EAST RUTHERFORD -- Bruce Dickinson, the theatrical frontman of seminal English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, had just finished whipping fans into a frenzy during "Running Free," the closing song at the group's Brendan Byrne Arena show on March 28, 1987, when the real problems started.

By the time the dust settled, two cars lay overturned and torched, and 33 people had been arrested on charges including aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, simple assault, trespassing, criminal mischief and creating a disturbance.

Police at the time described the post-show "riot" as the worst-ever incident at the sports complex, and it led to a ban on alcohol before concerts at the Meadowlands, announced just a few weeks later.

Iron Maiden, then one of the biggest bands in the world, was in the midst of a 13-month, 28 country tour in support of its "Somewhere in Time" album, and just a few years prior had become the first major rock band to tour behind the Iron Curtain.

The band was part of the new wave of British metal, along with other pioneering acts like Judas Priest. "Somewhere in Time" and the corresponding "Somewhere on Tour" came as heavy metal was ascendant in the States, and perhaps nowhere more so than in North Jersey.

But the popularity of the music had also sparked a backlash, in part fueled by the "riot" at the Meadowlands, making it a target for Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center and of a pearl-clutching investigation by 20/20.

"You're talking about a time when metal was maybe at its biggest," said Eddie Trunk, who attended the show and hosted a popular metal show on WDHA.

The Star-Ledger reported at the time that the "riotous situation" began at 12:15 a.m., after the show had ended, but some of those who went the concert 30 years ago remember the trouble starting beforehand.

Jason Kalfin, then a long-haired 14-year-old, attended the show with other Teaneck kids and tailgated before the show.

"Everybody's hanging out, listening to music and all of a sudden a bottle smashes near us," he said.

Another followed. He and his friends ducked into Brendan Byrne Arena to avoid any more trouble.

Inside, the crowd was also restless, said John Mulligan, then a 17-year-old attending his first concert. People were throwing firecrackers from the upper deck, drawing a warning from Dickinson.

Afterward, as Mulligan and his friends headed back to their car, they saw the party had continued outside while the show was going on.

"The parking lot was bedlam," he said. "Everybody drinking, cranking music, breaking bottles."

"You were crunching on glass," said Tony Kingslow, a 15-year-old who was part of the Teaneck group. "It was just a mess. Bottles everywhere, glass everywhere, you saw rags with blood on it. You couldn't believe that happened."

As they continued walking, Mulligan and his friends saw a burning, overturned car.

"There was a huge circle of people around it, throwing everything and anything in the fire," he said. "We hung out until we were almost hit with some flying bottles."

News reports alleged that concert-goers threw bottles at firefighters responding to the car fires.

"Don't call them kids," a state police spokesman told the Associated Press the day after the show. "For the most part, these were adults age 18 or over."

Mulligan and friends, who lived in nearby Wood-Ridge, returned the next day to take photos with the burned-out car.

John Mulligan, then 17, posed with a burned-out car the day after a riot broke out at an Iron Maiden Concert at Brendan Byrne Arena. (Courtesy of John Mulligan)

Ralph Holler, an East Hanover resident, told the Star-Ledger a few days after the show that a man smashed one of his car windows while his daughter and five friends were inside. The six teens ran to get help, but when they returned, a group of men had smashed all the windows with baseball bats.

John Scher, the promoter for the Iron Maiden concert and many others over a long career, downplayed the event immediately afterward and continues to believe it was blown out of proportion.

"There was a problem, but nobody got hurt," Scher told NJ Advance Media. "There was property damage unquestionably, they arrested people, but if you look at the facts, there were 17,000 people there. ... I don't condone it, but it wasn't that big of a deal."

Robert E. Mulcahy, who was then president and CEO of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, also pointed out that only a small percentage of the crowd acted out in an emailed statement.

"Incidents can happen," he said. "But our track record and the millions of fans on average each year that came to shows enjoyed an exceptional experience."

Nevertheless, the riot didn't help how an older generation saw heavy metal.

"It had a reputation that if you listened to heavy metal, you either took drugs or you drank or were an outsider," said Brian Aberback, a music writer and author of a book on Black Sabbath.

The show 20/20 went as far as to ask Kalfin, Kingslow and other Teaneck kids whether the lyrics in heavy metal music may have contributed to the deaths of four Bergenfield youths who committed suicide weeks before the Iron Maiden show. Around the same time, the Parents Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore, targeted heavy metal as part of an effort to have warning labels affixed to records with explicit lyrics.

Just a year earlier, Ozzy Osbourne had been sued by the parents of a boy who killed himself while listening to the song "Suicide Solution" from the former Black Sabbath frontman's "Blizzard of Oz" album.

The suit, which alleged that Osbourne implanted subliminal messages into the song, was eventually dismissed.

During the Meadowlands show, Dickinson pointed to the presence of television cameras, which were there for the segment on the Bergenfield suicides.

"You might have read about a few kids very tragic and very sadly committed suicide around New Jersey recently," Dickinson told the crowd. "This is something ... very tragic and not something to be taken lightly, and they've asked us to say a few words about it because apparently some of these kids used to be Iron Maiden fans or heavy metal fans."

He continued, "one or two people in this world who I think have more of an eye for a fast buck and quick headline than for common sense and the truth have somehow decided that the tragic death of these kids is going to be somehow laid at the door of music and I think that's terrible.

"Whenever anybody says something about our kind of music ... you just tell them that what we're doing up here is not evil, it's not bad, it's there to make people happy."

The riot was briefly featured on the 20/20 piece when it aired. But Kingslow believes the presence of the camera crew at the show may have played a role in sparking the trouble.

The bottles started flying while the crew interviewed the Teaneck kids in the Meadowlands parking lot, Kingslow remembers, as people in the crowd pushed to get in the shot.

"I don't know what really triggered it, but from what I remember it seemed like right after we got off camera they were flipping out," he said.

Mulligan, not part of Teaneck group, has a simpler explanation: "Drunks in a crowd."

The Teaneck group missed most of the mayhem, since 20/20 got them backstage to meet the band, Kingslow said.

"I'm waiting for 20/20 to do the reunion so they can get us backstage again," he said.

The Iron Maiden riot came on the heels of other bad behavior at heavy metal shows. In 1984, Judas Priest fans made a giant pile of seats torn out of the floor at Madison Square Garden, earning the band a lifetime ban. A year before the Iron Maiden show, Osbourne had incited fans during his "Ultimate Sin" tour into similar seat-destroying antics at the arena, leading to $80,000 in damages.

Scher--who did not promote the Ozzy show--believes the Osbourne experience helped contribute to the "sensationalism" surrounding the Iron Maiden concert.

The NJSEA made changes after the show. A few weeks later, Mulcahy announced a ban on alcohol at the Meadowlands before music concerts.

"The problems of violence, property damage, and littering associated with people drinking in the parking lots before and after concerts have been escalating seriously in recent years," he said in a statement at the time.

The problems didn't stop the Meadowlands from hosting more heavy metal concerts, however. In fact, Iron Maiden returned to Brendan Byrne the following year.

"Our staff and the venue staff learned our lesson and were better prepared for the crowd in the parking lot," Scher, who promoted the 1988 show as well, said. There were no issues with that show, he added.

"Even a few incidents here or there wasn't going to stop promoters from booking these dates," said Trunk. "These guys were bringing in big money."

A representative for Iron Maiden said the band was on vacation and was not available to talk about the Meadowlands show. Iron Maiden returns to the area with June dates in Philadelphia and Newark, and July shows in Brooklyn.

Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.