The Iron Maidens

Venue: Shamrocks

City: Chino Hills, CA

Set length: About 1.5 hrs

Tonight’s Lineup:

An Ozzy tribute (not pictured)
An Alice in Chains tribute (not pictured)
An AC/DC tribute (not pictured)
The Iron Maidens

Pre-show banter…
The Iron Maidens, the best Iron Maiden tribute out there, make a stop in Chino Hills to play a pretty nice venue at Shamrock’s.

My gear for the night was:

Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Flash: None
Lenses: Canon 200mm f/2.8 and Canon’s 24-70mm f/2.8.

Okay all you rivet heads, here we go…

Venue review…
This was my first time at their new concert hall and I have to tell ya, they did a great job. I had no idea that such a place existed in my little town. Sure, I knew Shamrock’s was there but I had no idea that they had expanded into the space next to them to build a sizable hall for live performances – pretty cool. Obviously they are attracting national acts here because not only are the Maidens playing here but I saw a flyer for LA Guns. Don’t get me wrong, this is no Henry Fonda Theatre but it definitely holds up to the likes of some of the bigger bar-venues in Los Angeles. My only complaint about this particular night was that the sound was a little off, but I have a feeling it was the exception and not the rule. There was a bad cable or connection somewhere in the lines that caused the occasional bad distortion/static during the band performances. Other than that, I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more music just 3 miles from my home!

It is located at:

www.facebook.com/ShamrocksChinoHills.com

Reviews, comments, and possible putdowns for the Iron Maidens…
Once again, a big thanks to Mark (Phantom) for allowing me to photograph the band once again. I realize that this is my sixth posting of the band but I find them to be a genuine tribute to one of my all time favorite bands. I am proud to say that up until the Flight 666 tour that Maiden took on, I had been to at least one show from each tour they had done in the US with Bruce at the helm. And, yes, that includes when they opened for The Scorpions in Reno, NV in support of The Number of the Beast tour. If I remember correctly, I believe Girlschool opened that show… Again, I digress.

The band played hard but I felt like they were a little on the tired side as they have been jumping all over the world lately. They still put on a great show but I do have a complaint… NEVER, in all the times that I have seen Maiden (or the Maidens) has “Back in the Village” been played and when I took a photo of this evening’s setlist, there it was; right in the middle of the set but crossed out. Meaning that they were planning on playing it but opted to cut the set a little short so they could do a meet & greet after. Uhhhg, so close – perhaps next time. Speaking of the setlist, I believe there is a photo of it in the slideshow so take a look there if you want to know what they played. Tonight we had the pleasure of seeing Nita Strauss on guitar for the first time – amazing player! Well, there is nothing I could say now that I haven’t said about the band in the past so I’ll cut this off here. Cheers!

www.TheIronMaidens.com

Up the Irons…

Here is the setlist from this evening: