The Metal Files

As of this past Sunday I’ve seen Iron Maiden 10 times since the Seventh Son Tour in 1988.  In general, that doesn’t seem like a lot.  I was supposed to see Somewhere on Tour but my grades were shit so I wasn’t able to go.  I’ve also missed a few other opportunities over the years. In the last few weeks I had tickets to see them in Las Vegas and San Antonio but life and work got in the way and I had to sell my tickets. While I made a profit off of them, being at the shows would have been way cooler. It is cool, however that I have seen Iron Maiden in 4 different states (VA, TX, NC and CO) and Sunday night I saw them in another country…FUCKING MEXICO!

Since seeing the Flight 666 documentary, I’ve wanted to see them in a Latin American country. It’s such a different vibe and energy. I was hoping for them to play Bogota Colombia this tour as I have friends down there but no such luck. They are playing some South American shows but I had to “settle” for Mexico City, a place that I am already familiar with and love so much. So let’s just move on to my weekend in DF.

I flew out of San Antonio Saturday morning on Interjet as Southwest no longer flies to Mexico City. It wasn’t a bad flight at all and you get free tequila if you ask for it!  Si por favor! After getting through customs quickly, I took Uber to my favorite record store, Dejalo Ser Records. Elia remembered me from previous visits and I picked up some Japanese pressings. From there I went to a book store that was also a Ticketmaster outlet and picked up my 3 tickets. Originally my quierida amiga Soledad and her boyfriend were supposed to attend with me but work took her out of town at the last minute. I offered them to several other friends but all of them either didn’t want to go or were seeing them on one of the other 2 nights they were playing there. In the end, a friend of a friend bought them from me so that worked out.

After getting my tix, I headed to my hotel to check in a relax for a little bit. I had stayed there previously and was quickly remembered by the staff. “Rockero!” Shortly after, Claudia contacted me and said they were at Bar El Espanol which is right next to El Chopo which was already closed for the day.  I got a ride there and walked up the steps and immediately ran into some friends before seeing Peter and Claudia. Marco handed me a 40oz of Leon, which is the only beer they sell in this bar and the only size. Toma!

I found my other friends, got introduced to a ton of other people, finished my beer then went over to a big ass mall to eat at a restaurant. It was good and I had a couple too many mojitos. Haha.  From there we rode over to the club HDX Circus where Japan’s Metalucifer was playing. I am 0% a fan but knew a lot of friends would be there. We missed Lead Soldier (CdMx) but The Ripper (CdMx) was playing.  They were pretty solid. Up next was Hellmidian (Oaxaca) and I really liked them.  They had an early Helloween vibe to them. I had a couple of beers here after meeting a ton of new people and then a couple of Jack and Cokes.  The placed filled up quickly as the Nefilheim show had ended. I think the club had Metalucifer wait just a bit until that crowd had time to get there from the other show. By the time the second song started, I remembered why I disliked the band so much.  Every song is about heavy metal…heavy metal is my way, heavy metal drill, heavy metal chainsaw, heavy metal bulldozer.  You get the idea. I was also getting pretty tired.  I was a long ass day.  I pulled the Irish Exit and just left without saying goodbye to anyone and got a ride back to my hotel. I did have a great time at the show overall, though. Peter knows everyone and introduced me to everyone. Very cool and always a pleasure to see him. I first met him in Chicago before one of the Ragnarokkr fests. Great guy. Once I got to the hotel, I fell right to sleep.

The next morning wasn’t great.  La Verganza de Moctezuma. It kept me sort of strapped to the hotel until I got things under control. I slept a little more, finally ate something and showered and headed over to the venue. I checked out the 1000s of bootleg merchandise items then met up with Jorge who was to buy my spare tickets.

Upon entry into the venue, I got in the official merch line to try and get a shirt. It was like a rugby scrum in there. It was so packed and shifted around like mad. Felt like the crowd at the 87 Testament show.  Nuts. Unfortunately, I didn’t get what I wanted as they sold out of the Mexico City shirts before I got up there.

