I'm not sure in which alternative universe a line-up including Iommi, Butler and Osbourne can be considered only vaguely Sabbath. Who was I watching when I saw the Iommi/Martin/Murray/Powell line-up way back when? And let's not forget the classic Iommi/Martin/Jo Burt /Terry Chimes incarnation. Those are what I would call vaguely Sabbath.

Anyway, this latest bullshit is just quintessential Sabbath. Their legacy has been pissed on far worse in the past and not just by total crap like Forbidden (and, I would add, turgid crap like Tyr) but really embarrassing and damaging stuff like Sun City, Live Aid, the David Donato debacle, Iommi's shitty treatment of his various hired hands, the Glenn Huge debacle, supporting Ozzy at Costa Mesa. I could go on. Believe me, certainly in the UK in the late 80s and 90s Sabbath were seen as a joke; it was not cool to be a fan. I would argue that their stock is actually higher now than it ever has been.

It is cringeworthy to see 60-odd year old men engaging in online flame wars, and I blame Bill for that as much as the other three, but at the end of the day, last Saturday I saw Black Sabbath absolutely crush and in 3 weeks time me and the missus get to do it all again but also take our little girl and boy (15 and 9) to see a band they have loved since they were in the womb, a band they never thought they would get to see, and Tony Iommi, a man we all feared we would never see again.

To see them-and to see them do it so well-is good enough for me.

Indeed they will be. Though I would expect Wheels of Confusion to be culled from that list, it was the one song where Ozzy was clearly not up to the vocal.

My own feeling also is that Bill is not up to it anymore. Listen to the high quality audio of the show that is floating around, much better quality than the vids. The band is tight and well-rehearsed. They have been practising for far longer than the 10 days Bill was suggesting would be sufficient for rehearsals. I think them knowing Bill is under-rehearsed and probably out of shape was the reason for the "we'll see how it goes" proposal. Sentiment aside, I can understand where they are coming from.



It was!

Goddamn, what got into them? Those shows back in 1999 were like all 13 songs long, with "After Forever" really being the only deep cut played.

I guess answering my own question; Heaven and Hell. But how were/are the able to get Ozzy up to snuff? He was a teleprompter reading, croaking, shambling zombie in 1999. Fucking weird. I think most rational, educated Sabbath fans would have told you this reunion was going to laughable, Bill or no Bill. But I guess maybe not?!?

An awesome setlist is only as good as it's played, but the clip I saw was pretty good (The Wizard, from the Birmingham show), although Ozzy was quite clearly not playing the harmonica part (it's embarrassing how he couldn't even make it look like he was playing, haha)....his voice was surprisingly good (but he was clearly using a TelePromptr, so...)

I saw Down last night and Pepper had "BILL LORD" in huge letters on his guitar

Wow, what a great setlist.

Dude, so true. I wouldn't even like music, at all.

Ozzy can't play that goddamn harmonica part!?

Ozzy already pisses himself onstage. If he had to blow into the harp for reals, they feared he'd add shitting himself to his repertoire.

To avoid the accidental difficult brown note, they devised a solution: There's a mic'd iso-box backstage. Inside is a Ouija board that channels Cub Coda's harp-blowing ghost.

Glad to hear they went to such trouble--I didn't buy tickets to see...Brown Sabbath! Eh? Or maybe I did, and Brown Sabbath is a novelty grindcore act out of Grand Rapids.

A National Craprobat?

Symptom of the Poo-niverse?

Poopernaut?

Changes?

CORN-ocopia?

Walpoogis?

Into the Void(ed bowels?)

Iron Poop?

heh.

Well, luckily none of those titles had to be used, but if you look closely at the set list, that song with the harmonica is listed as "The Wizzer."

That's the time in the set when they begin to hose Ozzy down to hide his piss-sodden crotch...

Well I am of to Lollapalooza in Chicago tomorrow...

Mock if you must.......

I'm already drunk here in my crappy 1 BR co-op apartment in NY... which isn't a good sign, but I'll try to give a semi-concious Black Sabbath report Friday Night if I can...

Pics and set-list if I can get them...

I should be OK since they are up against the flavor of the month the "Black Keys"........

Yes I know it isn't the "Real" Sabbath, but honestly, with Tony in Ill health, I don't know how many more times we (at least in the the U.S.) will get to hear these songs live.....

I'm putting all the Bill drama aside and will try to be as honest as I can aboubt the entire event......

In the Immortal words of Ozzy "I Love You All..."

S.O.T.D.

Looking forward to hearing if they can pull off a decent set. Safe travels.

Ditto.

