Legendary heavy metal leaders Iron Maiden have announced a summer tour which will see the band playing both Long Island and Newark, NJ for some of the first dates on their Maiden England World Tour 2012.
Without a new album to promote, Iron Maiden's website excitedly announced that the summer shows will include all the older hits found on the original video release of the 1988 tour of the same name. Adding to the excitement is Alice Cooper, a worthy headliner in his own right who may very well top Maiden in production, if not sheer bombastic performance.
The Jones Beach date on June 27th will be a treat for fans who prefer outdoor venues, while the ultra-modern Prudential Center offers a great arena option a few days later on July 2nd. One critical difference, however, is the lack of open floor at Jones Beach, meaning even fans in the front rows will be restricted to aisles and seats, a true travesty for mosh-worthy metal gods such as Iron Maiden (but great for the lazier among us).
Further complicating things is the band's insistence on a paperless-ticketing system wherever possible, which relies on credit cards and IDs in lieu of hard tickets. While the system is designed to thwart scalpers from ripping off fans, it means that your entire group has to enter the venue at the same time, and if the original purchaser is unable to make the show for whatever reason, the tickets cannot be transferred to anyone else.
While it remains to be see how much of hinderance the ticketless system will be, there's no doubt that this tour will generate massive excitement and may very well be the metal highlight of the summer, even with Metallica's Orion Festival and the Slipknot-headlined Mayhem Festival competing. Read my review of Alice Cooper's recent NJ performance by clicking here, and San Antonio Metal Examiner Jay Nanda's review of Iron Maiden's 2010 tour here.
Tickets are scheduled to go on sale in the beginning of March, and with a combined 35,000 tickets available between the two shows, NYC metalheads should have no problem getting in. Expect pre-sales to pop up closer to the end of the month as well.
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