Raven Age opened and I completely missed them. I had seen them before.  Not into it.

Then Transylvania started with the Legend of the Beast Game video playing followed immediately by UFO’s Doctor Doctor. The crowd went nuts. I didn’t go deep into the crowd, probably about ¾ the way back stage left side. The sound was pretty awful so I put in my earplugs and it cleaned everything up perfectly. For the first 2 songs, all I saw were camera phones which was a bit annoying but it pretty much dissipated.

Iron Maiden is pretty much on-fucking-fire these days. The energy they have on stage is unmatched. Bruce sounded great. He knows his range and stayed in it. I’ve said this before in Maiden reviews, but Nicko should have his own cam/screen 100% of the show. He’s still the best.  His right foot is insane.

The band has fun on stage in general.  Dave and Adrian are pretty stoic and Gers is Gers. He seemed a little less annoying that night in general.

Definite highlights for me were Revelations, Where Eagles Dare, 2 Minutes To Midnight, Flight of Icarus and The Evil That Men Do. Certainly I could do without many of the songs in the setlist, but it didn’t matter. I was there in the crowd with 25,999 friends in Mexico. So many times it seemed that the crowd just became one, everyone singing along together. The passion down there is way different than in the states. I certainly noticed it when I saw King Billy and Helloween down there.

Per usual, I did walk out to pee when Fear of the Dark was played. I grabbed a double shot of tequila and went back in the crowd and knocked it back during The Number of the Beast.

It was quite different being in that crowd alone. I had a few friends there but only saw one of them briefly before the show. But even with no friends next to me, I was amongst all friends.

Overall the show was awesome, probably in the top 5 Maiden shows I’ve ever seen.

UP THE IRONS!

On the way out I did grab a bootleg shirt and waited for Uber to pick me up. At the bus stand I waited at, there were a few cops muddling around. One of them asked me, “Como te fue?” Divertido senor! As I waited for the car, this guy came up to me and said in Spanish, “Sir, can you help me? Don’t worry, I won’t do anything with all of these police standing here.” I said that I wasn’t worried with or without them. He showed me a piece of paper that basically said he needed some gas money. I thought it was odd that he didn’t just ask for it directly. I responded in Spanish that I couldn’t help him and this is where it got funny. He says, “I’m a Christian, you must help me.” I laughed and said “No creo en nadie!”  His eyes got really big and he actually ran off.  Weird. I guess my heresy scared him off.

My Uber driver was super cool. He was seeing Maiden the next night and asked me about the show. Then when he saw where I asked him to take me, La Casa de Tono restaurant, he said, “Buena eleccion!” or good choice!

I was super hungry by that point and got pozole, a pibil taco, a tinga quesadilla (different than quesadillas in the USA) and a michelada preparada. All of it was fucking delicious and less than $8.  WHAT?!?!?!  Love that place.

I walked back to my hotel, about 3-4 blocks from Tono’s and got a mescal at the bar. It was a higher end one and cost more than my whole meal but so worth it.  Smooth, smoky, and with the naranja y sal de gusano (orange with worm salt), it was the perfect nightcap to a wonderful night.

The next morning I slept in a little.  I didn’t sleep that well overall for whatever reason. After showering and packing I just went ahead and checked out since I missed the hotel breakfast. I went around the corner to the 7-11 and got a red bull and some galletas and hopped in a car to hit some record stores. I hit Retroactivo, Roma Records and a place called Music En Vinyl which was on the walk between the  last 2 stores. Not sure how I missed it before but it was a cool place and I picked up a few LPs. After the record stores, I was feeling wiped out so I just went to the airport and chilled out at a bar. The flight back was smooth as was my drive back to Austin from San Antonio.

As always, it was a great time in Mexico City. I truly love it down there and am already looking forward to another trip with less of an agenda to see and do more stuff.