Black Sabbath Concert Reviews July 24, 1999 Blockbuster Pavillion San Bernadino, CA

THE BAND

• Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
• Tony Iommi - Guitar
• Geezer Butler - Bass
• Bill Ward - Drums
• Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards

CONCERT PHOTO GALLERY

You can view the photo gallery for this concert here.

TOUR REVIEWS & REMARKS

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 14:14:32 -0700
From: Eric & Susan Hokenson <hokenson@earthlink.net>
Subject: Ozzfest Bloody Ozzfest

HEY,

Ozzfest '99 at San Bernardino's Blockbuster Pavilion left no ass
un-kicked!! There was at least 50,000 loud, screaming, pot-head, metal
fans crammed into just about every square inch of the joint. The sun was 
blazing, but at least the beer was cold :)

The reviews I read from the Dallas show left me a bit concerned about
Ozzy's performance, however, thankfully last night's show was probably the 
best I've ever seen from Sabbath and/or Ozzy. I really hope that the 
Dallas show was a rare off night for the Ozzman rather than last night's 
being a rare good night.

Anyway, we get there early enough to consume plenty of beer and make it in 
time to see System of a Down start. However, we didn't really stick around 
to watch their show.

We did make it to the lawn to hear Godsmack (you definitely couldn't see
shit on the stage with the sun being so bright). I actually thought they 
sounded pretty good. I wasn't familiar with any of their songs (Los 
Angeles has NO metal stations!!).

My friend Mike and I made it to our seats in the orchestra for Primus and 
Slayer. Primus was great!! I've seen them 3 times before and they played 
as good last night as any of the other times. Les is a nut, but a helluva 
bass player. I really liked their song selection too:

Defy the Laws of Tradition, Damned Blue Collar Tweekers, Jerry Was a
Racecar Driver, My Name Is Mud, Too Many Puppies, Anti-Pop, Harold Of The 
Rocks

(Note that my set lists are just from memory, I'm sure the songs are right, 
but the exact order might not be.)

Slayer as always was great. They really got the crowd whipped into a
frenzy (as always). The hosers in the front started tearing out the
folding chairs and Tom Araya said "Hey you know that kind of shit kinda of 
looks bad on our resume". No shit, it's like that EVERY time I've seen 
them. Is that just a LA thing?

They also had these psycho "Faces of Death" type scenes on the screen
during "South of Heaven". There was a guy that got completely torn apart 
being run over by an indy car in the pit stop. Fucking nuts!! Anyway their 
set list was:

Reign In Blood, War Ensemble, some new song, State of Mind, Mandatory
Suicide, Dead Skin Mask, Chemical Warfare, South Of Heaven, Angel Of Death

After Slayer we met up with a few other friends and went out to our car for 
some more beer. Yeah I know, my friend finagled us some VIP passes which 
allowed us to go to the parking lot cool huh? Anyway we chilled for a bit 
so we missed the Deftones. I never really heard them before either, they 
weren't on the bill when I say Sabbath in January. Oh well maybe next 
year.

We made it back to our seats before Rob Zombie. We also managed to sneak 
up 3 friends from the lawn into the orchestra. It really was a fucking mad 
house on the lawn. There were fires, fights and a whole hell of a lot of 
"disorderly conduct", including a bunch of Roman Candles launched at the 
stage. The dregs sure turn out for an Ozzfest show, gotta love it!!

Rob Zombie also put on a great show. I wasn't too familiar with all his
material, so I can't really do a set list. He definitely had a cool stage 
show complete with some nice looking go-go dancers. You know, I think 
every band should have one. I was never really a bit White/Rob Zombie fan, 
but I think he is much better to see live. Definitely a cool showman. I 
also like his comment: "FUCK WOODSTOCK!!!"

After a surprisingly brief intermission, Black Sabbath started with their 
intro, and off course...War Pigs. Their Set list was:

War Pigs, Basically/N.I.B., Fairies Wear Boots, After Forever, Sweet
Leaf, Electric Funeral, Into The Void, Snowblind, Tony's Guitar Solo, 
Black Sabbath, Iron Man, Children of The Grave, Supernaut (yeah I wish, 
just the intro)...Paranoid.

I can honestly say that the band was very tight, including Ozzy - his voice 
held out remarkable well. Actually the only thing I didn't really like was 
that they kept spraying so much fucking water during the instrumental 
portions of the songs. I think it snubbed the band a bit that when Tony 
was playing a kick ass solo, Ozzy is nailing the guys up front with a damn 
fire hose. I think Tony, Geezer and Bill were really really in top form. 
The other great thing about the show was that their sound mix was great. 
At the Forum I couldn't really hear Geezer and Ozzy that good, but the 
outdoor show had an incredible sound.

Sabbath was absolutely awesome, a great was to end the Ozzfest tour, but
hopefully not the career of Black Sabbath! Hopefully this won't be my
last Black Sabbath concert review.

