Bruce Dickinson performed the fifth present of his first intensive North American solo tour in virtually 30 years in assist of his present studio album, “The Mandrake Venture”, on August 28 on the Home Of Blues in Houston, Texas. Fan-filmed video of the whole live performance will be seen under (courtesy of House Metropolis Exhibits).
Becoming a member of the IRON MAIDEN singer on “The Mandrake Venture Reside 2025” North American tour is as soon as once more his 2024 backing band, that includes Dave Moreno (drums),Mistheria (keyboards) and Tanya O’Callaghan (bass),alongside the group’s newest additions, Swedish guitarist, songwriter and multi-platinum-credited producer Philip Näslund and Swiss session and touring guitarist Chris Declercq (who performed on Dickinson‘s “Rain On The Graves” single). Bruce‘s longtime guitarist and collaborator Roy “Z” Ramirez is just not a part of the touring lineup.
The setlist for the Houston present was as follows:
00:53 Accident Of Start
05:32 Abduction
09:28 Laughing In The Hiding Bush
14:40 Shadow Of The Gods
23:16 Chemical Wedding ceremony
28:47 Flash Of The Blade (IRON MAIDEN tune)
33:45 Resurrection Males
41:19 Rain On The Graves
46:07 Drum Solo
47:16 Frankenstein (THE EDGAR WINTER GROUP cowl)
53:27 The Alchemist
1:00:42 Guide Of Thel
1:10:00 Highway To Hell
Encore:
1:15:59 Tears Of The Dragon
1:25:25 Gods Of Conflict
Dickinson kicked off “The Mandrake Venture Reside 2025” North American tour Friday evening (August 22) on the Home Of Blues in Anaheim, California.
Dickinson‘s 16-song setlist on the Home Of Blues included the stay debut of “The Mandrake Venture” monitor “Shadow Of The Gods” in addition to the first-ever efficiency of the IRON MAIDEN tune “Flash Of The Blade”, from the band’s 1984 album “Powerslave”.
Previous to launching into “Flash Of The Blade”, Dickinson advised the gang: ”No one has ever performed this tune, aside from on the report, in fact, however no one has ever performed this tune. And it is a tune that I wrote. So I do not know whether or not any of you’ve got any clue what tune it could be. However like common, it is a conundrum. I shall not let you know. You’ll simply must determine it out. It most likely will not take lengthy… You may die as you lived in a flash of the blade.”
Bruce talked concerning the setlist for “The Mandrake Venture Reside 2025” North American tour throughout an interview final week with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station. He stated: “We’re doing a mix of songs from ‘Accident Of Start’, from ‘Chemical Wedding ceremony’, from ‘Extra Balls To Picasso’, clearly from ‘Mandrake’, and that is, frankly, greater than sufficient for a full present. And in precise reality, I’ve bought seven solo albums to select from, so if I find yourself doing — as I’ll do, in most likely in ’27 — find yourself doing one other tour with one other album, then I will nonetheless have loads of songs to select from, from these albums. ‘Trigger there’s songs that folks go, ‘Why have not you performed that tune?’ I stated, ‘Nicely, I can not play each single tune. You must wait. We’ll do it subsequent time.’ However ‘Shadow Of The Gods’, for instance, off ‘Mandrake’, has by no means been performed stay till now. So we’re gonna play that tune each evening, as a result of it is a actually cool monitor and it is probably the most requested monitor off ‘Mandrake’. We have not performed it, so we’re gonna try this one each evening.”
