"Sabbath Booed in Dallas" by Joe Siegler (black-sabbath.com webmaster)

This review originally appeared in issue #555 of the Black Sabbath Mailing List.

Welp, I went to see OzzFest last night in Dallas, and I have to say it was quite cool, if a bit "empty" (because of the lack of Bill Ward). As many of you on this list know, I'm one of the biggest Black Sabbath fans around (I do the black-sabbath.com site, and I also do Bill Ward's Official Site). I've been following Black Sabbath now for 16 years, and as of last night, I've seen 'em live with all their singers (save for Glenn Hughes), and in all my time, I would never ever think I would be BOOING Black Sabbath! I'll tell you why in a bit.. [ Joe Eisma: I was in Section 200, Row MM, Seat 8 ]

First, I went with two friends of mine, Richard Gray (who was nice enough to actually buy my ticket) & Steve Quarrella (friend for close to 10 years now whom also wrote a review that appears in this issue, too). Quite frankly, none of us gave a shit about any of the bands there except for Ozzy & Sabbath, so we intentionally went late (I actually was at a Texas Rangers baseball game until around 5PM). We got in, and walked around the carnival stuff for a bit. It was standard stuff, they had some games like "Shoot the duck", and a dunking booth, and that kind of stuff; it surrounded the smaller stage. When we walked by the smaller stage, there was no one playing, so I can't say anything about that. There were body piercing and tattoo places there. Quite frankly, none of this interested any of us, so we blew out of that pretty fast. Went over to look at the shirts, and there were four Black Sabbath shirts available. First was a reproduction of the first album cover; it was the most expensive of them (at $34 or something like that). The other three ($27 each) were a reproduction of the Sabotage album cover, one that had Iommi/Butler/Ward/Ozzy heads with purple "Black Sabbath" underneath it, and Ozzfest 97 tour dates on the back. I can't remember what the fourth was. I ended up skipping the shirts mainly because they didn't have 'em in my size (I wear XXL). I did buy the Ozzy Intro video though (see Ozzy set bit)...

We walked over to the main concert area, and Steve Q headed to his seat which was way down front (see his review). Richard & I went to our seats and Type O Negative was on their last song (Black Number 1 I think it's called), and they went offstage. We were then subjected to Pantera. Damn, you couldn't understand a single fucking thing they were saying. We blew out of there after like 3 songs and went and drank beer (more highway robbery there too), and watched women. For a change, there were actually some nice looking women here. Most of the women at metal concerts are total sluts that you wouldn't want to touch anyway, or were women who shouldn't be dressing the way they were. There was one woman who was wearing *NO TOP* at all, and only tape over her nipples. Once Pantera went offstage, we went back to our seats. I know I'm going to take a lot of shit over this, but I don't care. Flame me all you want. How the fuck can anyone really like this crap? This is the main reason we went late. OzzFest would have been a whole lot better if they dropped all these bands, and have Ozzy & Sabbath play for the whole 9 hours. Would be a hell of a lot better, both musically, and for the fact that the intelligence level of most of the fans of the current thrash metal bands is that of a grape, and it *REALLY* shows at these concerts. This is the future of humanity? God help us all.

Anyway... Ozzy played that really funny video before his gig. Had him with lots of current/recent media things, like the Addams Family (Ozzy's finger as Thing was great), Forrest Gump, The 3 Tenors, Madonna (Ozzy cannot vogue), and Apollo 13 (Open the Fucking Door, you asshole!), and Star Trek. If you get a chance at the OzzFest, buy this thing. I did, and it's a howl. It was only $10 too. It also had Ozzy's old intro with the synopsis of his career too. Ozzy's band was OK. The bassist was eh.. Don't remember his name, my brother tells me he's from Infectious Grooves. Joe Holmes was on guitar. It's been covered before... Joe can play the Randy lines to a "T". It was perfect. The other material (Jake/Zakk) wasn't as clean, but Joe can cover Randy too damn good. Curious to see what he does with Ozzy on Ozzy's next studio album. Couldn't see Mike Bordin from where I was sitting (he was blocked by a curtain), but he seemed competent enough. They played the suspected gamut of Ozzy Tracks.. I Don't Know, Crazy Train, Flying High Again, Suicide Solution. They also played Bark at the Moon, No More Tears, Mama I'm Coming Home, I Don't want to Change the World, and I Just Want You. There were a few others, but I can't recall 'em at the moment. Ozzy did go offstage for about 10 minutes, and his band jammed a medley of tunes. Some surprises in there, as they did: Over the Mountain, Diary of A Madman, Crazy Babies (I think), Symptom of the Universe, and a bunch of others. Overall, I enjoyed the Ozzy set. However, I've seen Ozzy solo about 5 times before, so there was nothing really new for me there.

