Dave & Steve meet
ENCORE:
Wow...there wasn't a bad song in the whole set. Bruce sounded excellent all night, and it was particularly interesting to hear him sing on tracks from the recent albums that he wasn't on (1995's "The X Factor" and 1998's "Virtual XI").
But the fun didn't end when the band walked off stage after "Run To The Hills". No, no, no, it was only just beginning...
My brother Steve and I had a hotel room booked at a Holiday Inn in Cleveland. So we get there about 1 am to check in, only to find out that they gave our room away! (despite the fact that we had secured the reservation with a credit card, and had called the night before to inform them that it will be a late night arrival). At first I was quite pissed. But then they told me that they'd find us a room at another hotel and that THEY would pay for everything! OK, things were looking better now. After about a 40 minute wait, they finally found us a room at another Holiday Inn that was about 10 minutes away.
So we get to hotel # 2, we walk in the lobby, and who do we see sitting right there in the lobby? Bruce Dickinson *AND* Adrian Smith! Talk about an incredible twist of fate!!! Luckily, my brother had his camera in the car, so he made a quick run out to the car to grab it. We got our photos taken with Bruce & Adrian...here are the photos:
Pictured below: Me (Dave), Adrian Smith, Steve (my brother)
Pictured below: Bruce Dickinson, Me
Pictured below: Bruce Dickinson, Steve
Pictured below: my autographed ticket stub (yeah, I wish I had something less corny for them to sign, but I wasn't expecting to meet them, okay?!?!?)
Thanks to Bruce & Adrian for being so gracious to us. And extra special thanks to the Holiday Inn for fucking up our reservations.