Live Review: The Iron Maidens at Sub89, Reading 26/10/2017

As there is no support band tonight, it’s a long wait for the LA All Female Iron Maiden tribute band The Iron Maidens [5] to appear on the stage to a packed house at Reading’s Sub89. But when they finally do, it’s to rapturous applause. “Two Minutes To Midnight” and “”Flash Of The Blade” get the audience singing along from the start. As vocalist Kirsten “Bruce Chickinson” Rosenberg mentions at one point, we’re all here for the love of Iron Maiden, as Iron Maiden fans. Never a truer word spoken. The ladies deliver everything that the fans want. From the sing-a-long anthems of Iron Maiden to the theatrics of the stage show with the Union Jack and Royal Cavalry jacket during “The Trooper”, the iconic mask during “Powerslave”, Satan on stage during “The Number Of The Beast” and Eddie during “Iron Maiden”. It goes down a storm. The classic side to side sing off of “I’m Running Free” is really good, with Reading in fine voice, but it’s the Maindens themselves that steal the show. The musicianship is perfect, both guitarists and drummer and poiniant backing vocals during the likes of “Can I Play With Madness” and “Hallow Be Thy Name”. By the end of the second encore we’ve enjoyed a greatest hits style set of Maiden classics delivered with the passion of real Iron Maiden fans. There are a couple of notable absences from the set, no “Run To The Hills” for example, but the band play for just over 97 minutes and in all honesty they could play for 6 hours, such is the wealth of material in Iron Maiden’s back catalogue.