I indeed have to start with a disclaimer: Despite his mildly old-fashioned sense of humor, Bruce Dickinson is pretty much the coolest guy in the world, alongside Steve Harris and Adrian Smith, of course. My musical DNA is heavily influenced by Iron Maiden: to the point that my sense of melody and my way of viewing the fretboard in guitar matters are strongly shaped by Maiden's harmony and melody map. Exaggeratedly, one could say that if it were up to me, all songs would be in E minor, because for obvious reasons, it is the most familiar key. Those who have played Iron Maiden know why.
Thus, Thursday’s Bruce Dickinson solo concert was something I had been waiting for a long time. More specifically, for over 20 years, as it has been nearly 22 years since the last Dickinson solo concert in Finland. In 2002, I was still under 10 years old and knew nothing about Iron Maiden or Dickinson, so for understandable reasons, I was not at Tuska Festival where Dickinson performed with his solo band at Kaisaniemi Park.
Dickinson embarked on a solo career in the early 1990s after leaving Iron Maiden and simultaneously trained to become a pilot, which later led to a career as a commercial pilot alongside his solo career (and partly also his resumed career with Iron Maiden). This career likely ended a few years ago due to age, after piloting the Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747. As a pilot, Dickinson flew regular holiday flights mainly from the Great Britain to various vacation destinations, but also some more special transports, such as bringing home peacekeepers. He also handled some of the transitions of his solo tours with a smaller plane.
After rejoining Iron Maiden, Dickinson also piloted the entire band, crew, and backline from gig to gig, primarily on Maiden's Far East, South, and North American tours, first with a Boeing 757 and eventually as the captain of a Boeing 747-400 during The Book of Souls World Tour. The airplanes were customized for the band's needs: in addition to the cargo hold, the rear of the plane was modified for cargo use, and the front seated everyone on tour, from the band to the technicians. Naturally, both planes were named Ed Force One and were painted with Iron Maiden's logos and colors.
In addition to flying, Dickinson is at least an author, film scriptwriter, former Olympic-level fencer, entrepreneur, radio and TV host, and of course, a musician, singer, and composer.
Alongside his career with Iron Maiden and his solo career, Dickinson has published several books, hosted his own radio show on the BBC for eight years, and hosted various TV series on topics ranging from flying to trains. Additionally, Dickinson has run a business related to airplane spare parts, developed an entire product line of beers for Iron Maiden, and traveled the world not only for concerts but also as a speaker at various business events (including in Finland in Levi, Kokkola, Turku, and Helsinki). Dickinson also holds several academic honors, including an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki - the same faculty from which I graduated with a master's degree in musicology.
Since I fell in love with Iron Maiden, I've admired the immense drive, uncompromising nature, and industriousness of both Dickinson and Steve Harris. I'll return to Harris in more detail another time because this time it's about Dickinson. Besides being still, at 65, an incredible singer in great shape and one of the best frontmen in a rock band, Bruce has managed to do a lot more in his life.
It seems that Dickinson's mindset doesn't allow for staying idle for very long periods. As far as I understand, Dickinson has never indulged heavily in substances, which, in the world of rock stars, frees up time for other pursuits. Bruce has certainly had his share of beer and weed, but the work duties as a singer and especially Iron Maiden's (or rather Steve Harris's) consistently strict approach to ensuring performances aren't ruined by drunken antics have likely influenced the fact that Dickinson hasn't spent years or even decades in an incapacitated state.
By my count, I've seen Bruce Dickinson perform a total of 14 times. Once on a solo tour, twice as a speaker on his book tour, and eleven times as Iron Maiden's frontman. The first time was in 2005, the most recent was yesterday. So, I've been following the man's career for quite a long time and once briefly shook hands and asked for an autograph in a book.
Incredibly, I've never witnessed a bad performance from Dickinson. There have been various moods and intensities, but Dickinson has been an unbelievably consistent performer throughout his nearly 40-year career, which is no surprise given he's done thousands of gigs. However, there have been a few times when I've thought he should have kept his mouth shut. Though, it happens to all of us.
