Bruce Dickinson in Boston – September 11, 2025

Legendary Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson brought his solo band to Boston for the first time in 35 years, supporting his latest album, The Mandrake Project. 

The evening was kicked off by a local band, Zeneth, from Rhode Island. The band had a straightforward, classic rock sound, and finish their set off with the cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” getting the audience fired up in honor of the late Ozzy Osbourne. 

Soon enough, Bruce and his band took to the stage. They kicked off with “Accident of Birth,” which fittingly features the lyrics “Welcome home, it’s been too long, we’ve missed you,” straight into “Abduction,” off of his 2005 solo album of the same name. Bruce has been so busy with Iron Maiden over the past two decades plus that the later of those albums never had a supporting tour. Boston fans were thrilled to finally get a chance to see these songs performed live. I had long ago accepted that I would never have a chance to hear them performed, and Bruce’s voice sounded incredible on them.

An early fan favorite in the set was the title track off of Chemical Wedding, which featured the entire audience singing along on the chorus. Another treat for diehard fans was a performance of Iron Maiden’s “Flash of the Blade,” which Maiden themselves have never played live. That was the only Maiden song of the night, though, because let’s face it, if you wanna hear, Bruce sing Iron Maiden, you had a chance last year, you’ll likely have a chance next year. The crowd here tonight wanted to hear songs like “Book of Thel,” “The Alchemist,” and the anthemic “Tears of the Dragon,” which opened their encore. 

During the show, Bruce mentioned that this coming weekend he’s been asked to sing the national anthem at the Pittsburgh Steelers game. As an Englishman, it’s not a song he’s familiar with singing. With tonight‘s show being on September 11, he took the opportunity to practice the song, in memory of the 2001 attacks. He mentioned that a friend advised him to start in a low key, so that you don’t end up too high, and he pulled it off in a very signature Bruce style, to a thunderous round of applause.

Near the end of the night, Bruce mentioned that early next year this lineup of the band will be recording a new album. He said they’ll be recording at live in the studio, it’s not going to be overproduce with a bunch of editing tricks. Given the nearly 20 year gap between his previous two albums, it’s exciting that we will have another album, so soon. With the response of the audience tonight, hopefully we will have another chance to see Bruce perform solo in the states sooner than later as well!