The Frank Erwin Center
Austin, TX
[ Official Band Facebook Page for Gig ]
[ Read my 5,000+ word concert review here ]
THE BAND
- Ozzy Osbourne – Vocals
- Tony Iommi – Guitar
- Geezer Butler – Bass
- Tommy Clufetos – Drums
- Adam Wakeman – Keyboards
OPENER
GIG NOTES
- Your webmaster was at this gig.
SET LIST
- War Pigs
- Into the Void
- Under the Sun (with new video, designed to offend)
- Snowblind
- Age of Reason
- Black Sabbath (some cool lighting effects)
- Behind the Wall of Sleep
- Basically / N.I.B.
- End of the Beginning
- Fairies Wear Boots (with new, very strange video)
- Methademic
- Rat Salad / Drum Solo
- Iron Man
- God is Dead?
- Dirty Women (with new video, mostly of strippers/dancers)
- Children of the Grave
- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Intro / Paranoid (Encore)
PHOTO GALLERY
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- Nice lighting for the song Black Sabbath
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- Black Sabbath – photo by G. Paul May.
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- The Band right after the final bow
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- Double Geezer
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- Tony
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- Ozzy
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- The band onstage
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- Andrew WK
VIDEO
If any of these are not working, please let me know.
Wow! What happened to Ozzy at the Houston gig? He sounded horrible! He was singing way off key. Mostly too low. Ozzy, I love ya bro, been a fan a long time! 41 years & I hope it’s nothing setting ya back. I will see you Philadelphia,Pa. August 10th!
Just got back from the Austin show Joe. Exact same setlist as Houston. Much better venue with air-conditioning. Had the VIP package and ended up on the 12th row between Geezer and Ozzy. The venue was a close sellout and folks were full to the rafters. The start of the set was strong with War Pigs as the curtain rose and the sirens are blaring with red lights. Great way to get things started. I’ll send a detailed review tomorrow but I’ll write a few things. Into the Void unfortunately a bit of a trainwreck. Oz was off key and you could sense it with Geezer and Tony that something was amiss. Tony kept talking to Ozzy between songs with the lights out and after 3-4 songs Ozzy took out his ear monitor. Gratefully, he recovered quite well on Black Sabbath and was very good on NIB, Iron Man, God is Dead, Paranoid, Behind the Walk of Sleep, etc…However he was off during Snowblind, Age of Reason, Fairies Wear Boots, Under the Sun and a few others. I was once a little critical about Tommy drumming but he’s grown a lot as a drummer and is now a beast. The guy can just flat out play. Geezer and Tony were in top form. I’ve seen them play in the last few years three times and this night was their best. Truly amazing to witness.
The show last night was great. I went in with low expectations from Oz, but from I can tell, he was in much better than he was in Houston. He was solid on the old stuff, and when I heard him.get through Snowblind with little difficulty, I knew we’d be ok. The band was tight as hell, as expected. Oz was only a little tentative on the new songs, probably because he’s less.familiar with them and, musically, the songs leave big holes.that have to get filled only by his voice. God Is Dead was the best of the new tracks, for sure.
I was skeptical after hearing review of the Houston gig, but I had a blast at this show. Great performance and Ozzy sounded good. Great crowd at the Erwin Center. Lots of energy in the building. I didn’t realize until the day of the show that Andrew WK was going to DJ…thought he’d perform live. Skipped his set. Still, Sabbath rocked it.
Andrew WK is a waste of time for those planning to go to shows. Great time to light up or get a bite.
Yes I agree that Andrew WK is a waste of time and , he sucks! Saw him at Ozzfest & he sucked then too! As to why Sabbath would get him to open up is beyond me??? Why couldn’t Sabbath get another band to open for them?
Below is my review of the Austin show. It’s honest, no punches pulled and adulation where appropriate.
War Pigs- Great set opener,. Looked fantastic with the curtain opening to the sirens and red lights.
Into the Void-The band sounded awesome but Ozzy not so much. This was the beginning of his issues and he was off key as well as forgot lyrics. Tommy did a superb job drumming.
Under the Sun- Another great tune but Ozzy was way off again. Don’t know how much the band could hear Ozzy in their monitors but they didn’t look real happy. They showed kinky video and T&A so that helped get the attention off Oz a bit.
Snowblind- One of my personal faves but again butchered vocally. Band was dead on and I really got into both Geezer and Tony’s playing. They used the previous video with Scarface, etc.
Age of Reason-Really looked forward to this one but again Oz was off key. The band tore it up though and the changes were done perfectly.
