Black Sabbath Concert Review June 1, 1997 Dallas, TX A review by Steve Quarrella

This review originally appeared in issue #555 of the Black Sabbath Mailing List.

Well, well, well...I've just come back from tonight's OzzFest, featuring Ozzy Osbourne with Black Sabbath, at the Coca Cola Starplex in Dallas. I went with Joe Siegler and a friend of his. They were further back from the stage, while I was on the right side, three rows from the mosh pit. We skipped most of the bands, arriving as Type O Negative were finishing their set, and we sat through Pantera. Other than being totally deafened by Pantera, they did nothing for me.

Jim Morrison once wrote a song called "Texas Radio and the Big Beat." Well, I'd like to add to that: Texas radio -sucks- and so do the concert crowds. Ozzy came out with his band, and repeatedly tried to encourage the crowd to get a bit noisier, to no avail. Ozzy himself didn't look that healthy, repeatedly going back to the stage for sips of hot tea and a bottle of spray for his throat. His set was preceded by a short film of Ozzy himself inserted into various film clips, like sitting next to Forrest Gump, carrying out a hit in "Pulp Fiction" (with his squirt gun), or onstage with Elvis (HILARIOUS). Anyways, I don't have the set list handy, but it included "I Don't Know," "Flying High Again," "I Just Want You," "Goodbye to Romance," "Crazy Train," "Mama, I'm Coming Home," "Bark at the Moon," and an instrumental medley that included (off the top of my head) bits of "Symptom of the Universe" and "Over the Mountain." No sign of "Perry Mason," to my detriment. Anyways, the set was quite good (and there was a monitor screen above the stage showing old clips of Ozzy with Randy Rhoads), and Ozzy's still got a lot of energy for a guy who looks quite ill. He definitely enjoyed himself with his high-powered squirt gun, and we got the buckets of ice near the end of the set.

Black Sabbath came on after Ozzy's set, preceded by some film clips of the band, including many with absent drummer, Bill Ward. The clips ranged from their early days through the tours for "Technical Ecstasy" and "Never Say Die." Anyways, by contrast, the set list was pretty much limited to the first three Black Sabbath albums, and went something like this:

War Pigs (complete with siren tape)
Into the Void
Sweat Leaf
Iron Man
Children of the Grave
Black Sabbath (complete with Rain SFX)
Fairies Wear Boots
Paranoid

[Joe Siegler, help me out here.] [ Ed Note: See My Review ]

I'm going from memory on this, but they definitely opened and closed with the tracks I've listed. I've heard that they've played a medley of tracks on other nights, but tonight, they played each song in its entirety. For me, the highlight of the night was "Children of the Grave," and I have to say that while I enjoyed watching Geezer Butler the last time I saw Sabbath here (during the "Cross Purposes" tour), this time, it was all Tony Iommi (sporting the five o'clock shadow goatee look). This guy -really- plays, and provides a definite backbone for the rest of the group: Ritchie Blackmore is usually called "The Man in Black," but not tonight, baby! Interplay between Ozzy and Geezer Butler, and Tony and Geezer, was fairly minimal, although there were smiles to be had from all. Before they went into "Paranoid," Ozzy indicated that he had enjoyed playing with Black Sabbath again, and "Maybe something more will come of this." Well, we've been through possible reunions in the past, so take that with a grain of salt, but who knows? In any event, Ozzy asked everybody to get "fucking crazy" for the next song, and here comes Iommi with the riff to "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath." Ozzy got this look on his face, like "Er, no, I don't think that's the one we're going to do, and if we do it, I'm in deep shit because I don't remember the words." :)

A great set, although the sound kicked out during the "Luke's Wall" section of "War Pigs," and that dropout continued through to the instrumental in "Sweet Leaf." From where I was sitting, I could still hear the band (although Ozzy's vocal was pretty faint), but I can't say that for the rest of the arena. I would have loved to have had Bill Ward there, I admit, but given that Sabbath sightings these days are few and far between, I'll take what I can get. Money well-spent, go see these guys. :)

Steve Quarrella -- Rowlett, TX -- dfish@metronet.com

"Have you done your share of coming down on different things that people do?"