Though they all carry the positive party line the members of Iron Maiden know that their days as a significant drawing power are lowly numbered. The realization of their post re-union decline is why they have announced that their current tour will be their last so, has the attempt to pull more people into the summer shed circuit paid any dividends? Of course it has but not quite what the Metal legends had hoped for I am sure.

In Detroit the group sold tickets to less than a third of the house’s capacity but did manage to dress the place out a bit with the distribution of a rather large amount of free tickets. The weather held as well, always important when you are playing outside, so in the end there was a respectable audience for Iron Maiden to say their farewells to but first there were a pair of classic acts, both with longer histories and more class than to try and sucker their audiences with claims of retirement.

Lemmy Kilminster and his longest standing version of Motorhead pounded out their usual deafening set of classic hits including “Overkill,” “Ace of Spades” and “No Class.” The kick of “Killed by Death” was particularly harsh but with only a half-hour on stage Motorhead came and went far too quickly to be fully appreciated. By the time Dio strolled on stage the bulk of those who were coming had arrived and forked hands flew in tribute to the man/band from every angle of the audience. There is a charisma to Ronnie James Dio that could easily carry his group through an hour-long set such as this but Dio simply doesn’t seem the type to ever rely on personality to coast through a performance. Quite to the contrary Dio hit the audience fast, hard and often serving up near a dozen legendary chunks from across his Heavy Metal career. Black Sabbath’s “Mob Rules” and “Heaven and Hell” could have been enough to call the whole evening a success but then there was the wholly unexpected left turn from Dio’s tradition of putting on Rainbow’s “Man on the Silver Mountain.” Instead Dio opted for an incredible take of the Rainbow classic “Stargazer.” The choice simply floored the audience. Of course the bulk of the set came from the Dio band’s own catalog, “Holy Diver,” “The Last in Line,” “Rainbow in the Dark,” “Stand up and Shout,” “Dream Evil” and a pair from the current “Killing the Dragon” disc, the title track and “Rock and Roll.” Add to this a pair of solos, one by drummer Simon Wright with another from returned guitarist Craig Goldy and it was easily the best teaser anyone could have for a full Dio set should they return as headliners.

With the usual extended break between groups marching right up to the point of annoyance Iron Maiden appeared on a spartanly dressed stage to roll through most of their greatest hits. Bruce Dickinson appeared to be about as hopped up as anyone in the audience and spent the first song, “Number of the Beast,” tripping over things but pulled it together nicely by the time “The Trooper” required him to run waving the Union Jack about. “Revelations” was a nice treat as were “Iron Maiden,” (the only Dianno era track for the night), and “The Clansman.” “The Clairvoyant” was a done by numbers bore made worse by sound problems that eliminated half of the guitar solos, actually this problem plagued much of Maiden’s set. Personally, I could have done without both “Fear of the Dark” and “Man on the Edge” in favor of another Dianno era gem but they were not badly done at all. The band has a new disc ready to come to stores which Dickinson informed would be entitled, “Dance of Death” and from that new disc they tossed out a less than impressive track called “Wildest Dreams.” A handful of other songs were thrown in to fill up the set including respectable versions of “2 minutes to Midnight” and “Run to the Hills” and then the lights came up and everyone went home. End of story? Not if there is a buck in it.

Just as you can count on Iron Maiden to puke out another dozen compilation and/or live discs while repackaging all the old albums a time or two more feel comfortable in looking for Iron Maiden to tour again despite protestations to the contrary. When the music is this good you can forgive the pretentious goofiness of bands like Kiss and Iron Maiden who claim that the end is near when they know damned well it is not.