Aug
27, 2016
I thought I would never have the opportunity to see Black
Sabbath live and it was likely they would never get back together to record
again. Well I was wrong as both events happened and I can now check off another
bucket list group. The improbable happened once again. What a great show I
witnessed last evening at the Mohegan Sun. It is quite a facility and walking
through the casino was very entertaining. It is like a little city contained in
one building. It is very impressive.
I was very familiar with the
opening band Rival Sons. I have most of their music and they have
amassed quite an impressive catalog I must say. Their most recent release is Hollow Bones which is excellent and it
has some amazing artwork on the cover.
I find their music an energetic and moving type of blues
rock and on some their tracks they sound like they stepped out of the 60s. They
are different and original and that is what attracted me to their sound right
from the start.
The lead vocalist is Jay Buchannan and good lord does the
man have a set of pipes. I would recommend checking out all of their music and
make sure you get to the Sabbath show early enough to catch them live. A lot of
the crowd showed up when Sabbath came on and I had though the house would have
been packed right from the start but it took a while.
Rival Sons Set List:
Electric
Man
Secret
Pressure
and Time
Tied Up
Torture
Fade Out
Open My
Eyes
Keep On
Swinging
After
a break Black Sabbath came on stage. The huge white sheet with Black Sabbath
emblazoned across it that was covering them dropped and then we were off!
Most appropriately they opened up with “Black Sabbath.” Ozzy
sounded pretty good and the band was very tight. I felt a chill come over me
with the realization I was living out another lifetime dream.
Tommy Clufetos and keyboardist Adam Wakeman were the
additional members backing original members Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Geezer
Bulter (bass) and Tony Iommi (guitar).
Wakeman was in a little tent off to the side of the stage
and Clufetos was very prominently displaying his talents all night long
including a phenomenal drum solo after the instrumental “Rat Salad” (Paranoid
album).
Ozzy was a hit or miss all night with his vocals. It seemed
some songs were spot on and others he was a bit off. “Snowblind” (Volume 4
album) was amazing. And “War Pigs” was great as well as the entire capacity
crowd joined in. Ozzy was very animated and mobile, always urging the crowd to
clap their hands and get into the flow of the music. “Hand of Doom” was also
excellent. I was surprised that there was no coverage from their album 13 at all. That didn’t seem to bother the
audience at all though, they loved every minute of what they were getting and
so did I. I have to give the nod to the special effects backdrop as well it was
very colorful and entertaining with a lot of close up shots of the band members,
especially Geezer’s rapidly moving fingers on his bass!
During “Dirty Women” (Technical Ecstasy Album) the sound
crew turned up Tony’s guitar so loud Ozzy could not hear himself singing and we
could not even hear the drummer. I can see putting the spotlight on the lead
guitar man but not at the expense of the rest of the band. That was the latter
half of the show but very noticeable. Ozzy was relaying hand signals to let
them know as well.
I
picked up a tour shirt and special CD release that is only available at the
concert with eight previously unreleased tracks. Four of the tracks never made
it on to the last studio album and the other four are live recordings. I
thought it was a bit pricey at $30, I think $20 would have been more reasonable
but I got it anyway, it was a one shot deal and I would have regretted not
getting it. I am all for supporting touring bands as it is more difficult to
sell music in this day and age.
I am happy Tony Iommi is in remission of his cancer and he
is here to bring the Black Sabbath legendary sound to life on stage for us.
They ARE the godfathers of heavy metal without question and everyone
else comes in second.
This is a great show that should not be missed! Once it’s
over it really is The End for Black Sabbath, or so they say….
Black Sabbath Set
List:
Fairies Wear Boots
After Forever
Into the Void
Snowblind
War Pigs
Behind the Wall of Sleep (with "Wasp" intro)
N.I.B. (with "Basically" intro)
Hand of Doom
Rat Salad
Iron Man
Dirty Women
Children of the Grave (with "Embryo" intro)
Encore:
Paranoid
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck
August 29, 2016
Review
Provided By Write A Music Review
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