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THE BAND
- Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Adam Wakeman - Keyboards
CONCERT PHOTOS
None available - if you have any, let me know.
TOUR REVIEWS & REMARKS
From: "J&C Eckman"
Subject: Ozzfest 2004 Tour Stuff
Date sent: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 21:24:04 -0500
Jarred's Ozzfest Review:
I went to my first (and last) Ozzfest yesterday in San Antonio and thought I
would let you guys read about it. So here goes:
First off, I am a cheap bastard so I have never been to see the "Fest" simply
because of the price. Here in San Antonio (Selma) a $45 grass seat soon becomes
over $85 after $15 parking. That being said, I asked my brother-in-law if I
could take him to the show. This benefits me as he works for the company with
the security contract at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, and so parking and
food for me became free. On the down side, I had to be there at 8:00am that
morning so that he could check into work, and stay till about 12:00 that night
when all party-goers were gone. And because I am a cheap guy, I decided I would
watch all the bands to get my money's worth.. bad choice.
I missed a few bands to eat and walk around to look at the "scenery," but at all
the 2nd stage shows I was 2nd or 3rd row or pushed somewhere thereabout. I like
to be as close as possible to the stage at all shows, so that if a band ever
makes it big, or is on the downward spiral, I can tell the grandkids, " this
person" the singer for "this band" spit on me!! So far Zakk Wilde has handed me
his beer (making it big) and David Lee Roth has given me his towel, which he had
stolen from the La Quinta (downward spiral).
I watched Lacuna Coil, they were actually entertaining and their sound was good
for second stage quality. Bleeding Through was next, they had a lot of energy
and I could tell that they knew their stuff. I had fun at this one.
Next was Atreyu. The goofy bass player was the soul of the band. I laughed a lot
at these guys. The next bands I will not get the order right but I can tell you
what I remember about them if I saw them at all.
Otep totally sucked. They have a female singer who I think wants to be Courtney
Love or something. Did I mention they sucked?
God Forbid was unique just because they only had one white guy in the band, but
they sounded just like all the other bands, yelling incoherently and chanting,
but all the kids love that crap.
Magna Fi was the only band I saw on the stage that had a singer that sang the
songs (as opposed to yelling the songs). The singer also looked to be about 15
years older than any other. Unearth looked like the Goo Goo Dolls but
yelled.these both sucked.
Hatebreed had a commanding stage presence and I saw only part of the show, but
again yelling. They sucked.
Darkest Hour, Throwdown, and any other I did not mention, I missed or they
blurred into what I thought was another band. I'm sure they sucked anyway.
Slip Knot I missed on purpose, because they suck. If you haven't figured it out,
I'm not big on the yelling stuff. Don't get me wrong, I admire the ability to
play that fast and all, and I am a huge Pantera fan. I have seen them live twice
where I was close enough to untie Phil Anselmo's shoes, but he sings a lot too
and they were always tight. Anyway, I have no respect for Slip Knot. If it takes
you nine guys to make your sound, you need another gig. The masks and "asylum
suits" don't help their cause either. I watched them for about 2 minutes from
the top of the hill of the first stage. Another good reason to miss them was
that the first stage lawn had opened for seating, and I wanted a good seat.
I was in the first row of grass seats, and I'm tall so I was able to see the
bands at a distance, although the 10-year-old girl next to me must have been
miserable. She sat in the grass the whole time.
Black Label Society rocked; they were one of my reasons for going. I wish they
could have played longer. I guess I'm used to seeing Zakk run and jump around,
but none of that when he is the singer. He had no time to do a crazy solo and
run around. Oh well. Short set.
SuperJoint Ritual, um, how do I put this. retch? Phil did what he's done at all
shows to date. He ranted about how this band will be the new leader in crossover
black metal, what ever that means. Basically, they sounded like all the bands on
the second stage, only they sucked harder. Phil would rant for 2 minutes and the
following song would be 1:15. Can you say "Ramones"? During one song he stopped
after a few riffs to rant again. This time was funny though because, as you know
if you have seen him, he says F'n in between every word. Thus SuperJoint Ritual
becomes F'n Super F'n Joint F'n Ritual, mother F'ers. Anyway, he was ranting, as
I am, and had squeezed so many expletives into the sentence that he had to stop
because he forgot what he was talking about. He also gave San Antonio accolades
for being one of the loudest cities on the Texas leg of the tour. The only other
Texas date was Dallas two days earlier. Idiot.
Dimmu Borgir---again, I don't get the music, but they were very good. You could
tell that they hit every note. They sounded great, but who cares when you don't
know the words.
Slayer. I love Slayer, they did great. Another reason I went to the show. They
played flawlessly. We all sang all of the words. This is the first band of the
day (aside from BLS) whose singer did not yell when addressing the audience.
Tom's voice was great.
Judas Priest---my third reason for going. I felt they were the dominant band of
the stage. The only problem was the lead guitar volume went way down on Metal
Gods for about 10 seconds and then came back. Rob Halford still has it. He was
awesome. Breaking the Law, Living After Midnight, and You've Got Another Thing
Comin' were the highlights of the show just because everyone sang along. Halford
hit all the screams, and his vibrato was great.
Black Sabbath. Now, Ozzy is my all-time favorite, but I'm very realistic and I
know he is going to blow it now and then (i.e. always). War Pigs and N.I.B.
started with Ozzy horribly out of tune till about halfway through the songs.
