Iron Maiden, Barclay Center. 7/26/19.

In terms of sheer musicianship and stage theatrics probably the greatest concert I’ve been to — coupled with the element of childhood nostalgia: so many classic songs sung by a sold out stadium of multi-generation fans ... “Run to The Hills”; “Aces High”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “The Trooper”, “Flight of Icarus” ...

With Iron Maiden it just takes that opening riff and I’m a giddy 8 years old, rocking out with my Walkman under the covers, staying up well past my bedtime to catch @ WXRC’s midnight metal hour ... or trading metal cassette tapes with friends, rushing to the music store when a new album came out; scrawling band logos on the blue-lined paper of your elementary school notebooks.

Those were the days where as a kid I could spend hours in my room, listening to an album ALL THE WAY THROUGH, wholly engrossed, no interruptions -- and had the attention span and dedication to do so. (I still do, sometimes; though it gets harder as life goes on, parenting and all that).

There was something special about those moments: that fascination with a band or memory an album -- an unconstrained love of metal (or music in general) that I wish I could communicate to my own kids, especially in our fast-paced, video-game saturated internet age.