Pop Music Reviews : The Mayhem of Maiden Leaves a Singer Spitting Mad

Kids have got no respect these days.

Think of what happened Wednesday night to Bruce Dickinson, the singer for Iron Maiden. Two-thirds of the way through Maiden’s show at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Bruce quiets things down and tells us he’s going to reveal the real meaning behind Maiden’s new album, a sort of mystical messianic mishmash called “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.”

And before Bruce can tell us what it means, some kid spits in his face. This makes Bruce lose his train of thought.

“You come up after the show and spit in my face and I’ll break it for you,” Bruce bellows in his British accent, meaning the kid’s face, not his own.

And Bruce sure has a right to be mad. After all, the kid probably wouldn’t have been there to spit at him in the first place if Bruce hadn’t cussed out the security crew earlier in the show and demanded that they let everybody pile down front. This creates a scene sort of like an ongoing rugby scrimmage, which is fine with Bruce and the four other guys in Iron Maiden, ‘cause they’re drawing all kinds of energy vibes off of the mayhem and pounding out some of the toughest, fastest, most focused and single-minded headbanger heavy metal stuff you’re ever going to hear, which is great if you like headbanger stuff.

But when it comes time to explain the meaning of “Seventh Son,” Bruce expects everything to stop.

Except this one kid is still kind of excitable from the mayhem and all, so he gobs Bruce in the face. Well, the upshot of it is that we never do get to hear what “Seventh Son” is about. So when Eddie, Maiden’s gigantic, creepy mechanical mascot, pops up in the last number before the encore, holding this pink placenta thing, just like on the album cover--well, it’s hard to say just what it’s supposed to mean. But fireworks are going off everywhere, and there are flames shooting out of Eddie’s head, so it doesn’t really matter what it means. It’s the spectacle that counts, right?

The opening act, L.A. Guns, was serviceable but not spectacular filling in for Guns N’ Roses, which had to cancel several dates with Maiden because, according to a Geffen Records spokesman, its singer has “acute laryngitis.”

Iron Maiden and L.A. Guns play Friday night at the San Diego Sports Arena and Sunday at the Forum in Inglewood. Actually, Dickinson said on stage that he’d rather play the Long Beach Arena than the Forum, because the Forum is “where all the poseurs go.”

For Bruce’s sake, let’s hope that poseurs can’t spit straight.