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THE BAND
- Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
- Tony Iommi - Guitar
- Geezer Butler - Bass
- Bill Ward - Drums
- Geoff Nicholls - Keyboards
CONCERT PHOTO GALLERY
You can view the photo gallery for this concert here.
TOUR REVIEWS & REMARKS
From: "mark skaar" <mas50436@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Masters in Minneapolis
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 13:40:20 PST
First of all, what a thrill to finally see all four original members of my
favorite band on the planet finally on one state together!!! Let's get the
set list out of the way first...
War Pigs
NIB
Fairies Wear Boots
After Forever
Electric Funeral
Into The Void
Snowblind
Dirty Women
Black Sabbath
Iron Man
Children Of The Grave
Paranoid
Ozzy Geezer and Tony came up from the bottom of the stage to begin the show-very cool!!
Ozzy sounded amazingly good throughout, I'm sure having a few days off helped. The
only song he struggled with was Snowblind, but otherwise, very commendable. Tony
played note-perfect and when Ozzy introduced Tony, Ozzy dropped to his knees and
bowed as if to say "I'm not worthy!!!" Geezer Butler is my favorite bass
player and was amazing, as was Bill Ward, who I was the most happy to see on this
tour. Having seen Sabbath with four different vocalists over the years (I love all
of Sabbaths' different line-ups) I now feel like the circle is complete having
finally seen the original line-up in person. One other thing, both War Pigs
and Iron Man were played with a dropped tuning (tuned lower than on "Reunion)
And the song "Black Sabbath" was cool-lots of fog and fire coming from the
huge "torches" on stage. And the confetti at the end of the show was cool
too. Even though I was seated in the upper deck, I went downstairs and got some. By
the way, if you do have upper deck seats, there is a large screen above the stage so
you can see everything even if you're not as close to the stage as you'd like. The
camera work is very good with alot of cool video-morphing going on throughout. Also,
for those wondering about merchandise, I bought a program for $15. The program is
full-color and is very well put together. T-shirts ranged from $30-50 with
the hooded sweatshirt for $85 being the most expensive item I saw. If you can't
afford a T-shirt at the show, there is a Black Sabbath merchandise catalog you can pick up
at the merch booth and take home with you. If you have a chance to go to one of the
shows, please do. Being a longtime Sabbath fan, I was very emotionally moved
thoughout and it was very much a relegious-type experience that I'll never forget.
Thank you and God bless Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill.
Mark Skaar-1/18/99
From: "JAMES BOEHMLER" <sumo_bob@hotmail.com>
Subject: minneapolis
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 19:04:04 PST
holy fuckin shit, man. i never figured that i would ever live to witness something so
fuckin SPIRITUAL as the original BLACK FUCKING SABBATH. this was definitely the best
concert ive ever seen. incubus was alright, not exactly my bag, but the crowd seemed
to like them. pantera came on next, played almost a full set. i noticed that during
their set, a couple of little mosh pits broke out in the aisles, and security came
promptly to most of them and broke them up, dragging people in headlocks out of the
building. when they went off and the lights came on, there, in the middle of
the floor was a HUGE pile of folding chairs that were originally on the floor that
had been trown aside to make room for the pits. after everything got situated, and
the chairs put back in what almost resembled straight rows, BLACK FUCKING SABBATH
eventually came on. everyone knows about them rising from the floor, the fog, the
videos, the song list (pretty much the same, minus sweet leaf), the band all dressed
in black (except for bill, who was actually wearing a red shirt, but promptly took
it off after war pigs), so i wont go into any of that. the point was, the
whole concert was total sensory overload, so much to see, not enough eyes in one
skull to catch it all. the place was totally packed, people totally filling the very
top rows of the top balcony. the atmosphere was just totally mind numbing, like some
spiritual mecca, thousands of people flocking from all over to witness the beginning
of ARMAGEDDON! ozzy did his normal stage antics, bill played fucking flawless, and
did a lot of inprov fills and whatnot, which was totally refreshing (hey, if you
want it perfect, fuckin listen to the cd), geezer was all over the fuckin
place, came across loud and clear, and tony, what can i say, tony was,
well...exactly what you would expect from a god. tour shit was expensive, as can be
expected at pretty much any concert, but there were a lot of cool bootleg t-shirts
being sold in the various parking garages (especially the purple tie-dye shirts), so
for those of you like me that have no money, that is always a very attractive
option. basically, all in all, if anybody has any chance to attend any shows on the
rest of the tour, no matter if theyre restricted view seats, fuckin take advantage
of the opportunity, it is well worth it.
