Iron Maiden‘s Eddie’s Dive Bar meetups are coming to the United States for the first time.
The pop-up events have become a fixture of the band’s overseas touring, taking over local bars in the hours before a show. Entry is free and anybody can come, whether or not they hold a ticket for that night’s concert.
Bruce Dickinson explained the point of them to Rolling Stone. “The whole idea of the Eddie’s Dive Bars is that if you’re a Maiden fan, it gives you somewhere to congregate with other fans and share stories.”
Trooper beer and Darkest Red wine are served at each one, along with food and exclusive Dive Bar merchandise.
Ten stops accompany the American leg of the “Run For Your Lives” tour, which opens on September 5 in New Jersey.
- Sep 05–06 – Beer Authority, 300 W 40th St, New York, NY
- Sep 09 – Banners Kitchen And Bar, 82 Causeway St, Boston, MA
- Sep 11 – Craftworx Taproom, 5615 Wellington Rd #101, Gainesville, VA
- Sep 12 – Charlotte Beer Garden, 1300 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC
- Sep 15 – JB Lovecraft’s, 225 N 2nd St, Harrisburg, PA
- Sep 17–20 – Louder Than Life, on site, Louisville, KY
- Sep 19 – Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Minneapolis, MN
- Sep 21–22 – Reggie’s, 2105 S State St, Chicago, IL
- Sep 25–27 – Rainbow Bar & Grill, 9015 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA
- Sep 29 – The Friendly Spot, 943 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX
The American events are also the easiest place to find Trooper West Coast IPA, the limited-edition collaboration between Iron Maiden‘s Trooper brand and Lagunitas Brewing Company, released in July.
It is the first West Coast IPA the Trooper label has produced, brewed with the recently developed Krush hop variety, at 6.6% ABV and 55 IBU. It has been selling through quickly at retail, and is also available in selected bars.
Trooper itself is no side project. The band launched it in 2013 with Robinsons Brewery in Cheshire, and it is now in its fourteenth year with worldwide sales approaching 50 million pints, having grown into a range that includes the Trooper Progressive Lager brewed in Munich with CREW Republic.
Fans at the New York and Los Angeles events will have their beer poured by Lara Mirinjian, who holds a job title that did not exist until this year.
Lagunitas ran a nationwide contest in June to fill a paid, temporary position it called Beer Roadie, asking applicants to submit a 30-second video. Hundreds entered. Mirinjian was chosen, trained at the brewery’s headquarters in Petaluma and sent out with the tour.
A piano teacher from Long Beach, California, she came to the band through her family. Her father, an Armenian immigrant from Iran, died when she was 14, and her older brother took over driving her to school, playing metal on the way. That was where she found both the music and the community around it.
The “Run For Your Lives” tour marks 50 years since Steve Harris founded Iron Maiden in 1975. The band have sold more than 100 million albums and played over 2,500 shows, and the current run is routed through stadiums and amphitheatres to accommodate a production built for outdoor stages. They headline the opening night of Louder Than Life in Louisville on September 17.
Megadeth support throughout the North American leg. They are working through their own farewell, which Dave Mustaine has said could run three to five years, and released their self-titled seventeenth and final album in January, the first number one of their career.
The band intend to take 2027 off the road entirely.
Iron Maiden are due to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Los Angeles on 14 November and do not plan to attend. The band have never hidden their view of the institution, Bruce Dickinson once described it as “an utter and complete load of bollocks.”
This tour is also the first extended run without Nicko McBrain, who retired from touring after the São Paulo show in December 2024 following more than forty years with the band. Simon Dawson has been on drums since “Run For Your Lives” began in May 2025.
Before the tour opened last year, the band asked audiences to severely limit their use of phone cameras, out of respect for the musicians and for everyone else in the room. That request carries over to the 2026 dates.