The *REAL* reason anyone should have been there was next. Black Sabbath. Before Sabbath came on, there was a montage of footage from Black Sabbath Mk. I during their career. I found it *VERY* funny that they used footage of Bill Ward quite liberally during this. Some of the images shown were the poster for the movie Black Sabbath, and the conceptual footage used in the Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath music video, Cal Jam 74, that video where Sabbath plays a rooftop, Paris 1970, Hammersmith '78, the art that appears in the remasters of the Technical Ecstasy album (the bits with the members faces looking like machines), and (rather surprisingly) the Costa Mesa '92 reunion footage. It was intersting, actually. However, the liberal use of Bill was really what gave it the "empty" feeling. I mean it was really great to see Ozzy, Geezer, & Iommi up there playing together. However, the lack of Bill really struck me. Don't get me wrong. I loved what I saw. However, I left the show feeling that Black Sabbath is not "done" yet. They still have to do the "All four of them" thing again. The teases we got at Live Aid and Costa Mesa really aren't enough. However, to the person on the mailing list who said Geezer was just going through the motions. I really didn't see that. Ozzy & Tony were quite "close" in the on stage banter. They left Geezer alone for the most part, but towards the end, they started hamming it up. Ozzy was Ozzy. He's not 21 anymore, he can't do what he used to do, but I do have to give him credit for doing the two sets right in a row like that. Tony Iommi was smiles all over the place; he was really enjoying himself. It showed. There was one really funny bit with Iommi & Ozzy. Right before they started playing Paranoid, Iommi played the first few intro riffs to Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath and started laughing. Ozzy looked over like "What the FUCK ARE YOU DOING? I don't remember those words". Iommi laughed again, and then went into Paranoid. A classic moment; I hope someone bootlegged this show, I'd love to hear that on tape.

What did they play? I don't remember the exact order, but I do remember the first three and the last two songs order. Kind of surprising they only played material from the first three albums. They didn't touch Vol 4, Bloody Sabbath, or Sabotage. Thought they'd hit something from them.

War Pigs (complete with siren tape)
Into the Void
Sweat Leaf
Iron Man
Children of the Grave
Black Sabbath (complete with Rain SFX)
Fairies Wear Boots
Paranoid

What really was annoying, and was the reason I entitled this "Sabbath Booed In Dallas" was that during the Luke's Wall bit of War Pigs, the sound went out. The only thing that appeared to be working was the amps on stage. The people down in the mosh pit could probably hear as well as the first few rows, but for anyone after that, you couldn't. At first I thought they intentionally turned down the sound so the audience could do that chant thing that Dio introduced to War Pigs. However, it didn't come back, so people started chanting "Turn it Up, Turn It Up!", and they booed Black Sabbath in between War Pigs & Into the Void. It really sucked, actually. What was worse is that the band didn't stop playing. That was a DRAG! They kept going. There was an alternating chant between "Turn It Up" and "Bullshit". It really bit hard. When they started in with Sweat Leaf, we were really getting pissed. I was beginning to think it was going to stay this way. Fortunately, shortly into Sweat Leaf, the sound started coming back bit by bit. They had Geezer only, then Mike Bordin only, then Iommi only, and then Ozzy screaming something like "Oh Yeah...". They kicked it back in. I still think they should have gone back and restarted Into the Void, but oh well...

Once they got going again, it was "Iommi rips all ass" time. Man, I don't care who you are, who the guitarist is, *NO ONE* can hold a candle to Iommi. The opening riffs on Iron Man & Black Sabbath just kick all ass known to man. And he just stands there like it's no big deal. With just a few moves of his fingers, he tears everything to shreds. The tunes were well played, the group was tight (which was a surprise - I expected it to be a bit sloppy actually). It's a shame these guys don't get along, it would be rockful to see 'em all together again. As for the "Tony Martin has no stage presence" to Ozzy people, the only thing I can come up with that Ozzy did that Martin doesn't were.. 1) The leapfrog thing Ozzy does, 2) The Water Hose gun, 3) Throwing buckets of water on the audience. The rest of it comes from established presence.

It was great seeing these guys here, but for some reason (probably the lack of Bill) it felt "empty". The tunes were great, I loved it, but quite frankly, I felt more satisfied on the Forbidden tour with Tony Martin & crew. I suspect there will be a live album and/or video from this, because the dude from Pantera said they were videoing this, and I did see cameras going around during Sabbath too. However, with the sound problems, I doubt they'll use Dallas for anything, except for the Iommi gag during the intro of Paranoid.

