Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden emerged from East London in the mid-1970s, and its defiantly metal middle finger to that city's punk explosion was, intentionally or otherwise, punk as fuck. Mainman/bassist Steve Harris had a vision of something timeless; 20-plus arena-filling years later, it seems he had a point. Sidestepping the obvious head-bangin' influences of its era — Led Zeppelin's blues-based swagger and Black Sabbath's lurching doom — Maiden instead took cues from Thin Lizzy and UFO. The band developed an almost militaristic, galloping twin-guitar (now triple-guitar) trademark capped by Bruce Dickinson's alternately street-level/quasi-operatic vocals and lyrics that were more War and Peace than sex and sleaze. Iron Maiden is debatably the biggest cult band in America — it's never enjoyed substantial airplay or an MTV "heyday" here. And this rare South Florida show promises to focus on the band's 1980s classics ("Run to the Hills," "2 Minutes to Midnight," etc.) amid a stage set based on its epic 1984-85 Powerslave trek. Think middle-aged hesher guitarists scampering about the Luxor Hotel — with a giant robotic zombie.>