Concert Review: Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Anthrax Bring the Run for Your Lives Tour to Tens of Thousands at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, QC.

Mark Kurtzner
2 hours ago
8 min read

Review by John Moore

Photos by Mark Kurtzner

September 3, 2026, brought a bulletproof evening of British metal to Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, headlined by the mighty Iron Maiden, along with two of the vaunted ‘Big 4’ of 1980s American thrash metal as support: Megadeth and Anthrax. A legendary night of real metal, it was.

Parc Jean-Drapeau is situated on two islands in the St. Lawrence River outside Montreal – for readers from the northeast of America, the closest comparison would be the Randall’s Island venue in New York City – a large, open-air park (which was the site of the 1967 World’s Fair over a half-century ago), easily reached by the Metro. The venue is well-organized, with a large open-air ticketed Pit area in the front (which itself held many thousands of concertgoers), a raised terrace area for those who wanted to watch in comparative comfort, and a huge general admission area behind all this. Large video screens flanked the stage, so even those farther back in the seemingly-

endless collection of humans there could see the action.

The weather was perfect – sunny, some clouds, but no crushing heat or rain to harsh the buzz. A beautiful late-summer Canadian night. The venue is sprinkled with ample concessions – not just band merch vendors, food, drinks and alcohol in every section – and drinks were fairly reasonable compared to the wallet-plundering prices of many major concert venues in the States – at Parc Jean-Drapeau, approximately $10US for a can of beer. A great place to see a show. Attendance was huge – approximately 33,000 – 35,000 metalheads there to ingest the heaviness – and many of the headbangers, earthdogs, hell rats and rivetheads onsite were sporting band-patch-

covered “battle jackets”, or at very least some kind of Maiden t-shirt from across the ages. Montreal showed up, as did many others from across Canada, the States and the rest of the world. The only headache – and this was simply due to the teeming masses of Maiden faithful – was the huge mass of metal-tee-clad humanity proceeding from the Metro onto the island, which security routed through a long, slow, roundabout walkway through which you crawled to your assigned section. It took ages to get to the Pit. But this was unavoidable.

First band Anthrax started early, just after 6 pm. The New York band was a perfect warm-up – they started as Maiden-obsessed NYC metalheads (check out their 1984 first record ‘Fistful of Metal’ where their Maiden influences are worn clearly on their sleeves) and became one of the biggest underground metal bands of the US thrash metal scene through the 80s and beyond. The band’s lineup is mostly the ‘classic’ lineup: guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello and singer Joey Belladonna are all there from back in the day, with only lead guitarist Jon Donais not of that vintage. All the guys still have tons of energy (bassist Frankie in particular, a man whose headbanging performance is ageless) and Joey, as ever, sounds roaring. They were great – they always are – kicking off with a quick 1-2-3 punch, led by ‘Among the Living’-era thrash standard “Caught in a Mosh”, followed by “Madhouse” from second record ‘Spreading the Disease’, and it was cool to hear first-album banger “Metal Thrashing Mad” in there too. Of course, their time onstage was brief – and frankly a lot of the crowd was still streaming in as they played – but expected cover- tune/hits “Antisocial” and “Got the Time” were in there, plus new song “It’s for the Kids” (from upcoming record ‘Cursum Perfico’, due September 18), before they wrapped up with ‘Among’ favorite “Indians”, Joey sporting the war bonnet, the band just hitting their stride and ending too soon. Great set, by the end of which the venue had filled in.

ANTHRAX SETLIST:

Caught in a Mosh

Madhouse

Metal Thrashing Mad

Antisocial

It's for the Kids

Got the Time

Indians

Megadeth – another of the leading lights of 80s American thrash – hit the stage a little after 7 pm while the sun still shone, and unleashed another tight set which invoked a big reaction from the Montreal crowd. Unlike the other two bands, ‘deth only feature bandleader/guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine from classic-era lineups, but it has really always been so with Megadeth. Mustaine is to Megadeth what Lemmy was to Motörhead - as long as he’s there, it’s Megadeth. The only other regular band member had ever been bassist Dave “Junior” Ellefson – there during many eras of the band, but not all – but Ellefson has been gone for a few years now, but the rest of the current lineup are all pros: journeyman bassist James Lomenzo replacing Junior, drummer Dirk Verbeuren hammering the skins, and skilled shredder Teemu Mantysaari on second guitar. These guys all bring it, and the fact that Megadeth switch the setlist up slightly every night on these Maiden shows is proof thereof.

Megadeth hit the stage with “Tipping Point”, a hammering thrasher from their eponymous new record (purportedly, their last-ever studio album, but we’ll see), and to their credit the new stuff hits as hard as the vintage songs – it’s a great record. 1990’s ‘Rust in Peace’ is considered their landmark album by many, and three of the 9 songs played were from that record: “Hangar 18” from ‘Rust’ was played second, followed by 90s hit “Sweating Bullets” and another new headbanger, “Let There Be Shred”. The band, like Anthrax, only played in front of a band-name backdrop, although (in a move clearly influenced by the headliners here) band mascot Vic Rattlehead came on stage twice, once in a white suit, once in a black suit – to cavort about the stage while the band played.

The band mixed it up by adding in ‘Youthanasia’-era track “A Tout le Monde”, a sharp move by Mustaine, and the Quebecois crowd howled the French-language chorus, the biggest song of the night for Mustaine & co. The band then brought it home with a hard-

hitting four-song blast: ‘Rust’ deep track “Tornado of Souls” into 1986 standard “Peace Sells”, followed by hit single “Symphony of Destruction” which led to a thrashing conclusion of “Holy Wars … The Punishment Due”. Another ripping set.