One last thing about Mike Bordin. I don't give the guy any negative vibes about playing for Bill. It's not his choice, he was just asked to play. He was good, it sounded great, and he did one MAJORLY CLASSY bit which earned him many points in my book. After Paranoid, when the band always goes up front and takes a bow, they had the four of 'em standing there as Butler, Ozzy, Bordin, & Iommi. Before the took the bow, Bordin backed up a few steps, and poined at the three Sabs, and was clapping at them. It was almost that he knew that he really didn't deserve the applause and credit. He did eventually come up to the line and take the bow after being coerced by Iommi. I have to give Mike Bordin a lot of credit for that very classy move.

That's about it. If you get the chance to see Ozzfest, you should go. The main reason I went was because I suspect this won't last, and I won't get the chance to see Ozzy with Sabbath again. I wanted to see 'em no matter how commercialized it was, or even that it didn't have Bill. The lack of Bill was a negative, but having three of the original 4 Sabs there was a plus, and Iommi is a god, I don't think I could like myself if I intentionally missed seeing him when he came to town.

A review by Steve Quarrella:

This review originally appeared in issue #555 of the Black Sabbath Mailing List.

Well, well, well...I've just come back from tonight's OzzFest, featuring Ozzy Osbourne with Black Sabbath, at the Coca Cola Starplex in Dallas. I went with Joe Siegler and a friend of his. They were further back from the stage, while I was on the right side, three rows from the mosh pit. We skipped most of the bands, arriving as Type O Negative were finishing their set, and we sat through Pantera. Other than being totally deafened by Pantera, they did nothing for me.

Jim Morrison once wrote a song called "Texas Radio and the Big Beat." Well, I'd like to add to that: Texas radio -sucks- and so do the concert crowds. Ozzy came out with his band, and repeatedly tried to encourage the crowd to get a bit noisier, to no avail. Ozzy himself didn't look that healthy, repeatedly going back to the stage for sips of hot tea and a bottle of spray for his throat. His set was preceded by a short film of Ozzy himself inserted into various film clips, like sitting next to Forrest Gump, carrying out a hit in "Pulp Fiction" (with his squirt gun), or onstage with Elvis (HILARIOUS). Anyways, I don't have the set list handy, but it included "I Don't Know," "Flying High Again," "I Just Want You," "Goodbye to Romance," "Crazy Train," "Mama, I'm Coming Home," "Bark at the Moon," and an instrumental medley that included (off the top of my head) bits of "Symptom of the Universe" and "Over the Mountain." No sign of "Perry Mason," to my detriment. Anyways, the set was quite good (and there was a monitor screen above the stage showing old clips of Ozzy with Randy Rhoads), and Ozzy's still got a lot of energy for a guy who looks quite ill. He definitely enjoyed himself with his high-powered squirt gun, and we got the buckets of ice near the end of the set.

Black Sabbath came on after Ozzy's set, preceded by some film clips of the band, including many with absent drummer, Bill Ward. The clips ranged from their early days through the tours for "Technical Ecstasy" and "Never Say Die." Anyways, by contrast, the set list was pretty much limited to the first three Black Sabbath albums, and went something like this:

War Pigs (complete with siren tape)
Into the Void
Sweat Leaf
Iron Man
Children of the Grave
Black Sabbath (complete with Rain SFX)
Fairies Wear Boots
Paranoid

[Joe Siegler, help me out here.]

I'm going from memory on this, but they definitely opened and closed with the tracks I've listed. I've heard that they've played a medley of tracks on other nights, but tonight, they played each song in its entirety. For me, the highlight of the night was "Children of the Grave," and I have to say that while I enjoyed watching Geezer Butler the last time I saw Sabbath here (during the "Cross Purposes" tour), this time, it was all Tony Iommi (sporting the five o'clock shadow goatee look). This guy -really- plays, and provides a definite backbone for the rest of the group: Ritchie Blackmore is usually called "The Man in Black," but not tonight, baby! Interplay between Ozzy and Geezer Butler, and Tony and Geezer, was fairly minimal, although there were smiles to be had from all. Before they went into "Paranoid," Ozzy indicated that he had enjoyed playing with Black Sabbath again, and "Maybe something more will come of this." Well, we've been through possible reunions in the past, so take that with a grain of salt, but who knows? In any event, Ozzy asked everybody to get "fucking crazy" for the next song, and here comes Iommi with the riff to "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath." Ozzy got this look on his face, like "Er, no, I don't think that's the one we're going to do, and if we do it, I'm in deep shit because I don't remember the words." :)

A great set, although the sound kicked out during the "Luke's Wall" section of "War Pigs," and that dropout continued through to the instrumental in "Sweet Leaf." From where I was sitting, I could still hear the band (although Ozzy's vocal was pretty faint), but I can't say that for the rest of the arena. I would have loved to have had Bill Ward there, I admit, but given that Sabbath sightings these days are few and far between, I'll take what I can get. Money well-spent, go see these guys. :)

Steve Quarrella -- Rowlett, TX -- dfish@metronet.com

"Have you done your share of coming down on different things that people do?"