LIVE REVIEW: Bruce Dickinson, Black Smoke Trigger, Barrowland, Glasgow, 18/05/2024
Photo Credit: Andy Davies
The sun was out in Glasgow but the walk along Argyll Street wasn’t too pleasant tonight as there was a ‘Celtic title party’ taking place all the way along towards the famous Barrowland Ballroom, with the streets strewn with glass and rubbish. Thankfully we made it safe to the venue for what would be an outstanding night of music as metal God Bruce Dickinson brought his Mandrake Project Tour to the east end venue with the metalhead community out in force. Tonight’s support band Black Smoke Trigger are a hard rock/metal quartet all the way from Napier, New Zealand, the ballroom was almost at capacity at 8pm when they took to the stage and it was to be a very hot, sticky night under the lights. Vocalist Baldrick charmed the crowd from the word go as the band worked through a few older tracks and a few from the upcoming debut album Horizons, The Way Down and K.M.T.L. being the new tracks while biggest song to date Caught In The Undertow and You Can Have It All were all appreciated by the crowd during the half hour set. We would like to see Black Smoke Trigger come back to the UK for a headline tour. 8/10.
Bruce Dickinson needs little introduction and is already a living legend on the metal scene, tonight would be only solo material though, no Iron Maiden songs here. Italian Keyboard wizard Mistheria would bring a touch of class to the night alongside the other touring band members Dave Moreno on drums, Tanya O’Callaghan on bass and Chris Declerq & Philip Naslund providing the guitar work. Dickinson took to the stage in leather jacket and trouser and woolly hat to a massive cheer as the set began with Accident of Birth, the title track from the 2005 album followed by Abduction from the Tyranny Of Souls album, these two tracks set the mood nicely for what was to come. Mistheria in his cowboy hat thrilled the crowd with his amazing keytar work and special mention to Irish bassist Tanya O’Callaghan of Whitesnake fame for her extraordinary energy levels throughout the performance; the only female musician on the famous Barrowland stage tonight. Laughing In The Hiding Bush kept the energy levels high in the crowd, one of only two tracks that were played from the 1994 Balls To Picasso album, the other being Tears Of The Dragon later in the set.
It was now time for the first number from The Mandrake Project album, as Afterglow of Radnarok began to a loud cheer Dickinson’s voice went up an octave and the fans joined in with the chorus “Moonlight guides us on a steady course/Afterglow of Ragnarok/Becomes the shadow of the dawn”. A powerful song and one of the best of the set. The sweat must have been dripping from the ceiling by now as the band took us back to 1998 album The Chemical Wedding, playing the title track of the album before bringing it right back up to date with another three songs from the latest album – Many Doors To Hell, Resurrection Men and Rain On The Graves being the tracks – with the added bonus of The Gates of Urizen sandwiched in between those to mix it up a little. We maybe expected more than four tracks from The Mandrake Project but the back catalogue is just too big to justify that we guess. A cover of Frankenstein by The Edgar Winter Group was appreciated all round, as Dickinson took to the small bongo drums from time to time as if to prove that he is more than just a vocalist. As the main set drew to a close with The Alchemist and Darkside Of Aquarius the fans were now beyond the point of worrying about a little sweat as fists pumped the air in delight and chants of ‘hey hey hey’ went off all around the ballroom, the crowd didn’t let the band down tonight that’s for sure!
The three track encore began with Navigate The Seas Of The Sun from the Tyranny Of Souls album, a great choice of song and mostly acoustic led, quickly followed by Book Of Thel and last but not least The Tower, the last two tracks taken from The Chemical Wedding album from which we were lucky enough to hear a total of five songs from tonight. Sadly we didn’t get the All The Young Dudes cover that we were expecting which they played in Wolverhampton, in fact we didn’t get any tracks at all from the Tattooed Millionaire album; Bruce’s debut solo album released in 1990. But nobody was complaining, the fans seemed satisfied with the sixteen tracks the band played. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of Iron Maiden’s foundation and we are sure to see the band tour in some form so The Mandrake Project tour has been a breath of fresh air for Dickinson before he gets back to his ‘day job’ as he called it tonight. We can’t wait! 10/10.
Written by: Alan Brown
