What did I do on the 3rd March? I went to the Iron Maiden concert in Costa Rica!!! I can definitely say that I haven't experienced such great show in a long time. I made a few videos and their high quality surprised me a lot and changed my opinion on Nokia N95 8GB, after all. If you understand at least basic Spanish, check the videos on Youtube and read their comments (user stormhellscream or just see them in my Czech report on this blog). The comments prove latinamerican fans' enthusiasm and the fact that I was probably the only person with a decent camera :)
I won't lose time describing the band's performance, which was awesome as always, although Bruce didn't make that many jokes this time (which did not affect his performance in the slightest).
What absolutely ruled and exceeded all my expectations was the audience and the mosh pit. The Irons have a huge fan bace in Latin America, but they don't show in Central America that often (in fact, they just came to Costa Rica for the second time in history), so you can imagine what people were doing. I can honestly say that they showed much more appreciation and enthusiasm than Czech fans last year in Prague (which doesn't mean Czech fans weren't happy to see the Iron Maiden, not at all, but I simply didn't feel so much enthusiasm as I did feel in Costa Rica).
People were camping in front of the stadium a week before the concert and many came from very far (I met a guy from Guatemala, 1500km). Of course there was a lot of chaos and tension at the day of the concert, as people were queueing for a long time and everybody was defending their place. Add the police, ambulat drink, food and tshirt sellers, ticket dealers and all the other fauna typical for this kind of enviroment and you get the picture. Ah, and it was hot as hell. I was lucky enough to go to the concert with a friend who was not afraid to stuff herself right in the front of the queue and achieve an almost instant entry, leaving people who were waiting there for days behind, while we got to the venue just a few hours before the show and were a few meters from the stage.
The waiting time was quite as usual - people were steadily flooding into the stadium and filling the area, sitting on the floor, smoking, etc. What did surprise me were ambulat food and drink sellers, who had the guts to walk through the crowd even after the concert started and the mosh got really wild. Once thing we can't deny to Costa Rican people - the spirit for business.
I met the already mentioned bloke from Guatemala, who was obviously fascinated (and quite envious) by my stories from the times when I used to work as local concert crew in Prague and saw so many backstages and so many concerts for free, not to mention the fact that in the summer there are about three concerts per week in Prague, so I saw the Iron Maiden seven times, Judas Priest twice, Rammstein thrice, etc.
Laureen Harris - the compulsory pain in the butt
Around 8pm Laureen Harris finally showed up for her twenty minutes of inevitable torture, though I must admit she changed a lot since I saw her in Prague six months ago. She probably realized that the hard bitch attitude, saying "fuck" after every word and advertising her merchandise and myspace after eacht song is not appreciated by Iron Maiden fans (I've heard she got whistled off quite harshly especially in Mexico last year). Her band has also improved the musical and vocal performance quite significantly. Although her singing is still quite out-of-tune, it's much better than it used to be. The sound was much louder this time, which has also made a big difference and the guitarist stopped doing those weird 80s-like movements that stick to Laureen Harris' music like a winter coat to a swimming suit. I'd summarize by saying that Laureen shifted her image slightly towards Avril Lavigne, but still being much harder. She even got some feedback from the crowd this time and not just negative. On the other hand, though, most people were shouting "picha", which means "dick" and is generally used as a swearword in Costa Rica (and since the same word means "pussy" in Czech and is equally used as swearword, I was solemntly shouting with the locals). Also, everybody was screaming "Maiden" instead of "Laureen".
Ladies and gentlemen, the Iron Maiden
The very second the Irons came on stage the crowd went totally wild. Since we were like sardines in the mosh, I had to jump even when I didn't want to and there was no way to influence the direction I was facing. My body was being moved in any given direction... I have never experienced something like this at a concert in my life. After a few songs, when I got moshed about five meters away from my original position, the grip finally loosened as the people made more space around themselves and I could mosh more easily, being even able to make some videos (I apologize for not having filmed the most interesting songs, but who would just stand there with a camera during The Number of The Beast?).
I was pleasantly surprised by the friendly attitude of the centralamerican fans. Totally unknown people were smiling at each other, jumping together and simply enjoying the show. I do not remember to have experienced something similar in my country. In one moment the guy in front of me accidentally hit my camera and it fell on the floor (as is evident from one of the videos). Guess how quickly i stuffed my arms between the two guys in front of me and literally torn them aside to pick up the camera (which survived without harm). Anyway, what I want to point out is that the guys were totally friendly, helpful and they even apologized. Should this happen in my country, I would rather expected a reaction of the type "what are you doing, asshole?". Instead with these guys we became mosh-buddies till the end of the concert and had a really good time. Finally, I was awestruck during Fear of The Dark: no disciplined jumping on the spote as I'm used to, but a proper push-mosh as if it was a punkrock gig. Absolutely amazing new way to experience the Fear of The Dark.
I was also relieved and pleasantly surprised about my physical condition. While the other mosh-men strenght was fading off towards the end, I never lost my breath and was jumping alone during the last few songs. Unfortunately I lost my mosh-buddy at some point, but he found me after the end and I wanted to go and have some beers together. Alas, we didn't manage to meet at the exit and I probably won't ever see him again, but that's how it goes at good gigs - people meet, have a good time and go home.
The only thing that ruined my day was the loss of my wallet. I went to buy a tshirt after the concert (I needed a souvenir from Costa Rica), bought it, put my wallet back into the pocket and then it wasn't there anymore. The security guys found several wallets, but not mine. I suppose somebody liked it too much. I don't care about the few money or the documents, but the wallet itself was a piece of my live's history - a gift, a really cool Iron Maiden piece of merchandise and a companion for so many years and so many gigs. Life sucks sometimes.
Unfortunately there wasn't the usual post-gig binge beering, either, since the stadium was a bit far from the city, so we couldn't just walk to the usual place as in Prague, picking mosh-buddies on the way. Nonetheless I sat in a cool San Jose metal bar until three in the morning with a friend and I loved the place (never been in a place where they play Running Wild). However, since I was already cooled down, I just had two Costarican Pilsens, instead of the usual 10 pints of Gamrbinus to regain all liquids lost in the mosh and avoid dehydratation.
In closing I can reconfirm that Iron Maiden Costa Rica 2009 was a unique lifetime experience. After so many concerts I experienced true fan enthusiasm again, got totally drawn into the action and overwhelmed by the gig's atmosphere. When Bruce was requesting "scream for me Costa Rica" I was screaming like crazy. The people were simply amazing and with this I thank them all for the unique experience. The floor-stomping to get the band back on stage was so strong Bruce thought there was an earthquake coming - the last time I experienced that was in 1998, at my first Iron Maiden concert, with Blaze back then in a small venue with just 3000 people. It was also extremely funny when the standing people started shouting to the sitting ones something like "limpios", which means "cheap bastards" or something like that, of course in a joking way. The seats on the other hand made waves and such a noise it seemed to be at a footbal match, rather than a concert. I am glad with all my heart to have seen the Iron Maiden somewhere else than in the Czech Republic, and I am happy it was Costa Rica. Hawk.
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