THE BAND
- Ronnie James Dio - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Vinny Appice - Drums
- Scott Warren - Keyboards
SET LIST
- Unknown
CONCERT PHOTO GALLERY
None yet. Have any? Submit 'em!.
FAN SUBMITTED TOUR REVIEWS & REMARKS
From: Joe Siegler <siegler@black-sabbath.com>
Date: 22 Aug 2008 1:15PM
Subject: Heaven & Hell & Me
I'm sitting down to write this on August
22nd, 2008. This is the same day that I'm about to see H&H again
as part of the Metal Masters Tour. Odd that I'm writing this 15
months after the concert, and on the same day I'm seeing them again.
I always meant to write this one, but I go so behind in 2007, I put this
to the bottom of the pile. This "review" will again be more
of my experience at the show, not so much of the concert itself.
Part of the reason I let this slide is because what happened to me will
seem like ego tripping to some people. Despite this site being
here, and despite the fact I've been doing it now for 13 years, I still
view myself as a fan. I try not to ego trip when I can avoid it,
as my personality and my religion generally don't let me do this.
However, once in awhile it's unavoidable, especially when talking about
my experiences backstage. So that's what I'm going to do.
Write a bit about what happened to me.
First off, let me add that this concert
was a big pick me up. Two days before this, I was back home in
Philadelphia for the funeral of my stepfather. It was a rather sad
and depressing trip, and coming home to something like this was a great
antidote to the bad feelings I had being at the funeral of a family
member. So I head down to the arena, and given that I
couldn't care less about the band Down, I hung out in the lobby. I
called Pedro Howse (Geezer Butler's nephew, and guitarist in the GZR
project), and he said he'd come out and collect me, as we were going to
hang out backstage with the band before they went on. So we
waited in the lobby, and I'm getting progressively more tipsy after
several extremely overpriced beers, just shooting the shit. Down
finished, checked in with Pedro, no answer, so he probably got tied up
doing "concert shit". Now I was interested in seeing
Megadeth - I had seen them once before in the early 90's, but I would
have liked to see 'em. Still, I wanted to not miss Pedro's call -
there'd be no way I could hear the phone (or him) if I was inside, so I
continued to hang out in the lobby. Eventually Pedro called
and said we'd have to meet up after the gig, so I and my friends went in
to check out the end of Megadeth. If you remember my review from
2005, I was on stage for that gig. Pedro did ask me if I wanted to
see the gig from the stage this night, but with Dio being back, I opted
to actually use the tickets left for me by the band, so I stayed in the
venue for that. One of the reasons was that while it is cool
seeing a gig from the stage (as I did in 2005), it isn't the same as
seeing from the audience, and this night I wanted to sit out front.
Eventually, Black Sabbath came on, and it
was what you'd expect. Band was tight, had a great time watching 'em.
I'm not going to get into the performance part, because I am writing
this 15 months later (so I don't really remember it in detail), plus
what more needs to be said about Black Sabbath? Tony /
Geezer / Ronnie / Vinny - if it's not the original four, this is
probably the best it can be. So if you're reading this
review, I don't need to explain the band to you. You know
it. It was badass. Although I will say this.
It was great seeing some infrequently heard live tracks - especially
Computer God. One of my all time favorite tracks, and I probably
gave myself a serious headache from headbanging. When I saw
this gig, I was 41, and the kind of headbanging you do when you're 20,
done at 41 can really hurt. That's me in the Pittsburgh Steelers
shirt.
So the gig is over, and my friends and I
are wearing the pass you see above, and we're out in the lobby.
Had several people who never actually said anything to us just kind of
"hang around". Kind of amusing, as they probably were going to try
and see where we were going, figuring we were going to meet the band.
Which we were, but it was amusing to get that kind of passive attention.
So I got a hold of Pedro again, and told him we were having some issues
figuring out where to go. He said to go to a certain spot, so we
tried, but the security was not letting us through. They also
cleared the place out in a MAJOR hurry - we were actually escorted out
of the arena - back outside. To be honest, at this point,
I'm thinking the night was over, as we had been effectively thrown out
(along with everyone else - and I mean EVERYONE). So I
called Pedro again, and we made our way all the way around to the back
of the building where the buses and trucks and whatnot come in.
There was a locked, guarded gate back there, and there was a handful of
people (roughly 20 or so) already back there, probably waiting to get a
glimpse of the band. Called Pedro again, and he eventually
showed up at the gate to collect us. He had a word with the guard,
and the guard came and unlocked the gate, which of course prompted just
about everyone who was out there to come towards the gate.
Was interesting that Pedro pointed to me and I told him which two people
were with me. The gate was locked again, and it was amusing
hearing the people offer Pedro shit to let them backstage.
One was money (something like $1000 bucks), and Pedro responded with
"Don't need the money, mate!" So we get taken backstage, and
were told to not move and wait in a hallway. It was a hallway
outside of the respective dressing rooms for the Sabs.
Waited a few minutes, and kind of had a "Whoa shit - this is cool
feeling". Probably had that look, too.
