R3 and I went to Sacramento last Saturday night to see the Iron Maidens at The Roadhouse. The Maidens are an all-female tribute to Iron Maiden and one of the better tribute bands I've seen. They've recently acquired a new lead singer and I was impressed with how she handled the material. The instrumentalists are also very impressive, especially the drummer (who happens to look like UCLA alum Maria, but with dark brown hair). The band also pulled out some really obscure stuff from Iron Maiden's first album and the crowd loved it. Interestingly, they opened with the song "Be Quick or Be Dead" and their penultimate song was "Fear of the Dark," both of which come from 1992's Fear of the Dark, released a few years after the classic Maiden line-up generally portrayed by the tribute. I'm always interested in this kind of thing from tribute bands, when they seem to bend the "rules" like that. The Roadhouse is an okay joint though. It's kind of like Paladino's in Tarzana -- lots of 80s metal throwbacks walking around watching tribute bands -- but with a huge patio area out back. Oh, Mountain played there last month. Yes, Mountain from the 70s Southern Rock era. I can't decide whether to feel sorry for them or to applaud their enjoyment of simply playing live regardless of where.