Later

Eric Hokenson

[ Ed Note: I forgot to mention, when Zombie played in Dallas, they had
Kerry King come out on stage with 'em for Thunder Kiss '65. ]

Send reply to: "Gene Trosper" <gtrosper@ez2.net>
From: "Gene Trosper" <gtrosper@ez2.net>
To: <siegler@black-sabbath.com>
Subject: Sabbath at Ozzfest 99 -San Bernardino, CA
Date sent: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 17:57:00 -0700

How lucky could one be to not just see Black Sabbath once in 1999, but TWICE? I 
felt damn lucky and privileged. I first saw Sabbath's current line -up on their 
official "Reunion" tour on January 5th at the Los Angeles Forum. When it was 
announced that their appearance at the final U.S. date of OZZFEST99 (July 24, 
1999 @ the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavillion in Devore, CA -- Just outside San 
Bernardino) would be their FINAL U.S. concert ever, I obviously had to get the 
tickets for this historic event.

Well, it turned out to be not so historic. Just a few days before their
supposed final appearance, it was announced that Sabbath would extend their
tour beyond the OZZFEST dates. Oh well, but no big deal, I suppose.

First, let me give a brief background on the day's events.

The day started off by waiting for over an hour in a line of cars at least 3
miles long, just to find a parking space. Luckily, I left with my wife and
daughter (a 13 year old Tony Iommi fan) early enough that such a problem
wouldn't interfere with a sizeable portion of the concert. We arrived in the
middle of the first act's set and wound up searching for a good spot on the
lawn section just above those who had seats.

I cannot recall the opening act as they really didn't make a big impression on 
me. I will only state that the day's acts who were really worth a listen (other 
than Sabbath) were Godsmack, Slayer, Primus and Rob Zombie. I really wished 
that I could have accessed the second stage because Drain sth was a draw for me 
also. Unfortunately, the second stage was positioned behind the main stage and 
there was absolutely no way I would have given up my spot on the lawn without 
losing it to someone else. Not only that, it was quite a hike just to make it 
to the stage. Drain sth would have been halfway through their set before I 
reached the second stage. Not worth it, I decided, so me, the wife and kid 
stayed put.

As the day dragged on, both the heat and number of people attending increased 
dramatically. It was perhaps the hottest day I have ever attended a concert in 
since becoming a concert goer nearly 20 years ago. And the people! estimates 
ranged from 45,000 to 50,000, making it a very crowded scene for all involved. 
Many people wound up in various stages of undress, especially the women. 
Krusher, the stage emcee, noticed this and made numerous comments throughout 
the day on the wonderful looking bodies of women in attendance.

Biggest gripe about OZZFEST: The price of water. It was totally outrageous to 
charge $3.00 for a small bottle of water in such heat. People began to break 
off sprinkler heads in the lawn section just to keep cool. I'm no fan of 
property destruction, but I could understand.

The Never Never Land carnival concourse was pared down extensively as many
attractions simply didn't show.

The most bizarre aspect of the day was during Primus' set. Of course, they have 
always been rather eccentric, but wow. Midway through their set, they brought 
out a guitarist named "Buckethead" who did a ripping guitar solo and them 
played with a set of nunchakus (oriental weapons seen in Bruce Lee movies). 
Very weird this Buckethead is. he wears a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his 
head which has an expressionless white mask attached. No-one knows who 
Buckethead is. Kinds like KISS on acid.

Stand out act of the day was certainly Rob Zombie. The guy had a killer set-up, 
ala huge rock shows of the 80's. Pyro, oversized props, lots of lights and 
really cool go-go dancers. The music ripped also. My two favorites were "Meet 
the Creeper" and "More Human than Human". He definitely has a future, in my 
opinion. Numerous times, he made mention that Sabbath was the whole reason for 
him being on this tour. Rob also mentioned that this OZZFEST stop was being 
filmed for a video. I could see cameramen everywhere, in addition to a large 
camera boom positioned in front of the stage.

Looking back on the crowd, it had become a virtual sea of people. Bonfires had 
been lit in various places and provided an eerie glow over the proceedings.

When Sabbath's intro video began, the crowd went absolutely wild!

As for Sabbath's portion of the show, it was much like their Reunion tour
earlier this year except for a few exceptions:

1. The stage set-up was different. The band appeared from behind the stage,
rather than rising up through it.

2. Dirty Women was dropped from the set.

3. Tony Iommi added a nice, long and simply beautiful (in a metal kind of way) 
guitar solo, with some keyboard accompanyment. I have always enjoyed Iommi's 
solo segments, and was disappointed that a solo was left off the Reunion tour.

3. A snippet of Supernaut was added to the beginning of their encore, Paranoid.

Everything else was pretty much the same.

A note on Ozzy. He was decidedly less energetic that when I saw him in January, 
but this is probably due to him being on the road for a few weeks. The road can 
take it's toll. Still, Ozzy came through like the trooper he is.

In the end, it was a pretty good OZZFEST, excepting the heat, water prices and 
certain bands like System of a Down and Deftones.

The family and I were drained of energy and money, but left pretty damn happy. 
Even the two hours it took to get out of the parking lot didn't dampen our 
spirits.

I sincerely hope this isn't Sabbath's "Last Supper" mostly because I am
jonesing for a new Sabbath studio album. But that's not my choice. Sabbath
still kicks ass!

--Gene Trosper