Black Sabbath- God bless Ozzy he’s back. Sounds good and it seems like not using an ear mic helped. Best song of the night and the crowd showed it.
Behind the Wall of Sleep- Ozzy nailed it again and the band and crowd were really getting it together.
NIB-That’s three in a row for Ozzy and the concert is going smoothly. Crowd was pumped on the floor.
End of the Beginning- Started a little off and got progressively worse. Almost sounded like Ozzy’s struggles were affecting Geezer and Tony but maybe not at all.
Fairies Wear Boots- Lots of T&A and kinky video for the male dominated audience. Band sounded great.
Methademic- Probably should be dropped. Very little crowd response and Ozzman was at his worse of the night. ‘A’ for effort though and totally dig them playing a ‘B’ side of the new one.
Rat Salad- Very cool. Tommy blew me away and I’ve seen him before. Ozzy needed the break.
Iron Man-Band and Ozzy nailed. Best song of the night and loudest crowd response.
God is Dead- Second best song of the night. Nailed by Oz and co..
Dirty Women- Yep-more video.
Children of the Grave- Excellent but Ozzy missed some lyrics
Paranoid- Pretty close to perfect-
All in all a very special experience. I saw the Ozzfest with Bill and this was a better show altogether. Better setlist and Tommy was much better to be honest.
I agree with you my friend! Ozzy was way off key! I’m like what happened to him? I’ve heard him sing better when he messed up on some of the good stuff! But I disagree with you on Clufetos’s drumming. he has the same beat mostly for every song. He just changes the tempo. I listened to him very closely to him playing Paranoid & I heard him numerous times messing up. He may be good for time keeping, but in my opinion not playing for Sabbath. Mike Bordin or maybe Lee Kerslake could of been a better choice. I know Mike can do it because he has Bill’s style down .
Some other points of interest perhaps. The sound was fantastic. Who ever is behind the board is doing a great job. The merch however was below expectations and I collect concert t’s. I literally left without buying one. Whoever was behind the show merch was awful and had zero creative investment.
I had been waiting months to see the true Masters Of Metal in Austin and I must say I wasn’t disappointed! A few things that stood out for me:
*Watching Ozzy shuffling back and forth from his water bucket in front of the drum riser to his mike stand. At times, it looked like he had no idea what to do. And he did mess up the lyrics on a few songs – I even saw Tony laughing at Ozzy. Apparently there was a problem with Ozzy’s ear monitor but at one point, we watched him turning around and around as a band roadie unraveled it and took it off. Yes, his voice was off-key quite often and watching him swaying his arms from side to side above his head looked as if his arms had no strength. Pretty funny whenhe told the crowd he was crazy and then he kept saying “cuckoo”.
*Saw Sharon at the other end of the arena before the curtain came up. She got a great crowd reaction.
*Like others have said, Tony and Geezer were on fire! I was on the side by Geezer and I couldn’t believe how fast his fingers flew! And Tony? What can I say? Truley is the Iron Man!
*Tommy killed it on the drums. Amazing drum solo and non stop pounding! No disrespect to the great Bill Ward, but the guy was incredible. Not sure Bill could still drum like that.
*The video that accompanied the songs was quite interesting, especially during Under The Sun, Fairies Wear Boots and Evil Woman.
*I thought God Is Dead? and End Of the Begiining were pretty powerful and couldn’t understand why people chose to take their beer breaks during these songs. Funny how Ozzy asked the crowd if the new album was worth the wait and the response was lukewarm.
*In spite of Ozzy singing off key on some songs and forgetting lyrics on others, this was a hell of a show. Black Sabbath last played Austin 27 years ago, so to see the godfathers of heavy metal together again (minus Bill, unfortunately) was a treat and memory not to be forgotten. Ozzy saidthe band would be back – let’s hope he keeps his word.
After reading reviews of last two shows maybe it is time to bring back Tony Martin…
I saw the Austin and Houston shows. I left Houston thinking it was “OK”, but Austin was better. The production overall was great…. The band energy/performance was better in Austin. Oz was the weakest one both nights. Odd that he’s getting the biggest paycheck out of everyone… I definitely miss Bill, but have no complaints about Tommy’s drumming.
We rode the Road King all the way from Wichita Kansas to see the show, I had no doubts that Toni, Ozzy and Geezer would rock. The whole show blew us away. Worth the trip, I imagine very soon we will never see them together again. This was a once in a lifetime show for hard core rockers like myself. My hats off to all of them and to Austin. Austin Texas Rocks………………….