Virgil insisted we were seeing the real deal.
I tried explaining: tribute bands. Musicians who dress like and play the songs of other musicians. He shook his head. “Nonsense. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Scorpions in Leesburg on a Friday night!” Once Virgil gets fixated on a frame of reality, arguing with him about it is like debating metaphysics. So off we went, through the posh suburban corridors of Loudoun County, into the cauldron of Leesburg’s Tally Ho Theater for what was ostensibly a genuine heavy metal summit.
On August 15, the night opened with Animal Magnetism, fronted by a powerhouse vocalist who nailed Scorpions’ soaring melodic grit. Both of their guitarists, one of whom Virgil swore looked suspiciously like Hunter S. Thompson, delivered crisp, clean solos that were clinical in accuracy but pulsing with enough energy to keep the crowd alive.
The singer threw koozies into the audience with cheerful abandon. Nobody clawed for them. “In Hanover, fans would have died for such relics. Americans have grown soft!” Virgil scowled. By the time “Rock You Like a Hurricane” closed the set, Virgil effused that Scorpions — excuse me, Animal Magnetism — had done a yeoman’s job. There was no point in correcting him.
Interstitial music blared Dio’s Rainbow in the Dark and other popular metal tunes before Priest Unleashed stormed on stage with “Electric Eye.” Their singer looked every bit the elder Halford, leather-studded, aviator sunglassed, and commanding, while their lead guitarist could’ve passed for Halford’s younger self. It was as though time had bifurcated on stage.
Virgil raised an eyebrow at the Michelob Ultra in the singer’s hand. “Ah yes,” he muttered, “for those who want beer that tastes like television static.” Their set leaned technical, reverent in execution but stiff in movement. Covering Judas Priest at their most intricate left little room for swagger. I thought they’d have breathed freer if they’d tapped into the pop-metal anthems of Priest’s late ’80s catalog and then “Painkiller” hit, that unmistakable drum intro snapping the crowd back to life. They closed with “Turbo Lover,” and I found myself smiling that they had taken my advice.
Then came the headliner: Eyes of the Nile. The stage was transformed, opener amplifiers and drumset cleared for a towering kit on a massive riser, with flanking glowing Anubis statues stage left and right. Virgil clasped his hands. “This is the scale Maiden requires.”
They launched with “Where Eagles Dare” and never let go: “Two Minutes to Midnight,” “Killers,” “The Evil That Men Do.” Each delivered with both technical mastery and visible joy, a stark contrast to Priest Unleashed’s early setlist of wooden reverence. Eyes of the Nile were not just precise; they were transmogrified into Iron Maiden, radiating the fun of playing these titanic songs.
Watch Eyes of the Nile perform “The Evil That Men Do” by Iron Maiden live on YouTube:
The centerpiece came when the drummer broke into his solo, teasing Metallica, Van Halen, Twisted Sister, before segueing with solemn gravity into “Paranoid.” An RIP Ozzy backdrop glowed behind the band just weeks after Osbourne’s passing. The band delivered it straight, no irony, and the singer monologued at the end of the song to remind us that Ozzy wasn’t just a celebrity but a cornerstone of the music that shaped all of us in that room tonight. Virgil wiped his eyes.
Then the set detonated back into Maiden classics: “The Trooper” complete with a costumed trooper charging the stage. That one struck me personally. I’d played it myself once, at my own college band’s first show. Back then, I was the drummer for a ragtag band of unserious undergraduates who just wanted to play some heavy metal. We never attempted any of Maiden’s longer epics such as “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
But then Eyes of the Nile did. My absolute favorite Maiden song, played in full glory. I stood there elated, throwing the horns and singing along, marveling at their endurance, their dueling harmonies, and the atmospheric shifts that made it the Everest of Maiden’s catalog.
They followed with “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” “The Prisoner,” and, to my astonishment, “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.” “We already gave you one epic, so why not two?” the singer grinned, acknowledging the absurd generosity of it. Each of the guitarists got their own solos, then came “Run to the Hills,” and a finale of “Iron Maiden” itself. They can’t be bought or sold.
Eyes of the Nile may be a tribute band, but by the end of the night they blurred the line so completely that even I began to think maybe Virgil was right. They didn’t just mimic Iron Maiden, they embodied them, to the point where the setlist and staging felt almost indistinguishable from the authentic experience.
Afterward, in the musty bowels of a Leesburg parking garage, a grinning, sweaty fan told me he’d seen Eyes of the Nile five times and that they only got better. I believed him. Virgil, of course, never doubted. As we set out into the muggy night, he shook his head in wonder in my passenger seat. “What luck, to see Scorpions, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden on the same bill in Virginia. History will remember this night.”
I didn’t argue.
Here are some photos of Eyes of the Nile, Priest Unleashed, and Animal Magnetism performing live at Tally Ho Theater on August 15, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Marc Shea.
