The Iron Maidens -  State Theatre - St. Petersburg, Florida - February 16th, 2018

Review by Bill St. Arnauld

 

 

 We've been on a roll lately with seeing concerts, it seems that it's been one after the other since around the beginning of the year. Several years ago it seemed as though there was a concert drought down here, we went months without seeing a show and many major tours didn't have a Florida stop at all, now it seems that it is the complete opposite as there are too many concerts! We really have to pick and choose the shows that we attend as there are times that there are several great shows on the same night, even though we wanted to take a weekend off from attending the many shows when we saw that the all female Iron Maiden tribute, The Iron Maidens, were making a stop at the State Theatre in St. Petersburg we knew that this was a must see show, we've heard great things about this band! We went to this show with high expectations as we've heard the glowing reviews and loved what we saw and heard on Social Media concerning The Iron Maidens, our curiosity was increased when we discovered that the opening act would be Paradise Kitty, an all female tribute to Guns N Roses. After attending this concert we can gladly say that both bands exceeded our expectations as they were both phenomenal!

 

 After hanging out with friends for a couple of hours we made our way to The State Theatre, even well before the show started there was already a decent size crowd, there would only be two bands performing with no local openers at all. If you missed your chance to see Guns N Roses when they were in Florida, this was your chance to hear all of their hits performed with songs from Appetite For Destruction to Use Your Illusion in the set. Paradise Kitty is based out of the L.A. area and consists of members Rachael Rine on drums, vocalist Jenna Syde, Nikki Stevens on bass, Britt Lightning on lead guitar and Hisako Ozawa on Rhythm Guitar. These women kicked ass ripping through an 11 song set consisting of some of Guns N Roses biggest hits! Some of the highlights were Welcome to the Jungle, It's so Easy, Night Train, Rocket Queen, You Could Be Mine, Use to Love Her and Paradise City. Paradise Kitty were no mere Tribute Band, these women play as well as any band out there! It was a GREAT show and a great opening act for The Iron Maidens, the band kept the crowd pumped up and ready for the headlining act.

 

 After the usual wait between acts, the intro music that announced that The Iron Maidens would be taking the stage, Doctor Doctor by the band U.F.O. cranked out. Anyone that knows anything about the "real" Iron Maiden knows this intro well as they use the same. After the intro another very familiar Iron Maiden characteristic started playing over the speakers, this was the Churchill speech leading directly into Aces High (one of my favorites by the way) which kicked off this VERY energetic 16 song show! Frontwoman Kirsten Rosenburg kept the crowd pumped up all night with her soaring vocals and banter, she sounded VERY much like Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, as a matter of fact the entire band sounded exactly like the real deal! Do I dare say that on some of the numbers that they performed they may have even sounded somewhat better than Iron Maiden?!?! The band performed most of Iron Maiden's well known catalog with a few deeper cuts thrown in, I was extremely happy to hear Still Life off of Piece of Mind as this is another favorite of mine.

 

 

 The Iron Maidens are a 5 piece band which are also from the L.A. area, there is no female version of Iron Maidens third guitarist Janick Gers in this band. The rest of the band other than Kirsten Rosenburg are Linda McDonald on drums, Wanda Ortiz on bass, Guitarists Courtney Cox and Nita Strauss (both being VERY impressive guitarists!) This was a fun show and one that Deb and I are glad that we got to cross off our list as we've been wanting to see them for quite a while and just never had the chance. For us Metal heads out there what is better than a fun night of the music that we love hanging out with friends? We want to thank Paradise Kitty and the Iron Maidens for a great show, and the Iron Maidens in particular for putting us on the list and setting up my photo pass. Full setlist below…

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Setlist

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Aces High

2 Minutes to Midnight

22 Acacia Avenue

The Trooper

Fear of the Dark

The Number of the Beast

Phantom of the Opera

Powerslave

Revelations

Wasted Years

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Still Life

Children of the Damned

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Iron Maiden

Running Free

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