Playing heavy metal at breakneck speeds and ear-splitting volume is challenging enough. But how about doing it while surrounded by flamethrowers, a swooping fighter jet and a giant, ghoulish mascot named Eddie lurking over your shoulder?
For the members of the legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden — which brings its over-the-top “Legacy of the Beast” tour to Barclays Center Friday and Saturday — it’s just another day at the office.
“It’s great fun. It’s probably the biggest production we’ve ever had,” Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, 62, tells The Post. “We have all the props; it’s all linked up to the ‘Legacy’ video game. But as far as playing goes, you’re onstage concentrating on the music. Ironically, you don’t get to see the production, really, but the audience does. But playing a guitar solo with a Spitfire hanging over your head is quite fun.”
The stage show is based on the free mobile game, which takes its name from Maiden’s breakthrough 1982 album, “The Number of the Beast,” and allows the user to play Eddie in his various incarnations through different “Maiden Worlds.”
While Iron Maiden’s music is tailor-made for its outrageous arena shows, like most bands’ beginnings, this one’s more humble.
“I think the first time we played New York was the Palladium with Judas Priest,” Smith says, recalling the long-shuttered, 3,000-capacity venue on East 14th Street. “That was in 1981, I think. I also remember playing on another occasion at the Palladium when someone threw like a cherry bomb onstage and it blinded one of our roadies, thankfully only temporarily.”
Iron Maiden, in the vanguard of the New Wave of British heavy metal, really took off when Bruce Dickinson — who is also a commercial pilot who’s flown the band around on tour, a championship fencer and a best-selling author — replaced Paul Di’Anno in 1981, six years and two albums into the band’s run, and released the “Beast” album.
Dickinson and Smith each left the band for a few years but returned in 1999. The lineup has stayed intact since, with Dickinson and Smith joined by Dave Murray (guitar), Janick Gers (guitar), Steve Harris (bass) and Nicko McBrain (drums).
“There’s not that many bands that have been around as long as we have,” Smith says. “I left the band in ’89, I had a bit of a break, which was great for me. I appreciate every second of it now, but maybe in the ’80s it was slightly different.
“I think we really enjoy playing live. It’s hard with the traveling, it’s hard for anybody. It’s unique, the fact that we’ve been together for so long, but I suppose as long as people want to come see us, we’ll keep putting on shows.”
While Maiden’s show is chock-full of high-production eye candy, Smith stresses that the music is all performed live — with no backing tracks. That, he says, is not the case with many groups, and he finds that trend alarming.
“I tell you what, I see it with a lot of younger bands, and I don’t think it’s a good thing at all,” the guitarist said. “I mean, the music is getting too technical now. You have computerized recording systems, which we use, but I think we use them more for convenience than because we need to. We’ve toured with a couple bands that use tapes — it’s not real. You’re supposed to play live; it should be live. I don’t agree with using tapes … I think it’s a real shame.”
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