Black Sabbath Online: Concert Reviews

Lambchops

from "Hunter, Colin" <CHunter@therecord.com>
to siegler@black-sabbath.com
date Mar 25, 2007 1:15 PM
subject concert review - toronto

Saw Heaven and Hell at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on March 22nd. Since other reviews have already revealed setlist, etc, here's:

Top 10 Highlights of Seeing Heaven and Hell:

10. The way light reflects off Tony Iommi's guitar, it sends a laser-like beam of whiteness streaming out over the audience. When it glares directly in your eyes, even for a split second, you feel a strange connection with the almighty IOMMMI, overlord of rock.

9. Even though Dio's hair is more sparse than ever, and even though he still looks itty-bitty enought to fit comfortably in your coat pocket, he can still sing circles around anyone else in the business. Tiny body, huge lungs.

8. No Iron Man, no Paranoid. Fine by me.

7. The song "I", despite being about 15 years old, is still heavier than anything some lunkheaded Norwegian black metal band could ever dream up.

6. Intrigue! Are the bad old feelings back again? Could the reunion be doomed? There was almost NO interaction between any of the four members -- not even much eye-contact. There was no full-band, hand-in-hand bow at the end. And when it was over, Iommi and Geezer exited stage left, Dio and Appice exited stage right. Trouble in paradise? Have old grudges returned? Or is this just gossipy rumor-slinging? Time will tell...

5. Drum Solo! DRUM SOLO!?! Who does drum solos anymore?!? Good for Sabbath to keep it old school! A 20-minute improvisational blues guitar solo would have been fun too, but alas, those days are gone.

4. Nobody's perfect... The entire set was fantastic, but there are a few wrinkles that still to be worked out. Rather than ending the show with a bang, it ended with an odd little whimper — Iommi finished playing, but Butler and Appice seemed unsure as to how they should wrap up. So Appice concluded with a "ba-dum-bum," and Geezer followed with weird bass note that sounded like a "ploink."

3. New songs! New Black Sabbath songs! Finally! They won't likely go down as defining moments in the Sabbath legacy, but they could easily pass for b-sides off Dehumanizer. And hey, they're better than Psycho Man and Selling My Soul...

2. As much as we all adore Ozzy, it's really, really nice to see someone sing Sabbath songs live without a teleprompter, and sing them on key.

1. Dio: "It goes on and on, on and on, it's...."
Audience (deafeningly, nostagically, emphatically): "...Heaven and Hell!!"

from "Castler, Jim" <JCastler@tribune.com>
to siegler@black-sabbath.com
date Mar 27, 2007 9:00 AM
subject Black Sabbath Concert Review - 3/22/07 - Air Canada Centre - Toronto, ON Canada

Hi Joe: In keeping with the format of some other reviews - here it goes - a review the March 22nd show at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Notes:

I drove seven hours to Toronto from upstate New York to attend the show. (Yes, I will also be attended the Albany, New York show on May 14th. After attending this concert - I can’t wait.)
Attending the show there was a great sense of anticipation among the early arriving local fans for all three bands. As everyone might imagine, attendees were also a diverse lot. One fan standing next to me for most of the show proudly stated that as a teenager he last saw the Dio-led version of the band on the Mob Rules Tour. While this now 41-year-old concert ‘veteran’ shared some interesting tales, two 16-year-old fans next to us also demonstrated their knowledge of all things Black Sabbath and Ronnie James Dio, including their knowledge of Dio’s Elf and Rainbow days. They even had some Gillan-era details down pat. Great young fans.
One last pre-show item - $10 beers. ‘Nuff said.
The openers, Down and Megadeth, both put on excellent performances. Don’t miss them if you have the chance to see them this tour. Although the initial audience for Down was small, the band locked into several heavy grooves that just pulled the whole crowd in. Phil Anselmo remains an intimidating presence, and despite a badly sore and hoarse throat, he simply demanded attention. Phil dedicated one song to Dimebag and also asked everyone to give a big thank you to “Black Sabbath” – shouting - “Without them … none of us would even be here.”
As a larger crowd assembled for Megadeth, the major takeaway for me was Dave Mustaine’s playing. Wow. There was also a very cool background effect right before the band’s lone ‘encore’ performance, however I will not spoil this for those who have not yet attended a show.
As for the headliners, the start of the performance stood as one of the absolute highlights for me. As the impressive stage came into view, and the video effects slowly built, the band members emerged, and the overall effect was simply awesome. While launching into a fast song-favorite, such as ‘The Mob Rules’ or ‘Neon Knights,’ would easily impress, the band’s choice to open with ‘After All (The Dead)’ provided a very cool intro. It allowed the momentum to continually build and build to where the crowd exploded together with the chorus.
As reported in earlier reviews, the crowd was super-loud and rowdy. From our position ten feet directly in front of Dio and Iommi, there were plenty of Devil Horn (mano cornuta/malocchio) signs and a wild mosh pit. (!) It was actually hard to hold one’s position as the crowd continually pushed us closer to the stage (not a bad thing) as well as from side-to-side.
There were several occasions in which fans were tossed from the arena by Security. Whether for smoking (ahem) or for jumping into the general seating section with the rest of us on the floor, I saw at least one fan tossed during each set.
As far as the individual performances, everyone was at the top of the game. Dio’s vocals were dead-on throughout. Iommi and Butler were focused, locked-in and tight all night. Appice was solid. It was great to see Ronnie and Tony smiling and nodding approvingly at various points. Both seemed generally pleased (and perhaps somewhat surprised) at the intensity of the crowd response. I also noticed Ronnie provide Tony with a gentle pat on the back more than once as they moved to the side of the stage.
While I have read about sound problems at some other venues, from my position I thought the sound quality was excellent. Vocals were clear and the overall guitar tone was heavy and crisp for all. I’m not sure if credit should go to the sound-team or to the general acoustics within the arena, however I was impressed.
There was one glitch with the lighting rig as it was lowered during the final song; it struck one of the stone pillars/props pretty hard on the right hand side. I watched as the rigging seemed to buckle for a moment, however all seemed fine soon after.
Crowd chants during the shows ranged from “Ronnie, Ronnie” and “Dio, Dio” to “Tony, Tony” with few chants from our area of “Sabbath, Sabbath.” (I can’t ever imagine “Heaven-and-Hell” becoming a crowd chant.)
Curious no mention or statement of appreciation for Down/Megadeth by Dio before the band left the stage.

