“The Best Gig I Ever Saw” is a new weekly column, which will see us ask a musician to chat about their favorite concert thus far. This week, Josh Todd, frontman with local rockers Buckcherry.

Iron Maiden
I lived close to Irvine Meadows Amphitheater when I was a kid in Orange County — before I saw shows there, I had only seen punk-rock shows at Fenders Ballroom in Long Beach. Iron Maiden was playing this particular night and there was a way for us kids to rush the security fence at Irvine Meadows, jump it and go through the wooded area of the park (outdoor venue) to see shows for free.

The security there was pretty lenient and if you got caught they wouldn’t arrest you, they would just escort you out of the venue, so the trick was to get a lot of friends to rush the gate at one time and some of us would get in and some of us wouldn’t. I had never done it prior to this particular night, and I had never seen a rock production of an Iron Maiden show. I dropped acid that night and it was raining. All I can remember is making it over the fence and into the venue and the first song I saw of Iron Maiden was “Run to the Hills.” The acid was in full force by then and the experience blew my fucking mind.

Buckcherry perform at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Wednesday, Jan. 16; the Canyon in Santa Clarita on Thursday, Jan. 17; the Canyon in Agoura Hills on Friday, Jan. 18; and the Rose in Pasadena on Saturday, Jan. 19.

Iron Maiden back in Irvine performing “Run to the Hills”


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