Heavy Metal Music

I saw them in Boise and they rocked our socks off. Love em, too.

Awesome.

Apart from missing the intro, as I was ahem, mid-stream, so to speak (guys will understand that ), just as Ozzy cackled maniacally and the air raid sirens began blaring. With that over, I had to "negotiate" my way to the prime front row seat (just above the mosh pit), only to find a young goth girl's arse cheeks occupying a space to which my cheeks were legally entitled. I politely turfed her out and just got to sit down as the DAH-DAH, chicka, chicka, chicka, chicka part of War Pigs kicked in.

Here's a recreation of the event so far. The angle this was taken from was pretty much my line of vision, although I was down the front of course ().


After that it was a night that brought back a whole load of memories for me. The songs I played over and over again in my youth actually being performed by three of the four guys that actually wrote and recorded them. Bliss.

No Bill though. Looking back at what I posted earlier, Symptom Of The Universe is a great example of how much Bill contributed to the Sabbath sound.

Interestingly, SOTU is used as an introduction to Ward's replacement, Tommy Clufetos's solo spot. All I can say about that is that as a child, Tommy must have been deeply traumatised by a drum kit and has devoted his life to punishing them by beating them with sticks. The ferocity with which he inflicted this punishment bordered on violence. If we lived in a just society, he would've been charged with Assault and Battery of defenseless drum heads.

Thankfully though, we don't live in a just society and his crime was not only condoned, but cheered on by the (all ages and tribes) crowd as well. It would've been nice to see Bill up there with the others however, it's asking a bit much for a 65 year old to beat the skins with the required level of violence the songs deserve, crank it up a notch or two for a solo, then maintain the previous level of violence for the rest of the set.

Iommi and Butler played their parts as well as you'd expect, but more importantly still played them with passion as well. So the music was in good hands. Which brings us to Ozzy.

This is the first time I've seen him live. I had a couple of chances to see his solo act while I lived in Sydney over the years, but <insert lame arse excuse here>. Just as the Australian leg was kicking off there were a series of rumours doing the rounds about his marriage being in tatters and him "falling off the wagon". What exactly were we gong to get from him? The Prince Of Darkness? A jibbering mess? Something else entirely?

Luckily it was the latter. Within a couple of songs I discovered the secret of Ozzy's charisma. He just doesn't give a fvck. Self awareness? Pfft! He knows how to work a room tough. He's learnt a lot about stagecraft over the years. He seems to sense where the energy levels are starting to wain, then shuffles across the stage to get that area back on the boil. On top of all that he was in fine voice as well!

Don't take my word for it though, first go here, then here, and see for yourself .

Or you could go here, then here .