Video-a-ron

Session 5 - 7/2/2015

It’s been a month and I am only just doing the write-up. It is now three months after the session and I am just posting.Terry and I are already in discussions for the next session while this one has been languishing.

The day started with my partner needing to get to the other side of town. This lead me to pick up Terry on the way and we managed to head to Death Ray Records in Newtown.

We dug around for a while Terry picking up a pile and I picked up a few items. Shockingly no Maiden was purchased! Although we both got some great finds.

We then went past Regional Wines and Spirits and filled up a growler and bought a few singles. Afterwards we moved on to New World Thorndon. Between these two stores we had managed to work out a Flanders Red/Sour tasting for the day with a Hoppy pale ale to start.

I then dropped Terry and the beer back at his place, dropped the car off at mine and caught a taxi back to his place.

We had planned to start earlier but all of this had taken time.

En Vivo - Behind The Beast

We kicked of the session at 1:28 P.M. with “Emersion’s - Santos Lil Helper”, Hell Pizza and En Vivo - Behind The Beast.

Terry - “Not sure what Nick thought but I really like this doco. Actually find it quite interesting seeing all the behind the scenes staff. Is amazing how many of these guys have been with them for so long.”

En Vivo

At 2:56 P.M. we moved on to the concert and started our sour tasting.

We kicked this off with a Flanders Red “Brouwerij Verhaeghe - Vichtenaar”

3:45 P.M. while still watching En Vivo we moved on to the second sour a Flemish Cherry Ale “Brouwerij Verhaeghe - Echt Kriekenbier”

4:25 P.M. we followed this with another Flanders Red from the family of true greats a “Brouwerij Rodenbach - 2010 Vintage Oak Aged Ale (Barrel No 144)”

I had picked up an extra glass for my house and brought Terry one as a gift so we spilt the bottle into the two Rodenbach glasses and carried on enjoying a great concert with amazing beer.

As always with the Rodenbach Grand Cru range be it the Grand Cru or the Vintage Oak Aged ones this delivered all and more.

Terry - “Probably could argue against the setlist from ‘En Vivo’ which leans heavily on the latest and later albums. But the crowd participation is insane. Nick wasn’t a big fan of the space-age Eddie although don’t mind it myself. The giant head is highly amusing. And well, as Nick hints here, Rodenbach makes almost any moment better!!! You can only imagine the retarded conversations about which songs came from which albums. Me and Nick both having absolutely no idea about most of the post 1992 albums.”

Behind The Iron Curtain

4:55 P.M. while still enjoying the Rodenbach we started Behind The Iron Curtain from the bonus Live After Death DVD.

5:30 P.M. We moved onto the final Flanders Red for the day “Brouwerij Verhaeghe - Duchesse de Bourgogne” We had discovered this beer a couple of years ago by mistake. Terry, two other friends and I were having a few nice beers at the Occidental in Auckland before a Black Sabbath concert.
We had settled on the final beer before leaving to find food and head to the concert. This had been a concession choice as we really wanted the Rodenbach Grand Cru but they didn’t have any, in the book it was listed as a Lambic so it seemed like a good choice. We ordered it and got back to our table to dish it out. This blew all of us away as it wasn’t a Lambic at all it was a Flanders Red the same style as Rodenbach and a very good one at that.

Terry - “Behind the Iron Curtain is quite an amusing old short. Shows in some ways how much the world has changed in our and the bands lifetime. Seeing Iron Maiden drunkenly playing ‘Smoke on the Water’ is worth the price of admission I think!”

While organising the Duchesse de Bourgogne Terry was organising his VHS copy of Donington Live 1992. Sadly this was not to be as his Video player was playing up and was putting a very loud earth hum across the sound track.

Terry - “Stupid video player! This is the only Maiden video so far that they haven’t re-released on DVD. Hopefully only a matter of time till get a working VHS or they re-release it!”

History Of Iron Maiden Part 2

6:00 P.M. we gave up on the VHS and moved onto the History Of Iron Maiden Part 2.

6:37 P.M. We opened the final Sour “Mussel Inn - Lean Lamb” Normally a fantastic sour beer. I think we left it to late in the tasting as it didn’t have it’s normal wow factor. Still a very enjoyable beer but I would not suggest having several big and bold Flanders Red Ales before it.

Terry - “I thought that the Lean Lamb might be a step down but it was dramatic. After the Rodenbach & Duchesse it was almost tasteless :( “

We closed the session at 7:03 P.M.

The Tally Of The Day

Watched

En Vivo - Behind The Beast
En Vivo
Behind The Iron Curtain
History Of Iron Maiden Part 2

Imbibed

Emersion’s - Santos Lil Helper
Brouwerij Verhaeghe - Vichtenaar
Brouwerij Verhaeghe - Echt Kriekenbier
Brouwerij Rodenbach - 2010 Vintage Oak Aged Ale (Barrel No 144)
Brouwerij Verhaeghe - Duchesse de Bourgogne
Mussel Inn - Lean Lamb

Aftermath

To carry on with our close out on an Iron Maiden related note we put on Bruce Dickinson - Balls To Picasso and finished up the Santos Lil Helper and a Mountain Goat - Summer Ale”, after this one I then Skateboarded home.

Terry - “This Bruce Dickinson album I had purchased recently and not really listened to. Was quite good, very rocky, some surprisngly good guitar parts. In some ways it was more dated than the Maiden of the same period [x-factor came out the year before] but I think I like it better.”