Concert Review: Bruce Dickinson, House of Blues, Boston, M.A. !

Mark Kurtzner
Sep 12
4 min read

On September 11th, Bruce Dickinson brought his long-awaited Mandrake Project Tour to the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts to an excited packed crowd. It's been nearly 30 years since he last toured with a solo band in the United States and it was definitely worth the wait!

Dickinson’s backing band is known as the "House Band From Hell" :Philip Naslund and Chris Declercq on guitars, Dave Moreno on drums, Mistheria on keyboards and Tanya O'Callaghan on bass – the latter is a veteran not only of Whitesnake’s final lineup, but also projects with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt (amongst many others), perhaps making her the most well-known heavy rock bassist from Ireland since Phil Lynott. The set included a great mix from his solo albums plus a surprise Iron Maiden deep track and a rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" as a warm up for a Pittsburgh Steelers game on Sunday. Bruce was in NYC during the tragic events of 9/11 and his practice run was a great way to honor the day.

Bruce opened the show with al- out intensity: "Accident of Birth", title track from his 1997 solo set, jumping into "Abduction" (the only selection aired from the ‘Tyranny of Souls’ record) and then "Laughing from the Hiding Bush", from the recently-reissued ‘Balls to Picasso’ the most-represented of his solo albums in this night’s set. Of course, new record ‘The Mandrake Project’ was well-represented in the set, and "Shadow of the Gods" was next. But other than debut solo record ‘Tattooed Millionaire’ and the 1996 record ‘Skunkworks’, (the two solo records unrepresented in the setlist), Bruce was here to play a wide range of his solo catalog, made evident next by a crushing version of "Chemical Wedding".

Up next was the big surprise, with Bruce unearthing an Iron Maiden deep track, "Flash of the Blade", from ‘Powerslave’, never played live by his main band but unleashed to huge cheers in Boston. This was a great choice - he didn’t lean too heavily on his non-solo work or stuff the set with hits from his main band like so many other solo artists – but a cool deep track so many of us have always wanted to see live was a great nod to his heritage. And the Maiden track was a new thing for Bruce’s solo live show: when I saw him last year in California he didn't do any Maiden songs and I honestly don't think that he's performed any Iron Maiden’s songs previously (unless you count “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter” which he played on the Tattooed Millionaire tour, but remember back then it was a solo Bruce song from a soundtrack album, and Maiden hadn’t yet recorded it). The only other example I’ve seen of Bruce doing the old stuff was during that 1990 tour when he opened with Samson's "Riding with the Angles". which to me was truly amazing as I never had a chance to see Samson.

But back to 2025 - up next he played "Resurrection Men" and "Rain on the Graves", both from the new album, after which he played a great version of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" - during this part Bruce played a really cool instrument called a Theremin + some percussion during it. Great stuff.

Then it was back to Bruce’s solo stuff with "The Alchemist" the "Book of Thel" (both from ‘Chemical Wedding’) and "Road to Hell" (from ‘Accident of Birth’) to round out the regular set. He and his band left the stage for a short break but the crowd wanted more ... and Bruce obliged, with the epic "Tears of the Dragon", into "Gods of War" eventually ending with "The Tower", and huge applause from Boston.

Truly, a great show: Bruce's vocal range and stage presence is one of a kind – none can dispute that he is one of the best front men in all of rock music. His voice honestly is better than it was in the 90's – who knows how he does it, but let us all be glad that he is still able to perform at such a high level - to this writer, show of the year. As he closed the show he informed the packed crowd who all stayed to the end that the band are currently working on a new album and definitely will be back - I'll definitely be waiting.