MEGADETH SETLIST:

Tipping Point

Hangar 18

Sweating Bullets

Let There Be Shred

A Tout le Monde

Tornado of Souls

Peace Sells

Symphony of Destruction

Holy Wars... The Punishment Due

As good as the support bands were, it was all about the Irons tonight. The ‘Run for Your Lives’ tour is one of Iron Maiden’s periodic tours where they play a set of classic, (mostly) 80s-era songs from their early records. As a kid who first saw Maiden opening for Judas Priest on the ‘Killers’ and ‘Number of the Beast’ tours as a teen, this was music to this writer’s ears. But unlike many bands of their era, the Iron Maiden crowd was not all grizzled greybeards in faded tour tees – the crowd is equally populated by fans from their teens (and younger, there with parents) through their 60s. Headbangers of all ages there to celebrate one of the great bands of the genre’s history. Anticipation was huge up until showtime, and as the last song played over the PA before showtime (as ever, UFO’s “Doctor Doctor”, a lot of the crowd bellowing Phil Mogg’s words as the lights went down) there was a huge vibe.

The show started with a cool video while vintage Maiden instrumental “The Ides of March” played through the PA – a virtual animated tour through East London and legendary venues the Irons played as a club band (Ruskin Arms, The Cart & Horses, etc.) before, of course, ending on the axe-wielding figure of Eddie himself. From there, the band were off and running, careening through a gloriously-roaring version of deep track “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, and laudably sticking with the 1981 ‘Killers’ record (an album rarely featured in the band’s set these days) for Steve Harris’ bass intro into the pummeling “Wrathchild” and the speedbomb “Killers” (Eddie of course visiting this stage in leather-jacketed garb, swinging an axe, only to be driven off by a groin-shot from Bruce). This killer opening salvo was punctuated with absolutely steamrolling version of first-album classic “Phantom of the Opera”, without doubt one of the Maiden catalog highlights, the expansive video screens showing a creepy opera house scene as the band jammed this eternal classic. It was great to see the band play a suite of songs from their now-deceased ex-singer Paul Di’Anno’s era – kind of an unspoken tribute to Paul not long after his death – which we don’t see in the setlist too much, other than the always-set-closing standard “Iron Maiden”.

After this, it was a blitzkrieg of mostly the hits, which the crowd lapped up: oft-played standard “The Number of the Beast” led into relative obscurity “Infinite Dreams” (from 1988 album ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’, a recent addition to the set on the 2026 leg of this tour, and a great song). The stomping title track of 1984 opus ‘Powerslave’ was next, trailed by a stupendous “2 Minutes to Midnight” and then the epic from that same record: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, all 13 minutes of it. Howlingly great.

A word about the stage show, which was amazing, ever-shifting, featured on a huge screen behind the band with brilliant animation and graphics for every song – sometimes album or single covers, but for “Powerslave” a take on that album cover where the Pharaoh-Eddie face got bigger and bigger (a great effect), and an astounding storyline animated video playing during “Rime”, which has to be seen.

The band, as ever, are a lesson in what makes great heavy rock. Bruce Dickinson’s amazing voice is eternal, it seems. Between songs, he addressed the Quebec crowd in perfect French, obviously appreciated by the mostly-French-speaking audience – and while he made clear that he was sick, his voice was still 90% there and unspeakably brilliant for a metal singer of his vintage. At an age where many lesser contemporaries have lost their pipes or are operating at reduced capacity, Bruce still brings it, even with a cold. The guitarists – Janick Gers, Adrian Smith and especially Dave Murray tonight, who was absolutely killing it on many of those early classics – played like demons, and of course bassist and bandleader Steve Harris remains agelessly ironclad, ranging the stage and playing brilliantly as ever. There has been a change in the band in recent years: longtime drummer Nicko McBrain has retired, and new drummer Simon Dawson (from Harris’ side-band British Lion) was solid, although it was odd to hear some of the tempos slightly reduced without Nicko’s manic machine behind the band.

It was mostly the hits from here: “Run to the Hills” and “The Trooper” were in there, of course, and “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” was back into the set after many years. To be honest, “Seventh Son” was never a favorite personally, I’ve always found the song plodding and a wee bit corny, although your results may differ. With longtime favorite bands the setlist is always the debate. Would I have rather had that long song deleted and maybe some deeper tracks like “Purgatory” or “Sanctuary” or “Sun and Steel” or “Back in the Village” in there instead, or maybe more songs from the only-one- song-played ‘Piece of Mind’ record? Sure. But ‘Seventh Son’ seemed to get a good

reaction from many.

The regular set concluded with two standards: all-time classic “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, Bruce’s voice maybe slightly wearing due to his cold on this song, the tempo possibly less intense than usual, but as always, an amazing song live. “Iron Maiden” ended the set as always, an animated giant Eddie face seemingly leaning and leering over the crowd, an amazing graphic, really cool.

And of course there was an encore: Churchill’s Speech into a truly rollicking “Aces High”, with a great, animated Eddie-in-a-fighter-cockpit video behind the band, followed by the only 90s song of the show, “Fear of the Dark”. This song really became an enduring classic with the 2009 ‘Flight 666’ live album and video, and the Montreal audience added the same crowd-participation magic that the Argentinian crowd did on ‘Flight 666’. And then Adrian’s trademark song, “Wasted Years” (from ‘Somewhere in Time’) finished the show, the crowd howling along, a great show closer.

Go see the ‘Run for Your Lives’ tour if it comes your way – an amazing gig and a great setlist. Up the Irons!

IRON MAIDEN SETLIST:

The Ides of March/Murders in the Rue Morgue

Wrathchild

Killers

Phantom of the Opera

The Number of the Beast

Infinite Dreams

Powerslave

2 Minutes to Midnight

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Run to the Hills