A DIFFERENT SOUL TO TAKE APART
A DIFFERENT PERSON TO BREAK MY HEART
-MOPZ.
From: "Perkins" <perkg@ticon.net>
Subject: Reunion Tour Report
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 14:49:04 -0600
Jan. 18,1999
Last night I saw Black Sabbath (the greatest band of all time) in concert at the Target
Center in Minneapolis. I' ve seen Sabbath a number of times and this one by far the best.
The show opened by Geezer, Ozzy and Tony rising from under-neath the stage and into a sea
of fog. The set list was pretty much the same as the reunion album except a few songs were
left out like "behind the wall of sleep", "sweet leaf", "spiral
architect" "sabbaht bloody sabbath" and "lord of this world". I
really wished that they would have played "symptom of the universe" and
"never say die" but you can't win them all. During the song "black
sabbath" giant torches were lit to add an evil aspect and the pyro effects were
great. Not to kiss ass or anything but you have the best Sabbath web site in the
world and i'm on it every day! I'm going to the Chicago show on tuesday the 19th and
if the set list changes i'll let you know. Here was the set list and remember to
keep the "Sabbath" holy.
Sincerely,
Eric Perkins
Set list for Jan.17,1999
War Pigs
N.I.B.
Fairies Wear Boots
Electric Funeral
Into the Void
Snowblind
After Forever
Dirty Women
Black Sabbath
Iron Man
Children of the Grave
Paranoid (encore)
From: ediciusniotulos@hotmail.com ("Harold
Andmaude")
Subject: Here is a Minneapolis review! :)
Newsgroups: alt.music.black-sabbath
Hello, it's Nathan in Fargo, North Dakota.
Some comments from last night's performance:
Incubus. I read my program ($15). The program is very well done, but there are a
couple of things in there that bother me. Perhaps I'll post about that later.
Pantera: Played a very fan-friendly set comprised
of the following:
Domination
Hollow (not complete)
A New Level
Walk
Becoming
Use My Third Arm
Primal Concrete Sledge
This Love
Fucking Hostile
Cowboys From Hell
I lost interest in Pantera after "Far Beyond Driven", but seeing Darrell
play is always a pleasure. Also, note to Phil: It's obvious you love to talk. How
about keeping the prattle in-between numbers to a minimum, and mapping out your own
spoken word tour, like Rollins does? This will extend your set by at least two
songs.
Sabbath:
Ozzy: Was in tremedous spirits. I didn't hear him cough all night, though as is per
the usual, his voice cracked several times and he was off key, most noticeably
during the intro to "War Pigs". (I still get a chuckle out of that, though
:)) I will always love the guy.
Geezer: Seemed a little subdued. Still, he played his ass off and shared some smiles
with Ozzy. Something was definitely being joked about onstage during "Dirty
Women". I don't care for the FX before "N.I.B." That's just my
opinion.
Bill: "I don't play time as drummer. I play orchestration." How did he
play last night? That is open to debate, I'm sure. I happen to think he was in fine form,
and obviously, there's no one else I'd rather see behind the kit. I was watching him
very closely during the intro to "FWB".
Tony: His riffs will be heard when the real Armageddon comes. Call me fucked, but I
really believe this. I think it's best you go back and reread JCRYIAD's brilliant San Jose
review concerning Tony's playing. I echo everything he typed. Concerning his
attitude last night, he was having a GREAT time up there- walked around quite a
bit, acknowledged the crowd several times, and smiled more than once :)
Other comments:
Probably the best SOUNDING show I have heard in the Target Center. The TC is
strictly hit or miss when it comes to sound quality. I give Sab's sound crew much
credit for doing a great job of assessing that damn place. The set list was the same
as Seattle. Personally I think eleven songs definitely is cutting things short.
Don't be surprised if this does not change for the rest of thr tour. Would be so
awesome to hear "Wizard", "KYTL", "Supernaut", "Sprial
Architect", "SOTU", etc. "FWB" and "Into The
Void" were particularly ferocious tonight IMO. I loved Ozzy's grimaces during
FWB and BS was also a highlight too. I don't think there is a scarier song on this planet.
