But I'll go you one better (if you've got the nerve)…Let's race all the way to Dead Man's Curve…

….and then take a “tumble at the Devil’s Bend”. Heh. Yeah, so Crowley and eM finally managed to catch Iron Maiden live, complete with Can I Play With Madness, Fear of the Dark, Heaven Can Wait, The Clairvoyant, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Powerslave, Aces High…and Moonchild. We managed to miss Parikrama’s set and the first few songs of the Maiden set (delayed flight from Delhi, combined with famous Bombay traffic, and, of course, a certain person who took her own time with her pre-gig drinks, and kept sweetly asking me “Why are you in such a hurry?”) but nonetheless, it was brilliant gig, and the company excellent, if a little, um, undereducated in the ways of metal. :-)

Oh, and eM remembered (and chanted along to) Fear of the Dark….word for word. That woman has done me proud.

And, yes, much to our disappointment, we couldn’t get to meet Maiden, after all!!! (Again, a certain person will never let me live this one down). So, all you clowns who cried out in angst at my good fortune, you can have the the last laugh. Bully for you. Another day, another band….we shall prevail.

Since the Maiden after-party didn’t happen (actually, it turns out it DID happen, after all, but was in the wee hours of the morning, and wasn’t particularly rocking, according to a few people who were there) we just made up for it with many drinks and many arguments over the check at Vertigo. Rest assured, after my Vertigo visit, I will NEVER, EVER, look at a trash dumpster in quite the same light. I will also be very wary of cheese.

We ended the evening with drunken karaoke singing (bawling) at Merlin’s with our little group hammering out “Bharat Hamko Jaan Se Pyaara Hai” and a bunch of inebriates at the other end of the bar wailing out the all-famous “Sutta Song”…all at the same time. A heady mix, if there was one.

The rest of the night was spent observing a hyperactive cat (described, rather astutely, by RickshawWrestler as a ‘gay dog stuck inside a cat’s body) chase cockroaches and mosquitoes; reading (for the umpteenth time) Stephen King’s ‘Christine’; keeping aforementioned mosquitoes from buzzing in my ear; and fending off aforementioned cat from jumping on my face and nipping at my toes as I tried to snatch a few hours of sleep.

Nevertheless, a fun trip. Would’ve been a lot more fun had Crowley not followed tradition and had actually DONE what he had set out to do (in addition to meeting Iron Maiden).

Net result? This song keeps rumbling around in my silly head.

That fateful night the car was stalled
upon the railroad track.
I pulled you out and we were safe
but you went running back.

Why does Crowley insist on running back, and not Running Free? Any explanations, por favor?