden’s set was the fact that I didn’t recognize more than just a few songs. I mean, I know that I’m not a die-hard fan like many of those in the audience, but I definitely expected to hear some of the more “mainstream” hits of this band, like “The Number of the Beast” and “Run to the Hills”. I didn’t get those. Instead, I got treated to a smattering of older tracks amongst many songs from the band’s newest album, ‘Senjutsu,’ which came out in 2021. I felt that this was an odd choice for such a legendary band, but as the songs of the set moved on, I realized that this just proves the lasting power of Iron Maiden. It added that cherry on top to an already fantastic night.

Line Up:

The HU

Iron Maiden

Venue: Xcel Energy Center

Smell-O-Meter: 1 Stray Cigarette

Average Age of the Crowd: 52

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-ability- 5 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- $0

Broken Bones- None Spotted

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None Witnessed

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 1

Idiots Taken Out By Security – 0

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

The HU – 1

Iron Maiden – 2

Celebrity Sightings – None

Overall Score – 7 out of 10

Show on Deck — DIIE / Brief Candles / Squinny

Shameless Self Promotion:

Join My Patreon Here!

Buy Me a Coffee (Seriously!)

Check Out My New Playlist With All of My Favorite Songs HERE!