Well?

Sorry it has taken so long to post but between the travel, heat, booze, end of days rainstorm and misplacing my phone for a day I hope to be forgiven.

Lollapalooza had a weird vibe all around so far this year that really came to light during Passion Pits set before Sabbath played. Saw a BUNCH of fights between D-bag Frat Boy types which even for those types is unusual at these music festivals. Especially while an effeminate pop band from Boston was playing.

So during the set up I'd estimate 8 or 9 thousand people were at the Sabbath stage (most people at the show opted to see the Black Keys who were playing the same time slot on the other mainstage). By the time they started the set it looked like another 4 or 5 thousand people had found their way over to see Sabbath.

 About 10 min before they went on was my first indication that it was going to be long night.....

I knew it was going to be a long night when the "Ozzy" chants started. I'm pretty sure at least a third of the crowd had no idea about Sabbath but just that Ozzy was going to be there singing. In one of those "this is not happening" moments the girl standing next to me leaned over and asked her friend if she thought that they'd get to hear Crazy Train that night. Like I said, long evening...

The Backdrop is a video screen that starts the show with a video montage of the early years (minus any Bill Ward obviously)... Then after Ozzy's inane banter they kicked off with Black Sabbath. This is when I focus on Tony. There here was  wearing this leather jacket even when it was 85 degrees out with a sly smile on his face. This was very reassuring. A few thousand people who were obviously there for Sabbath roared in approval as the riff that basically started it all kicked in. 

Ozzy made it though Black Sabbath without any problems but as soon as they went into The Wizard he was overmatched. He couldn't even play the Harp intro the right way. While the rest of the band nailed it Ozzy mumbled a few lines here and there but obviously had some trouble. Behind The Wall of Sleep and N.I.B were next and slightly better then The Wizard had been in my opinion. 

This was the first glaring example of what would be my main issue with the evening. Ozzy screaming 1) Let's see you get Crazy 2) I can't hear you or 3) you guys are number one! At least 15 times a song often stepping on Tony's Riffs, solos or just the groove that Tommy, Geezer and Tony were laying down.

Up next was Into The Void and that's when I knew Tony was all right. He just nailed it with a big grin on his face. His tone was spot on and I think him getting to see the Sabbaths fans in the crowd react to Into The Void lifted his spirits.

They followed up with Under The Sun, Snowblind, War Pigs. Then they went into Electric Funeral which is a personal favorite. Ozzy absolutely butchered it in my opinion. By this point of the set his voice was cracking what seemed like every other line but it also led to what I thought was the best part of the set. 

They played Sweetleaf and Ozzy left the stage towards the end of it and Tommy, Geezer and Tony just extendid it out a little. They sounded AMAZING without the Ozzy distraction. Right after they kicked into Their instrumental version of Symptom of The Universe and it was killer. Having read some reviews of the earlier shows I was under the impression they just played the Riff but tonight They played what I figured was the whole song up until the "mellow" break. 

They then played Iron Man and everyone there lost their shit. I'm guessing it was because that was one of the two songs everyone knew. Ozzy referred to Tony as The Iron Man and Toney seemed to appreciate it. The song was the audience participation version so it lasted longer then it had to. Up next was faries which seemed to make the crowd loose some momentum as did dirty women. 

To the casual fan these songs seemed like a let down but to the people that were there to see Sabbath Faries was a big hit (Jane's Addiction actually played a bit of it the following night in tribute to Sabbath)... The finished with children of the grave. By this point Ozzy was beyond done. It actually hurt my ears to hear him struggle thru it. 

They left the stage and Ozzy (what I assume was a tape) lead the crowd in a chant of one more song. They came back out and started to play Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which was awesome and then broke into Paranoid. They "Kids" ate it up since it was the other Black Sabbath song they knew.

Once they were done it was funny because Tommy had to stand by his kit while the other members of the band got spme applause then as on cue once the applause died down he ran out to join the rest of them for a group by. I'm sure not many people noticed but I did. 

Overall I have mixed emotions. I'm glad I got to see Sabbath one more time but Ozzy was just so bad. And this is coming from someone that grew up a huge Ozzy fan. I have to say I spent most of the show watching Tony for obvious reasons. He looked like he may have been a little thin. I was about 35 deep from the stage on Geezers side so I didn't get a close up look. He played great and he really did seem to be happy about being on stage playing. Same for Geezer. 

Thanks for the honest review. Wasn't planning on seeing this tour, even though I've still yet to see Sabbath live, because Ozzy's the weakest yet loudest link. Shame it sounded like it turned out as I suspected.