Review – Dream Theater, Iron Maiden – Bluesfest Day 1

Bluesfest rocked in full force for its opening night last night. The heat was sweltering but it made for more of a rock and roll night in my opinion. Shirts came off, beers were flowing and the light shows reflected off the humidity in the air. Coupled with some heavy metal thunder, nothing could have made it a better night.

I started the night off heading to Mike’s downtown apartment…something we’ve been hoping will become Bluesfest HQ for the next 13 days. One beer and a twenty minute walk later, we arrived at the grounds. It was probably 40 degrees with the humidity and we were soaked by the time we got there. We are familiar with the setup that we already know where our favourite spot is (main stage, left speaker, third tree from the stage!), and where our favourite watering holes are.

This year, the mighty Mill Street brewery has taken over the Festival by storm and I’m loving every minute of it!!! Forget about the lousy Coors Light and Canadian…Mill Street Brewery is offering up six different types of draft beer, including some new one that I never tasted…a lemon tea organic which Krista dubbed ‘the best tent festival beer she has ever tasted’. However, it seems that this special beer is only available at a few tents as I asked for a lemon tea beer at one tent and they said “We don’t have that Mike’s Hard stuff here” and proceeded to ignore me!

Dream Theater showed up around 7PM and launched into the thunder. I love, love, LOVE Dream Theater ever since I saw them play on the Gigantour tour years ago. Technical prog-metal rock at its best…I love how the singer leaves the stage each time the band will enter into a ten minute solo! I also have a great laugh at the fact that they can play an hour long set and they end up playing five songs. I am not familiar with their older tunes but one of them was easily 25 minutes. Two great devil horns up for Dream Theater.

There was quite a turnout on the first night of Bluesfest. Approximately 30,000 people went through the gates. I was along with Mike, Trish, Hugo, Vero, Krista and Jill. Mike and Joel were there also but in another area. I also bumped into Dorin who hooked me up with someone looking for a ticket to Wednesday’s show. I am selling them at $20 a pop and they are selling like hotcakes. This year has a few days that I don’t necessarily feel the need to go to and Vero’s sister is coming into town tonight so I figured I would hang back for one night.

Iron Maiden took the stage around 9PM. Their stage looked like something out of Star Trek with its space field backdrops and their UFO-like lighting rigs. I will admit that I have 1% knowledge of Iron Maiden tunes so I just enjoyed the fact that they played tunes that felt like heavy metal should feel like…vintage metal is the way to go! There were approximately 25,000 Iron Maiden t-shirts in the crowd and I believe Eddie made an appearance on the stage near the end of their set.

I will say right now that I think that Day 1 of Bluesfest will go down in the Top 3 of the festival. It had everything…great beer, great weather (albeit ridiculously hot!), great bands, great sights. My only complaint is that the grease from the pizza at the end of the night dripped from the box onto my shorts. Grrrreat.

I will have Mike report in about Bluesfest Day 2 as he’s going tonight to see a few bands.

**Update! Mike reminded me of a grand moment of the night! André pulls out the Palmer t-shirt and wears it for the rest of the night! A few Christmas Parties ago, Karilee (his girlfriend) won a t-shirt with a lovely photo of me on it. She is away in Africa but she had André wear the shirt out to Iron Maiden for my amusement! Classic!*** **Further update…picture now available!**

Dream Theater Setlist

As I Am

A Rite of Passage

Home

Panic Attack

Constant Motion

Pull Me Under

Iron Maiden Setlist

The Wicker Man

Ghost Of The Navigator

Wrathchild

El Dorado

Dance Of Death

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

These Colours Don’t Run

Blood Brothers (Dedicated to Ronnie James Dio)

Wildest Dreams

No More Lies

Brave New World

Fear Of The Dark

Iron Maiden

Encore:

The Number of the Beast

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Running Free