by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Saw a couple of good shows last week, but the Iron Maiden debacle at the Bell Centre certainly wasn’t one of them. Maiden hit the stage with a new song from their recent A Matter of Life and Death, followed by another new song, which was followed by another new song… I remarked to my friend that this was a pretty ballsy way of starting the show, before I realized they would stuff the majority of the set list with the entire, hour-long new album. I like A Matter of Life and Death just fine, but like the rest of the sold-out audience in attendance, I was expecting some of the hits from their 14-record career. Although some bones were thrown at the end with the inclusion of “Two Minutes to Midnight,” “Iron Maiden” and “Fear of the Dark,” the glaring absence of “Run to the Hills,” “Wrathchild,” “The Trooper,” “Murders in the Rue Morgue” or, at the very least, “Number of the Beast,” was inexcusable. I’m sure Dickinson and company don’t want to be shaking it to the oldies, but the fact is, if the audience were shelling out 50 clams each to hear the new record, they should’ve just played Metropolis.

One show that easily beat the Maiden disaster was a secret show at l’Escogriffe with Randy. After opening for Vulgaires Machins at the Spectrum earlier in the night, these jet-lagged Swedes jumped on a local bill and packed the tiny club. I got in mid-way through Jimi Hunt’s set, which featured members of the Cockroaches and Demon’s Claws—really cool Modern Lovers repetition and simplicity, with a bit of Jeffrey Lee Pierce howl mixed in. By the time Randy finally took the stage, l’Esco was pushed far beyond capacity, and the band ripped through an all-request set that included “X-Ray Eyes,” “Kiss Me Deadly” (no “Welfare Problems”!) and more.

Big news for the punk-rock cinemaphile is the screening of documentary film American Hardcore this week. With hardcore always getting whitewashed in rock ’n’ roll’s history books, American Hardcore hopes to fill in the void of punk rock’s underground years between 1980 and 1986, documenting the regional scenes as well as giving influential bands like Black Flag, Articles of Faith, Bad Brains and Minor Threat their long overdue props. This film, not to be missed by any music fan, will be playing Ex-centris as part of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, on Monday at 9:15 p.m. and Thursday at 11:20 a.m.

Perhaps due to the Sony Pictures muscle behind American Hardcore, there has been a rash of early-’80s hardcore DVDs coming out lately, including some stellar ones with Negative Approach and the Accused, but if you only buy one DVD this year, make it Bad Brains Live at CBGBs 1982, which hits shelves this week. This DVD perfectly documents one of rock ’n’ roll’s greatest bands ever captured at their leanest and meanest.

I’M A MEMBER OF THE FVK! jonathan.cummins@gmail.com

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