Certainly the type of song Metallica couldn't write to save their lives. (Sorry, had
to jab ;)) Things kind of seemed to almost fall apart towards the end of "After
Forever". It was also a hoot to see Ozzy remember some lyrics, running around
the stage, and then keeping his eyes on the teleprompter for all his "I'm going
to feel"'s for NIB. Lots of laughs. :) Also, I did not see Geoff Nicholls but I
definitely heard him on the quadruple "'lectric fune-ral"... From all of
my Twin Cities concert experiences, I have found the Minny/St. Paul crowds to
be VERY appreciative. Last night the crowd was real good, but I think the
loudest and greatest crowd participation came during Pantera's set. There were a lot
of younger people who were mostly quiet after "NIB" and didn't get revved
up again until "Black Sabbath". And so it goes.
Anyone else who was there please comment and add on to these poorly executed
comments. I'm not very good at articulating my thoughts. :)
The bottom line is, the four horsemen are alive and well and in good health again,
so get ready Chicago and prepare East Coast! :)
Nathan
From: "Rahul Bandra" <yellowtop@hotmail.com>
Subject: Woooooooooooooooooow
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 19:38:50 PST
Hello Everybody,
Well like i wrote earlier, was headed for the Sabbath concert in Minneapolis.
Through the snow and sleet i did make it.
I wasn't too impressed with Pantera. They've got a long way to go before i will
mention them in the same breath as Sabbath. Two different types of music let me tell
you.
I had excellent seats, about 50 feet away from Mr. Iommi.
As I saw the stage setup, i was thinking that it would be neat to have them rise up
from under the stage.......and that's exactly what happened........right up through
the smoke. Unfortunately they surprised me and my camera.
You can definitely tell that they know what the hell they're doing. No one can play
like them that's for sure. You can close your eyes and know it's Tony, Geezer, Bill,
and Ozzy.
I was basically beside myself, i just couldn't get over seeing Tony Iommi right
there....before my eyes.....playing for me.
Geezer and Tony were bang on.......and Bill was leading the way....still got the
thunder foot and sticks going, but man he looks old......a lot older then the others
look. I appreciate very much what they can do for men of their age. Amazing!!!!!!
Ozzy is sure the man in charge. Drill sargeant i should say. I couldn't get over him
bouncing around and doing his 'frog' jumps. Hahahahahaha!!!!!
I know they must have shortened their song list.......cus there was a few i thought
they were supposed to play. But none the less.....they were very
impressive.......and certainly didn't let me down. I just hope that the younger
crowd (the panters head-bangers) will someday appreciate what they witnessed. It
took me 20 years to finally see them.....some kids, maybe 15 or 16 were there at the
concert....must be nice.
I thought about buying a T-shirt as a souvenir.......but i got what i wanted.......i
don't need a T-shirt to prove or show that i was at a Sabbath concert or prove that
i'm a fan. I know i am. Always will be.
I will write more later......once i absorb what i witnessed at the concert.
chow for now
rb
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 13:18:30 -0600 (CST)
From: Colin <colin@predictivedialers.com>
Subject: ReunionTourReport
I travelled 14 hours from my hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada to Minneapolis, MN
to see the almighty Sabs play at the Target Center.Everyone else who's posted a review has
given pretty much all the details,except for one: I could see Geoff Nicholls off to the
left of the stage, sohe was definitely there. For most of the show, he was not playing,
justgrooving, waiting for his next little bit of punctuation to come up. Now it makes
sense why he's not onstage...it would look silly because he doesn't play the whole time.
Anyway, my own personal thoughts on the night: Incubus was kind of cool, Pantera was
totally tight and solid, and Black Sabbath was truly a religious experience. Bill was at
his best, Tony and Geezer were their usual unparalleled selves, and Ozzy was, well, Ozzy,
complete with the "Go Fucking Crazy!"'s and the "LOUDER!"'s, and the
monster faces. When it was over, and the lights came up while "Changes" played
softly, a lot of people (myself included) just kind of sat there, stunned, for a few
minutes before collecting themselves and leaving. Unreal. Ozzy teased us with the prospect
of the band coming back at a later date. If it happens, I'll definitely be there again.
The band looked to be enjoying playing together so much, it just seems that the studio
thing HAS to happen at some point. But even if it doesn't, I have an experience that
I'll keep with me always.
- Colin Reid
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