The first instance was related to Dickinson's Brexit talks, as Dickinson initially supported Britain's exit from the European Union quite vocally. When it finally happened, Bruce changed his tune and publicly lamented how much more bureaucratic touring had become for British bands. Unfortunately, you get what you ask for. The second time, which also teetered on the edge of second-hand embarrassment, was during his latter book tour event at the Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki, where some of Dickinson's jokes, especially about women, were rather old-fashioned, making me think in the audience that this joke could end now. Otherwise, Dickinson has done his job excellently - without much scandal.
There is a third time when Dickinson has somewhat disappointed me, and it relates to the newest solo album released this year, The Mandrake Project. The album took about ten years to make, due to Iron Maiden's busy schedule, the coronavirus pandemic, and throat cancer, and unfortunately, it shows. The material itself isn't the problem, but due to its ten-year production process, the album ended up being quite a mishmash of half-finished song drafts, which could have been much better songs with more precise and simply better production, and the album as a whole could have been more cohesive. The Mandrake Project isn't a terrible album, but it's easily the weakest of Dickinson's solo albums.
Over the last 30 years, Dickinson has released a total of seven solo albums, and the only uneven album before The Mandrake Project was Skunkworks, released in 1996. Otherwise, Dickinson's solo material is, overall, simply brilliant. In my opinion, it's even better music than Iron Maiden, which, especially over the last decade or so, has become so comfortable and lazy that I hardly listen to their latest studio albums. What makes Dickinson's solo material fascinating is that it's musically more diverse than Iron Maiden: at its heaviest, much heavier than Maiden, and at its lightest, much lighter. Since the songs are written for Dickinson – not Iron Maiden – his incredible vocal ability is showcased better. Not all songs are in E minor.
Of course, there were unreasonable expectations related to The Mandrake Project because a new solo album had been promised and awaited for nearly 20 years. Its predecessor, the excellent Tyranny of Souls, was released in 2005. So, everyone familiar with Maiden and Dickinson expected a polished gem. In reality, perhaps albums built over years, like the proverbial "Isaac's Church," never turn out to be that great. At least I can't think of any; the only one that comes to mind is Guns N’ Roses' rather mediocre Chinese Democracy (2008), which took almost fifteen years to make.
In addition to the uneven and weak song material, there was both second-hand embarrassment and good-natured chuckling caused by the music videos for the singles Afterglow of Ragnarok and Rain on the Graves. A friend of mine, quite deeply immersed in Iron Maiden, remarked about the former video something like, if you like B- or C-grade horror movies from the late 1990s, you might get something out of these music videos, and that was very well put. Watching the music videos, I couldn't help but imagine the meeting where they decided these were somehow great ideas. The videos are full of cheap graphics, bad acting, and all-around peculiar choices. However, if the aim was just to attract attention and amusement, they succeeded.
So, after a mediocre album, I didn’t have high expectations for the concert at the Kulttuuritalo. Adrian Smith, who played in Dickinson’s band in the 1990s, did not join Bruce's solo tour, nor did Roy Z, who produced almost every Dickinson solo album, so even the band chosen for the tour didn’t evoke strong feelings in me. Guitarists Philip Näslund and Chris Declercq didn’t ring any bells for me beforehand, although Näslund has played in bands with Pitbull, Bad Wolves, Paul Gilbert, and Daddy Yankee. Declercq has worked with Lemmy Kilmister, Dizzy Reed, Josh Freese, and Blaze Bayley. Drummer Dave Moreno wasn’t familiar to me either, even though he is perhaps best known from Puddle of Mudd. Bassist Tanya O’Callahan was somewhat familiar from Whitesnake, and also because she had previously toured with Dickinson in the spring of 2023, performing Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra across Europe and South America. I have to admit that at first sight, I wondered what kind of Keytar weirdo the Italian keyboardist Mistheria was.
Although the band was full of seasoned, top-notch professional musicians, the first videos from the tour didn’t really impress me. Every band gets better as the tour progresses (and I actually need to revisit another time whether it's acceptable to go out and practice in front of paying audiences), and this certainly happened with Bruce Dickinson’s current band. The band never played poorly, but in the first shows, I noticed slight hesitations.
