1. Intro : Ides of March
2. Murders in the Rue Morgue
3. Prowler
4. Another Life
5. The Trooper
6. Remember Tomorrow
7. Where Eagles Dare
8. Run to the Hills
9. Revelations
10. Wrathchild
11. Die with your Boots on
12. Phantom of the Opera
13. The Number of the Beast
14. Hallowed be thy Name
15. Iron Maiden
16. Running Free
17. Drifter
18. Sanctuary

Show length : 1 hour 45 min.

Line up :

Bruce Dickinson : Vocals
Steve Harris : Bass
Dave Murray, Janick Gers, Adrian Smith : Guitars
Nico Mc Brain : Drums

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This was my 1st Iron Maiden Open Air show.
The weather forecast were pretty pessimistic, but luckily for the fans, the thunderstorms decided not to come to Paris before the next day.

I was glad to see Iron Maiden (my favorite band when I was a teenager) on this tour because I knew they would only play material from the first 4 albums, which include my all time faves : The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind.

This show was scheduled exactly 2 years after my previous Maiden show in Paris' biggest arena : Bercy.

On with the show.
The band hit the stage at 9:10 PM, with a great intro, lots of pyros, and a huge warm welcome from the audience.
The show wasn't sold out, but at least 85% of the tickets were gone, and the stadium was almost as full as for Metallica last year.
The sound, which was excellent for Within Temptation and Dream Theatre, was a bit muddy for Iron Maiden, and Bruce's voice was under-mixed compared to the previous shows I saw.
I am happy that all 3 guitar players are in the band, but remembering the sound they had during the Fear of The Dark and Real Live Tour, my guess is that the 3rd guitar is making the sound a bit worse than when they only had 2.
Still the sound quality was way better than in Bercy in 2000 and 2003.

The setlist was great. Where Eagles Dare was awesome.
Bruce singing The Trooper in uniform is a nice scenic improvement.
Remember Tomorrow was introduced by Bruce in french, telling the story of his audition with Iron Maiden.

Prowler was really great and the extended grooving version of Running Free during the encore was probably the best version of this song I ever heard.

Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life and Phantom of the Opera were songs I heard live for the very first time, and I am really happy they decided to play them on this Early Days Tour.

As usual, Bruce spoke a lot to the audience. His french is very good and it always pleases the crowd to hear him in french. Bruce, Mick Jagger and Robert Plant are the 3 performers who make the most effort for making this special contact with their french fans, and a lot of bands should take example.
Bruce took the opportunity to announce that Iron Maiden would be back in 2006, probably with a new album, and that they were planning 2 show at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy, where they played most of their Parisian shows since 1986.

The stage design was pretty nice, the light show as impressive as usual.
During the Number of the Beast, the back of the stage was decorated with the french flag (Blue, White, Red), but for Phantom of the Opera, they had a problem with the flags and did not show up the picture they used for the live single of the song back in 1985.
Since the Parc des Princes is pretty large, part of the stage could nbot be seen by the fans that had bought seats. From where I sat, I could not see muck of Janick and Nicko.

What to say as a conclusion ?
Great band, great setlist, even if I missed songs like The Prisoner, which would have been a good surprise.
Among the negative points : the stage sould have been more open on the sides, the sound still ain't as good as it was when they had 2 guitarists, and Bruce's voice. He obviously did a great job with a voice that wasn't at 100% and that's probably the reason why he was low in the mix.

This Iron Maiden show still is among my favorites and it is by far the best one I saw from Maiden since 1999 when Bruce and Adrian came back.