TORONTO - Last night at Toronto's sold-out Air Canada Centre, Iron Maiden made sure it 1984 all over again.

And while the youthful, fist-pumping energy was there for most of the two-hour set, the British heavy metal icons were starting to run on fumes as the evening closed with Hallowed Be Thy Name.

Nonetheless, the primarily 50-ish sextet led by the hyperactive and dynamic singer Bruce Dickinson kept the loud and loyal followers standing from the intro of Winston Churchill's famous 1940 "never surrender" speech and into Aces High from 1984's Powerslave album.

And when Dickinson utters the lyric "live to fly, fly to live" from the opening number, he's definitely doing just that. A licensed pilot, Dickinson is one of rock's few performers pulling double duty, flying the band's jet from city to city throughout this current world trek dubbed the Somewhere Back In Time tour.

Looking like a desperate court jester trying to placate the roughly 15,000 metal kings and queens before him, Dickinson spent most of the night running, leaping and jumping around the multi-level Egyptian Sphinx-inspired stage, encouraging the crowd to scream during the rapid-fire 2 Minutes To Midnight and slower but meatier Revelations.

After announcing that a documentary on the group was being filmed by Canadian Sam Dunn (director of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey), Dickinson kept the energy high while the trio of guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers stood side by side at the front, weaving their own metal magic during The Trooper while Dickinson waved a large Union Jack.

The middle portion of the set featured the first true highlight in The Number Of The Beast with Dickinson reaching down for one of his signature banshee-like wails. However, even that nugget paled compared to the 15-minute Rime Of The Ancient Mariner with its various twists and turns as dry ice slowly filled the stage.

For all of the devotion fans have, one can't help but see a few Spinal Tap qualities in Iron Maiden, especially in Gers (one of two members sporting Iron Maiden t-shirts). While quite adept at playing, his theatrics are rather amusing, including his inane guitar twirls, using his guitar cord like a whip and doing a Riverdance-like jig centre stage during Wasted Years. The dance, which also featured some high-stepping by Dave Murray as well, almost begged for a miniature Stonehenge replica to descend from the rafters.

But as a unit the band can still deliver the goods, especially on the galloping Powerslave and the rather frantic Heaven Can Wait. And with a drummer named Nicko McBrain, almost comically completely hidden under a sea of tom-toms and cymbals, how can they possibly fail?

Although looking like he was pissed off at a technical glitch following the well-received Run To The Hills, Dickinson and crew forged ahead with the creepy Fear Of The Dark, the freshest song from the show, albeit from the 1992 album of the same name.

Following the punk-meets-metal feel of Iron Maiden, which included a gigantic robot known to fans as Cyborg Eddie (Eddie being the band's mascot) appearing onstage, Iron Maiden began showing signs of wear in the encore during Moonchild and The Clairvoyant. Fortunately they seemed to know when to say when, leaving the fans wanting more.

Fans may not have to wait much longer though as the group announced a Western Canada trek in June and Dickinson telling the appreciative crowd they would see them again this summer, resulting in a strong possibility of more Ontario dates.