Concerning the addition of “Flash Of The Blade” to the setlist, Bruce stated: “We have really dropped a MAIDEN tune in there. We have not executed that, like, ever. And so I stated we’re not a MAIDEN covers band, however I am gonna do one tune, and it will be a tune that I wrote. We’re not masking [a song] that [MAIDEN guitarist] Adrian [Smith] wrote with me or [MAIDEN bassist] Steve [Harris] or one thing. And my spouse stated, ‘You need to do that tune,’ tune X. I went, ‘Oh, why?’ She stated, ‘Nicely, no one’s ever performed it. You have by no means performed it. Why have you ever by no means performed that tune?’ I stated, ‘Nicely, I do not know.’ She goes, “All people needs you to play that tune.’ I stated, ‘Who’s everyone?’ And he or she’s on social media, so she does all these things. I do not do social media. So I’ve no clue. And so I discussed it to the band. I stated we should always do it. What do you suppose if we tried to study this?’ They usually dogpiled me, like, ‘Oh my God, that will be superb.’ So anyway, subsequent day they’d discovered it and so they performed it to me instrumentally. I used to be simply, like, ‘Holy crap. Now let me see if I can nonetheless bear in mind the best way to sing it.’ So we’re gonna try this.”
Dickinson additionally confirmed that a few of the exhibits on “The Mandrake Venture Reside 2025” North American tour will see him play one other MAIDEN tune, “Revelations”. He defined: “Now, I’ve gotta study one other MAIDEN one as nicely, as a result of we’re doing a pageant in São Paulo in the midst of the tour. We dip right down to Brazil [to play] this large pageant. And it is really 40 years since I set foot in Brazil [for the first time] with Rock In Rio. So I believed, nicely, for the anniversary, I am gonna go down there. I actually do must do a form of a MAIDEN monitor in celebration of the truth that, ‘Yeah, look, it has been 40 years.’ And there was a well-known incident the place I would break up my head open with the sting of a guitar, blood pouring down my face. That was the picture that that also performed on nationwide TV now once they discuss Rock In Rio; they use that second. And that second was throughout a tune referred to as ‘Revelations’, which occurred to be a tune that I wrote. So I believed, ‘Hey, we’ll get the band to study ‘Revelations’.’ After which my spouse got here in and stated, [‘You’ve gotta play ‘Flash Of The Blade’]. I went, ‘Okay, okay, okay.’ Nicely, now I simply like it. I am simply, like, ‘Sure, completely.’ So we’re gonna play [‘Flash Of The Blade’ Friday] evening after which the key will likely be out and social media will likely be, like, ‘Oh my God, they performed that tune.’ So if you happen to wanna hear that tune, regardless of the hell it’s, otherwise you may not give a stuff — I do not know. So we’ll be dropping that out and in right here and there, teasing individuals a bit of bit. But it surely’s such a blast on the tour. Such an important enjoyable enjoying with these guys.”
Requested what it’s like going from enjoying stadiums with IRON MAIDEN to performing largely in theaters along with his solo band, Bruce advised WRIF: “There is no comparability. One is one kind of factor, one is the opposite kind of factor. So I do not go right into a theater going, ‘Oh my God. I want I used to be enjoying a stadium.’ No, I relish the thought of going right into a theater. It is nice. And the identical factor — if I’m going right into a stadium, I do not go, ‘Oh, I want I used to be enjoying a theater.’ No, I am enjoying a stadium. That is what you are doing and that is what’s in entrance of you.”
He continued: “I like performing and I like wherever I’m, whether or not it is three individuals, 300 or 300,000. Issues change a bit of bit, strategies change a bit of bit from one to the opposite to the opposite, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a efficiency and you are still attempting to do one of the best factor by everyone there. So, yeah, I like it.”
Dickinson additionally talked in additional element about “The Mandrake Venture Reside 2025” North American tour, which can take his solo band throughout North America, together with exhibits in New York, Los Angeles, Texas, Florida and Canada, with pageant appearances at Rocklahoma (Oklahoma) and Louder Than Life (Kentucky). The tour additionally features a fast return to Brazil for the distinguished The City pageant on the Metropolis Of Mild in São Paulo.
