IRON MAIDEN, MEGADETH In Boston, MA With Photos!

Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 8:20 PM

By George Dionne, The Rock Is George Podcast

Beantown Runs For Their Lives To Witness Heavy Metal Royalty At The TD Bank North Garden On September 9th

All Live Photos By George Dionne / @therockisgeorge

IRON MAIDEN, MEGADETH In Boston, MA With Photos

Beantown Runs For Their Lives To Witness Heavy Metal Royalty At The TD Bank North Garden On September 9th

All Live Photos By George Dionne / @therockisgeorge

I have seen IRON MAIDEN many times over the last 25 years, but never at as big a venue as The Boston Garden. Oh that’s not the official name of the venue? That will always be the name to us locals, but we’ll settle for The Garden in a pinch.

Lending support to the British legends on the Run For Your Lives North American Tour were Thrash Metal icons MEGADETH. We’re going to save the review of their performance for the end. There were some shenanigans when it came to MEGADETH, but the night belonged to IRON MAIDEN.

Year after year IRON MAIDEN says they’re thinking about dropping “Doctor Doctor” by UFO as their introduction song, but as far as this year is concerned, it lives on. Taking in the crowd while the familiar notes played, I noticed fans were young and old, crossing over at least three generations. It’s wonderful to see that yet another generation is discovering IRON MAIDEN.

I read the online complaints before the tour began that the ticket prices were too high. Well, it clearly was not a factor tonight. The Garden was packed from floor to bleachers when the opening arpeggios and riffs of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” began to play. The crowd was deafening, and the music was just as loud.

For the first three songs IRON MAIDEN paid homage to their 1981 album ‘Killers’, as well as the late vocalist Paul Di’Anno who performed on it. Dickinson puts his own little stamp on the material, as he always has. During the song “Killers”, the band successfully thwarts longtime mascot Eddie from decapitating them. Watching the way the band moves on stage, I don’t see how Eddie will ever catch them.

The set moves on to another Di’Anno track “Phantom Of The Opera” before driving the crowd wild with what I consider the band’s calling card “The Number Of The Beast”. After a 30 some odd year absence, IRON MAIDEN brought “Infinite Dreams” into the set. Their proficient performance of the track makes you wonder why they waited so long. In between songs vocalist Bruce Dickinson revealed the secret liquid concoction he uses to maintain his voice. **Spoiler alert** It’s water!

The back-to-back executions of “Powerslave” and “2 Minutes To Midnight” hardly gave the crowd a chance to catch their collective breaths. A sold out Boston Garden was more than willing to sing along too. Now, IRON MAIDEN is known for their stage sets and props. This time around a giant screen with AI animations replaces most of that, with surprising results.

What the band did with “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” visually (and sonically) was just amazing. Another cool use of the screen was during “Hallowed Be Thy Name” where Dickinson disappeared from the stage in a cloud of smoke and then appeared inside the giant screen. The theatrics of what was on stage and what was produced on the video screen may very well be the future of stage productions (for those bands that still care about it).

This night of greatest hits continued for a total of two hours, and it easily could have gone on for two more hours. IRON MAIDEN showed no signs of slowing down, no signs of losing their touch, and delivered yet another show that rivals any studio recording they’ve ever made. I expect this tour to get a live release in the future.

“Iron Maiden” closed out the set before the encore. The band couldn’t have picked any better songs than the three song assault of “Aces High”, “Fear of the Dark”, and “Wasted Years” to finally bring their fiery night to a close. I don’t stay for encores, but on this night, I was compelled to.

It’s debatable who the greatest Heavy Metal band is. Some say METALLICA. Others say BLACK SABBATH. On this night however, IRON MAIDEN took the title. I’m sure they will continue to do so as the tour rolls on.

Setlist:

“Murders In The Rue Morgue”
”Wrathchild”
”Killers”
”Phantom Of The Opera”
“The Number Of The Beast”
“Infinite Dreams”
”Powerslave”
”2 Minutes To Midnight”
”Rime Of The Ancient Mariner”
”Run To The Hills”
”Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son”
”The Trooper”
”Hallowed Be Thy Name”
”Iron Maiden”
”Aces High”
”Fear Of The Dark”
”Wasted Years”

https://www.ironmaiden.com

As for MEGADETH… The advertised start time for the band was 7:20pm. Myself and the other photographers were instructed to meet our liaison at 7pm. By 7:15pm no one had shown up to meet us. The liaison showed up at 7:20pm and informed us that MEGADETH had unexpectedly started their set at 7pm and we wouldn’t be able to shoot them this late into the set. Apparently we were in a part of the building where you could not hear the band playing.

By the time we locked up our camera gear and got up to the arena, MEGADETH had played most of their set. I was only able to catch the last three songs, “Symphony of Destruction”, “Peace Sells”, and “Holy Wars”. Now I have been a lifelong MEGADETH fan, and I can honestly tell you, the performance of these three songs were not great.

Sure, the instrumentation was good and on point (maybe a little slower), but Dave Mustaine’s vocals were rough. Also, he was either exhausted, bored, or tired. Maybe all three. He couldn’t hit the notes either, and that’s not a high bar when it comes to Dave Mustaine vocals.

MEGADETH had their first #1 album this year with their alleged final album. They are on their alleged final tour. They go on a half an hour early and they sound terrible. This causes an hour long break before IRON MAIDEN goes on (as scheduled). This does not look good for MEGADETH. I hope they rebound or they are bound to go out on a whimper, rather than the high note they deserve.

Setlist:

“Tipping Point”
”Hangar 18”
”Take No Prisoners”
”Sweating Bullets”
”Trust”
”Tornado Of Souls”
”Symphony Of Destruction”
”Peace Sells”
”Holy Wars”

https://www.megadeth.com

The tour continues on in a town or city near you…

Sep. 17 - Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life Festival
Sep. 19 - Shakopee, MN – Mystic Lake Amphitheater
Sep. 22 - Chicago, IL – Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Sep. 25 - Los Angeles, CA – BMO Stadium
Sep. 29 - San Antonio, TX – Alamodome

IRON MAIDEN