Personal song highlights: Of course all the typical fan favorites were played well and earned a strong response from the crowd. As far as my personal favorites, while it was great to hear songs like ‘Lady Evil’ live - as well as two of the new songs - I truly enjoyed hearing ‘I,’ ‘Die Young’ and (especially) ‘Falling Off the Edge of the World’ … the latter offering a fantastic surprise.

Personal disappointments: I wish the band had played at least two or three more songs. No performance of ‘Lonely Is The Word’ (a personal fav) or ‘Ear on the Wall’ (which I really anticipated) left me bummed. I also would have loved one faster tune, such as ‘TV Crimes’ or ‘Turn Up The Night.’ Final ‘band’ observations:

Geezer seemed ‘heavier’ than I ever recall seeing him before. (And I am not talking about his bass tone or volume.) That’s o.k. More of him to worship.
Appice’s hairline seems to have moved ‘back’ a bit. That’s o.k. He can still pull-off the headband thing – ha! (He seems to be eating well … as well.)
Dio is an ageless wonder.
Right as the rest of the band was leaving the stage for the mid-set drum solo, you could see Dio pull a tiny digital camera out and take a photograph of all the fans at the front of the stage. I wonder if this is for his personal scrapbook, web-site or something else?
Right before the band launched into the set-closer ‘Heaven and Hell’ I noticed a tech from the side of the stage motion to Dio, most likely questioning the inclusion of another song. Unfortunately, Dio pointed to his wrist - as if he were wearing a watch - and shook his head as if to indicate ‘no’ to another tune. Too bad.
Poor Scott Warren - relegated to playing far to the stage-left, out of view behind a series of black screens. I know the history of how the band views the role of keyboardists, however can’t we throw this guy a bone and at least let him have a tiny portion of the stage?
During the encore I noticed a well-dressed woman standing stage-left and peeking-out on the crowd. Wendy Dio? Gloria Butler? Other?
Iommi is the epitome of cool, and his sound grows more massive with time.
Finally … I caught a guitar pick from Iommi as they left the stage for the final time. I can see the scratches from where he was striking the strings. You can’t have a better night than that.

Unique post-show observation: A Toronto Sun review available the day after the concert indicated there “were three new songs in the set -- Ear In The Wall, The Devil Cried and Shadow Of The Wind -- all of which paled in comparison to the classics.” Obviously this critic either composed half her review before the concert, or she really did not pay close attention to the songs played, or she would have known ‘Ear In The Wall’ was (unfortunately) omitted during this show. Jim C.

from Kathy & Tony DeGroot <tnkdegroot@sympatico.ca>
to siegler@black-sabbath.com
date Apr 11, 2007 10:30 AM
subject Review of Heaven & Hell - Toronto Mar 22, 2007

Review of Heaven & Hell - Toronto Mar 22, 2007:

Air Canada Centre was Rockin’!

This was our second time for both Megadeth and Heaven & Hell. We seen Black Sabbath (H&H) in August 1982 and Megadeth in 2005.

Down opened and started on time. We arrived early, but the entrance was very slow and we missed the first two numbers by Down. These guys were great and I can’t wait for them to come around again as a feature.

We’ve been huge Megadeth fans forever. My kids have grown up on larges doses of Megadeth, and they too are huge fans. I was aware of the set list from earlier reviews on this GREAT web site., so I was very happy to get Hanger 18 as a bonus. However, we did, however, miss two numbers by Megadeth. We had the very unfortunate incident of an over-zealous rent-a-cop wannabe security guard wrongfully accuse my son of smoking narcotics.

Heaven & Hell performance was flawless. Frontman Dio has not lost any of his talent in his older age and is still the reigning prince of darkness. And Iommi, the father of Heavy Metal, was awesome! Geezer’s thundering bass held up the music and Appice was bang on amazing. What a show!!

We are looking forward to the next CD release from all three of these metal bands. They are all true medal gods!

Zoot DeGroot
A Defender of the Faith