“It is the identical band that did the tour final yr,” Bruce stated. “We did 55 exhibits collectively. So, we’re a crew now. This isn’t me standing on the spot and saying, ‘Oh, no one else come inside 10 toes of me. Your aura is disturbing my vibe.’ No. I imply, we’re a band — we sweat collectively, we get messy, and eye contact. It is an important rock and roll band. And we now have enjoyable. We’re heavy emotional creatures on stage. So we will play to make you wanna leap up and down in pogo. We are able to play to make you cry and we will play to place a smile in your face. And hopefully all of these issues. So once you go away the present on the finish of the night, we hope we have made your life higher.”
He continued: “We’re an important crew. It is an important present stay. We have a video wall. We have MAIDEN‘s sound engineer, MAIDEN‘s monitor engineer, MAIDEN‘s lighting engineer as nicely. They usually all love doing it as a result of they love getting their fingers soiled in theaters. [MAIDEN‘s lighting designer] Rob Coleman, on the lights, will get to play and go, ‘Hey, yeah, that is bizarre. Take a look at that construction on stage. If I put a lamp there’ and blah, blah, blah, ‘I can get a extremely nice impact.’ So we will form of do issues on the fly in theaters or work with what we have got. It is incredible. You possibly can improv a bit of bit there. And it is not the identical present each evening. With MAIDEN, it’s. I imply, positive, there are variations in the way in which that this tune is best one evening than it was final evening and issues like that. However with this band, we’re so versatile, we will go, ‘What is the setlist immediately? Nicely, let’s shift issues round a bit. Let’s try this. Oh, we have not executed that tune for some time. Let’s drop that one in there.’ And [if] we’re enjoying Boston and New York again to again, [we can go], ‘Oh, yeah. We should always undoubtedly play two completely different songs so individuals do not go, ‘Ah, I went to each exhibits and so they did the identical stuff.’ [We want them to go], ‘Ah, they did one thing completely different.'”
Previous to the April 12, 2024 Whisky A Go Go present, Bruce final carried out along with his solo band on in August 2002 on the legendary Wacken Open Air pageant in Germany.
Roy performed guitar on Dickinson‘s 1994 album “Balls To Picasso” and went on to supply, co-write and carry out a number of devices on Bruce‘s subsequent three solo albums, “Accident At Start” (1997),“The Chemical Wedding ceremony” (1998) and “Tyranny Of Souls” (2005).
O’Callaghan is an Irish musician who joined WHITESNAKE in 2021 and toured with the David Coverdale-fronted outfit the next yr. She additionally hit the highway with Dickinson in 2023 as a part of a efficiency of Jon Lord‘s “Concerto For Group And Orchestra” on almost a dozen dates in Europe and South America.
Californian drummer Moreno beforehand performed on “Tyranny Of Souls” and has labored with BODY COUNT, Jizzy Pearl, Dizzy Reed and Steve Stevens, amongst others.
Italian keyboard wizard Mistheria has collaborated with an array of artists stay and within the studio, together with Rob Rock, Mike Portnoy, Jeff Scott Soto and Joel Hoekstra.
“The Mandrake Venture” arrived on March 1, 2024 through BMG.
Bruce and Roy recorded “The Mandrake Venture” largely at Los Angeles’s Doom Room, with Roy doubling up as each guitarist and bassist. The recording lineup for “The Mandrake Venture” was rounded out by Mistheria and Moreno, each of whom additionally featured on Bruce‘s earlier solo studio album, “Tyranny Of Souls”, in 2005.
Dickinson‘s reworked model of his basic 1994 album “Balls To Picasso”, now titled “Extra Balls To Picasso”, arrived on July 25.
Dickinson made his recording debut with IRON MAIDEN on the “Quantity Of The Beast” album in 1982. He give up the band in 1993 in an effort to pursue his solo profession and was changed by Blaze Bayley, who had beforehand been the lead singer of the metallic band WOLFSBANE. After releasing two conventional metallic albums with former MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith, Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999 together with Smith.