The vibe at the Kulttuuritalo was completely different. By the time they reached the Helsinki gig, the tour had already had 24 shows, and you could really hear it. The ensemble was tightly knit, and the band delivered with tremendous energy from start to finish. The sold-out crowd at the Kulttuuritalo also clearly sensed that this concert had been awaited for over 20 years. Considering that it was in Finland, where audiences are usually quite reserved, the noise was downright infernal for the size of the venue right from the opening song, Accident of Birth, and it didn’t really die down towards the end.
In addition to the excellent condition of the band and Dickinson himself, the setlist was also a pleasant surprise. At the Kulttuuritalo, only three songs from The Mandrake Project were ultimately played (Afterglow of Ragnarok, Resurrection Men, and Rain on the Graves), with the focus mainly on older material. Dickinson also mentioned in interviews before the tour that this round would focus more on older material and that The Mandrake Project might have its own special tour later. At least in light of that comment, it doesn't seem that Dickinson lacks confidence in the new album's material, even though the current tour features little from the new album. I might skip the special tour, though.
The first three songs (Accident of Birth, Abduction, and Laughing in the Hiding Bush) started with such intensity that I stared, mouth agape, at the performance from the audience. The fact that, in addition to the obligatory Tears of the Dragon and The Tower, songs like Jerusalem, Chemical Wedding, Darkside of Aquarius, and Book of Thel were also played made the concert nearly perfect. The only somewhat unnecessary segments were the short drum solo and the cover of The Edgar Winter Group's Frankenstein, even though Bruce Dickinson played a short section on a Theremin during the song, producing a rather annoying sound. The Theremin, by the way, works without physical contact using two metal antennas that act as position sensors, changing the pitch accordingly. A unique instrument for a unique man. Another slightly disappointing thing was that only two songs from the much-loved Tyranny of Souls were played - the second song, Abduction, and the first encore, Navigate the Seas of the Sun. But there's no point in complaining - many other great songs were left out this time.
The only clear downside during the concert was the downright awful graphics running behind the band. They matched the visual execution of the poor music videos. The screen hanging at the back of the stage was also so small compared to the stage's size that a friend sitting next to me said it looked like a school’s spring festival, where the bored janitor goes to roll up the projection screen at the end.
I have no words of criticism for the band's performance - perhaps drummer Moreno's heavy-handed playing style was a bit distracting during Tears of the Dragon and Navigate the Seas of the Sun, but otherwise, his drumming fit the band's sound very well. The guitarists had admirably learned the most iconic parts of the guitar solos and otherwise played with great intensity. Speaking of which, keyboardist Mistheria's energetic antics with his cowboy hat and keytar were engagingly interactive with the audience, but I still couldn't take him very seriously. Mostly, he reminded me of a character who had escaped from a legendary Finnish sketch show, but not to the point of being annoying.
Even the often criticized acoustics of the Kultturitalo were in good shape this time. The recently updated sound system delivered an excellent auditory experience even to the side sections at a more than sufficient volume. This is not surprising, as the PA system was in good hands - Dickinson's tour sound engineer is Iron Maiden's current live sound engineer, Ken "Pooch" van Druten, and many other members of the tour crew are borrowed from Maiden, including at least Dave Murray's guitar technician, Colin Price, who took care of Philip Näslund's guitars.
Overall, Dickinson's first solo concert in Finland in 22 years was a very pleasant surprise. The performance lasted almost two hours, so the audience, who had long awaited Dickinson's concert, received a full dose of excellently delivered solo material. The overall intensity of the concert was so high that it easily surpassed the Iron Maiden concerts I've witnessed in recent years. It's somewhat terrible to say, but compared to Dickinson's current solo tour, Maiden's recent activities seem quite tired. If I had to decide now, I would definitely prefer to see another of Dickinson's solo concerts this year over Iron Maiden themselves.
The only regret after the concert was that I missed the shows in Stockholm and Tallinn purely due to scheduling issues. Perhaps I'll correct that mistake over the summer, as Dickinson's solo tour continues across Europe until late July. After that, Iron Maiden duties call again, with concerts in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South and North America scheduled for the end of the year.