Bill was great all night, Geezer was on fire and full of energy, Tony was great
too, he played the solos note-for-note, except for Black Sabbath and they played
about 3 extra minutes of solo time. Now Black Sabbath is a song that is very
easy for Ozzy to screw up because he does not have the music behind him to
remind him what key to start the verse to. His tempo was off but he was in tune
and his voice did not falter like it usually does.good job. Fairies Wear Boots
was good. All the kids liked Into the Void, and the band was especially tight.
Ozzy introduced Geezer twice, and Bill Ward several times. Soon he was just
saying "Bill!" and the crowd would answer "WARD!" He loved it. Ozzfest.com is
saying that Sabbath is now playing 75 minutes just like JP. This is not true.
They have not added any songs. They only played 60 minutes. They all looked
happy the whole time, especially Ozzy. He smiled the entire set. He did complain
about the heat, but never took his shirt off. He had on a long sleeved, black
button-up collared shirt, and he kept "adjusting" something under it. After
several buckets of water it was apparent that there was some sort of device
under his shirt, which may be why he never took it off. In reply to one of the
earlier reviews on this site, I don't think this was The Ultimate Sin Ozzy, but
he did look "thicker." Maybe that review made him self-conscious? He did dance
several of what I would call Irish jigs during the show, and you could tell in
his face he was trying to be funny--it worked. His movements resembled those of
someone who has recently had a terrible ATV accident (yes, I know). I laughed
during this show more than any other, but Ozzy was trying to be funny. The bands
and spectators at the second stage were funny unbeknownst to them.
Good times. Have fun at your show.
rom: "Rogelio Matamoros"
Subject: Ozzfest in Dallas and San Antonio
Date sent: Sun, 08 Aug 2004 20:28:20 -0500
Hello Joe. This is maybe the fifth mail that i've send to the list and I
hope that this will get some attention. And also I'm sending a couple of photos
from the show in Dallas, shoot by a friend of mine also from Mexico.
Well, I think that I can offer a couple of diferent vissions about the show
since I was in Dallas at the pit and in the first seats section in San Antonio.
First of all even when out there would be somebody interested in all the bands
that played at the main stage, I think that there's an evident difference from
Black Label Society, Super Joint Ritual and Dimmu Borgir to Slayer, Judas Priest
and Black Sabbath. In my opinion the first three bands are mere openers for the
big show. And please their fans of those bands don't missunderstood my words,
but the reality is that they don't have the historic factor and neither the
musical level of Slayer and much less than Judas Priest and the mighty Black
Sabbath.
The set lists of all the bands were pretty much the same that all the reviews
have mentioned, and to start I have to say that in Dallas I was at the pit,
right at the front, so the quality of the sound usually is not the best because
you listen directly to the backline of the bands. So with Slayer I listen to the
guitar of Kerry King more than anything else. But I can say that Slayer
technically cannot play a bad concert, because they're simply an acurate and
absolute killing music machine. And Dave Lombardo, the drummer, is a separate
show himself.
Judas priest are enjoying some privileges that none other band have had playing
at the Ozzfest without being Ozzy or Sabbath, but they deseve it without any
doubt. They're playing the same time, and maybe a little bit more, than Sabbath,
and they have the more spectacular stage show of the night. And the spectation
about the return of Rob Halford it's being an important factor in the succes of
this edition of this Ozzfest. Even when I feel that his voice went from minus to
more at the show, at the moment of "Victim of Changes" the power coming from his
throath inminently runs inside your veins. And nothing to say about those
legendary solos from GlennTipton and K.K. Downinng and their historic twin
harmonies.
But the moment for Black Sabbath to take the stage had arrive and they done it
in a very shockig way. First of all that big courtain with seven devil logos
looks spectacular, and the desicion to use "Supertzar" for the intro give the
creeps trough my spine. And again I have to say that maybe this time I was not
at a Black Sabbath concert but a Tony Iommi concert. Because being right in
front of him is innevitable to verify that he is, and always have been, Black
Sabbath. Even when gezzer Butler wrote almost all the lirycs of the songs played
this night, you have to remember that Iommi has been Black Sabbath with Dio,
Gillan, Martin and Halford. But to think of a Black Sabbath with, I don't know,
maybe Randy Rhoads, Blackmore or Zakk Wylde is like a sacrilege.
If somebody reading this was at the show, let me tell you that I was the guy
showing the message of "IOMMI IS NOT GOD... IS THE DEVIL" to the band, specially
(of course) to Iommi and Ozzy, receiving from the "Riff Master General" a couple
of picks during the show and an unforgetable smile from both of them.
In San Antonio I was at the first numbered seats section, so this time I enjoy
the show musically. But unfortunatelly the acoustic of the Amphitheater is not
the best for this kind of shows, so with Slayer and Judas Priest the volume of
the guitars was so low. But with Sabbath this condition change and I can check
the incredible counterpart that Geezer Butler is for Iommi. His sound is just
amazing and I checked that hi is not using his Vigier basses anymore. This time
he played one that loocks like a Fender but I didn't see very well the brand.
And By the way, Iommi use just two guitars. A Gibson "Tony Iommi" SG and the
very old SG with the white picks sticked to the plate. Bill Ward was amazing,
keeping his amazing jazzy stile surrounded in his majestic white drum set. And
about Ozzy I don't have so much to say that nobody knows. He sings out of tune
very often, so he uses a plenty of effects. He lost his cue in a couple of songs
and the security stage manager would never forget Ozzy and his b
In my oppinion this have been the best Ozzfest of the history because of the
three top bands at the main stage and it's a shame tha this tour don't get to
more places, in special Mexico and SouthAmerica, countries in which Heavy Rock
have so much tradition.
Rogelio Matamoros.
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