Some time passed, and we were eventually
collected by Pedro and went to Geezer's dressing room. After some
introductions, and some pictures (see below), we got done to some
general bullshit talk. Talked about Doctor Who, beer (the fellow
in the picture above with me acting like a moron makes his own beer),
and various other things. Talked about the gig a bit, and
had a few drinks. Geezer invited us to partake of the food in his
room - I of course hit the fridge and the beer. I mean, free
beer in Geezer Butler's dressing room? HELL YES! :)
I teased Geezer about his Aston Villa FC. He never goes anywhere
without their team flag, and it wasn't in his room. He
claims it was already packed up in the equipment truck (which was
entirely possible), but the fun of giving a rock star some shit was too
tempting. :)
Eventually Tony Iommi came into the room,
and more intros ensued. The picture above here is of Richard (Levelord)
Gray, a long time friend of mine from the gaming industry. BTW,
Geezer isn't really drunk in this picture, he was talking to someone on
the couch which you can't see. Anyway, it was around this time
that I realized I was recognized by the band. This was when I had
mentioned to them 2008, and briefly talked about the (then in 2007)
major rumors about them touring with Ozzy for the 40th anniversary.
Tony responded quite deadpan and said "Well, you haven't heard, but..."
and went into a story about how there was a new album, and tour and all
that. Apparently I bought it hook line and sinker, because a
minute later Geezer & Tony started laughing their asses off and pointed
at me - Tony going so far as to say "Man, look at his face!" OK,
when the band is playing practical jokes on me, you know you're cool
with 'em. Also, when Tony first walked into the room, he
actually remembered me from backstage in 2005. He also apologized
to me for not complimenting me on the Sabbath site when he met me for
the first time in 2005. That was a major ego blast for me - Iommi
was apologizing to me for the Sabbath site. I don't
know if you remember, but I did an
April Fool's joke back in April of 2007 which talked about Dio
qutting the tour, and being replaced by Ian Gillan. I talked to
the guys about that joke, and relayed the fact that some people got
genuinely mad at me because of it. They thought it was darn funny.
Having a laugh with the band was a great personal moment.
So the talking eventually got out into
the hallway, and Scott Warren walked by. Didn't say much to him,
just introduced myself, with a "Hi Mate" kind of thing.
At this point Ronnie James Dio had
wandered out into the hallway, and I wanted to go over and say hi to
him, and waited patiently for him to finish talking to whom he was
talking to. During this time, one of the Sabbath roadies came up
to me and introduced himself. Apparently I had people watching me
because of my work here - something that never occurred to me.
Despite its success, I still view this website as a "small little thing"
I do, so when I get recognition for it, I'm still kind of amazed by it.
I was told by one of my friends later on that the guy who introduced
himself to me said something I didn't hear. This guy apparently
said "Is that Joe Siegler from the Black Sabbath site? I
need to go introduce myself." I never heard any of that, but again
- ego trip! Shortly after this, I ran into Simon
Wright, who apparently was on tour with the band, I went over and said
something to him as well, as I had all of his AC/DC work.
Mentioned the old Blow Up your Video album to him, and he said "Bloody
hell, that's awhile back". Exchanged a few pleasantries with
him as well, and then made it back to Ronnie.
I introduced myself, as the guy who does
the Sabbath site. Unclear if he really recognized me or not, but
he certainly seemed to. I said something about having run afoul of
his wife, as I had posted a picture from tour rehearsal before the 2007
tour started, and I was "contacted" by Wendy Dio about my having posted
that picture. When I told Ronnie I had "run afoul of his wife",
his response was "Yeah, done that a few times". We chatted
about the old days, told him I'd seen him in just about every
incarnation of "Dio" there was, and apologized for an event in 1995 when
some jackass was throwing beer cups on stage, almost forcing Ronnie to
walk offstage. He got a chuckle that I still remembered that kind
of stuff. We talked for awhile, I mentioned his old stuff
from the 50's, asked if it would ever be re-released, you know that kind
of talk. I also was joking with him, and referred to George
W. Bush as "his buddy", which prompted Ronnie to say "He ain't my buddy
- fuck you too!". So we parted after a handshake, and
at this point I briefly ran into Vinny Appice, who was nowhere to be
found up until now. Thanked him for returning, talked about
connections to the past, and asked if it felt weird about playing Cozy
Powell's gear on the new tracks. He said no, but it felt
like an honor for him to bring Cozy into the current again if for a
short piece like that.
Shortly after that, we found Pedro and
Geezer again, said goodnight. At this point, we were
backstage for about an hour, and the band was getting ready to pack it
up and head to the buses for the next stop. We showed ourselves
out, headed home, and talked a lot about what had transpired.
For this Black Sabbath fan, it was one seriously fun night. Again,
I have Pedro Howse to thank for his making sure we were taken care of.
Couldn't have done all this without you, mate!
Joe Siegler
siegler@black-sabbath.com
from "Fox4cm@aol.com" <Fox4cm@aol.com>
to siegler@black-sabbath.com
date May 11, 2007 5:55 AM
subject Concert review of Heaven and Hell in Dallas
I just wanted so submit a review of the
concert.
They opened with E5150 wich was awsome and the Show Blew me away
Megadeth was cool but I wanted Sabbath.
I was always a Sabbath fan and I was glad to see this particular
version.
I am only 21 and this was just amazing for me the only beef I really
have is Tony had his guitar to quite I could not here it as well I
wanted to.
Also when Dio talked to the crowd they were Louder then him.
But for the most part it was an awsome Show They ended with Neon Knights
and Dios voice sounded pretty bad ass for being 64 and all but thats
about it. |