British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN kicked off their “The Future Past Tour” earlier today (Sunday, May 28) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
“The Future Past Tour” features previously unperformed songs from the band’s most recent studio album, “Senjutsu”, along with a focus on 1986’s “Somewhere In Time” LP, plus other classic cuts.
IRON MAIDEN‘s 15-song set at the 12,000-capacity Arena Stožice included the live debuts of “Days Of Future Past”, “The Time Machine”, “Death Of The Celts” and “Hell On Earth” from “Senjutsu”, along with “Alexander The Great” from “Somewhere In Time”.
The setlist was as follows:
01. Caught Somewhere In Time (first live performance since 1987)
02. Stranger In A Strange Land (first live performance since 1999)
03. The Writing On The Wall
04. Days Of Future Past (live debut)
05. The Time Machine (live debut)
06. The Prisoner (first live performance since 2014)
07. Death Of The Celts (live debut)
08. Can I Play With Madness (first live performance since 2014)
09. Heaven Can Wait (first live performance since 2008)
10. Alexander The Great (live debut)
11. Fear Of The Dark
12. Iron Maiden
Encore:
13. Hell On Earth (live debut)
14. The Trooper
15. Wasted Years
Asked in a radio interview a number of years ago why IRON MAIDEN had never played “Alexander The Great” live, singer Bruce Dickinson answered, “Because Adrian [Smith, guitar] can’t remember the guitar solo.” While Dickinson may have been joking, he did go on to say that, when the song was originally written, they put the solo through a load of then-very-advanced music computer wizardry, and it just couldn’t figure out the time signature.
“Senjutsu” came out in September 2021. It marked MAIDEN‘s second consecutive double album behind 2015’s “The Book Of Souls” which is the longest MAIDEN album, with a running time of 92 minutes.
IRON MAIDEN‘s first album in six years, “Senjutsu” was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.
For “Senjutsu” — loosely translated as “tactics and strategy” — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.
“Senjutsu” bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band’s early classics like “Powerslave” and “The Number Of The Beast”. Nearly 90 percent of the LP’s 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015’s “The Book Of Souls” and 2010’s “The Final Frontier”, which both peaked at No. 4.
“Senjutsu” was MAIDEN‘s 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.