TOUR REVIEWS

July 15th - Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts - Mansfield, MA, U.S.

Ozzfest fans crazy for new blood, dinosaurs (by Steve Morse for Boston Globe - 7/16/05)

Eric Goldberg:

I had to go into work on Friday morning, even though I had planned on taking the day off.  My friend Mark was driving down from NH, and when I told him I had to go into the office, he told me he would do the same.  By the time he got to my office it was 10:30, and we left with another coworker of mine, David, about 15 minutes later.   We pulled into the Tweeter Center in Mansfield at about 11:30 in the morning, parked the car, set up our tailgate lunch, and were eating by noon.  After a few drinks, some good food, and good conversation among old friends, we were ready to go inside the Tweeter Center a little after 2:00pm.

We walked around the Village of the Damned and saw the usual suspects, Metal Babies/Biker Babies being one of my favorites.  (My daughter had a onesie that said “If you can read this, the bib fell off.”)  We made it to the second stage in time to see most of the Killswitch Engaged set.  They were fast and heavy, exactly what you’d expect.  Not really my cup of tea.

We stuck around the second stage for Rob Zombie, who I was excited to see.  The pit was pretty severe.  I didn’t go into it, but people were regularly walking away from the stage with their faces and/or bodies bloodied after a fall.  Zombie’s set included a medley of "Funk #49" (Yes, the one by Joe Walsh’s old band, the James Gang.), 1965, and the riff from "Sweet Home Alabama".

Zakk Wylde (from Black Label Society) came onstage and talked with Rob over the microphone, so we could all hear their conversation.  A local radio station had run a contest in which someone won tickets to the Red Sox/Yankees game the night before and sat with Zakk and a few DJ’s from the station.  Since Zakk is an outspoken Yankees fan, he and the DJ’s had made a bet: if the Red Sox won, Zakk and his band would wear Red Sox shirts on stage; if the Yankees won, the DJ’s would wear Yankees shirts all day during their coverage and promotion of Ozzfest.  A-rod hit a late game home run to break the tie, and Zakk was wearing his usual BLS vest.  He was bid farewell from Zombie's stage with the ubiquitous and embarrassing “Yankees
Suck” chant.  (If you are from Massachusetts, you know it only too well.)

After Zombie’s set, the second stage closed.  We opted to pass on In Flames deciding instead to take a lap around the grounds before venturing in for Black Label Society.  When we got to our seats for the first time, we were very pleasantly surprised to find ourselves about 10 feet off stage left (the right-hand corner of the stage as you face it).  This was particularly exciting as we immediately realized that we would be mere feet away from Tony Iommi later that night.  When BLS took the stage, they owned it.  Zakk was his usual incredible presence: completely into his playing and the crowd.  His rhythm guitarist also has great presence: he was clearly having a great
time on stage and got the crowd really into the show interacting with individuals and making us feel like part of the show.

At one point, Zakk removed his orange and black guitar from himself and put it into the crowd, much to the shock and dismay of security guard who looked at Zakk with wide-eyed laughter as if to say, "I can't believe he just did that."  Later, during an extended instrumental introduction to Stillborn, Zakk crowd-surfed for a while before getting back onto the stage.  He then lowered himself into the crowd, so he was standing with them, and reached for his roadie to hand him his guitar.  He then played solos from the crowd while the band continued to play the intro to Stillborn.  After getting back on stage, Stillborn ended the set.

After going for some water, we made it back to our seats just in time for Shadows Fall, who it turns out are a local (Massachusetts) band.  They asked the crowd to chant “Yankees suck” again, which seemed to me to be a cheap way to gain favor with most of the crowd.  The singer has thick dreadlocks almost down to his feet.  He seemed to lose his voice from all his screaming.  The drummer's double-bass for much of the set was remarkably fast.  The two guitarists looked very young (15 or 16), and doubled on background growling and deep-toned screaming.  They had some
brief dynamics that made me think of them as being speed-metal’s answer to Incubus.

I was curious to see Mudvayne, but I got a business call just before their set which kept me busy until they were almost done.  My friends, who were good enough to hang with me while I worked on my business issue, and I decided to grab some dinner and water while we talked and listed to Mudvayne from outside the seating area.  I didn’t see the band, and the sound was not very clear from where we were, but I don’t think we missed very much.

We went back to our seats for Iron Maiden.  They had put up some elevated platforms that went over the security guards’ heads at the corners of the stage.  I noticed a microphone pointing down towards the crowd from the corner of one of the platforms I wondered if they were recording the set, but no one ever mentioned that they were.  The lights dimmed and “Ides of March” played over the PA.  The set
list was nearly perfect, with little breaks between songs:

1. Wrathchild
2. The Trooper
3. Revelations

Here, Bruce took a break to tell us that they would only be playing
songs off their first four studio albums in support of their “Early Years”
DVD which came out last November.  (I highly recommend it, if you are a fan
of early Maiden.)  He went on to say that he had been a fan of Maiden even while he was in Samson and that there was a song that Maiden were doing at the time that was somewhere between metal and jazz.

4. Phantom of the Opera
5. Run to the Hills
6. Number of the Beast
7. Hallowed be They Name
8. Iron Maiden

During the final verse and chorus, a giant Eddie came out from backstage and played both Dave Murray’s and Janick Gers’s guitars.  When I say he played them, I mean he hit the necks of the guitars and allowed a chaotic noise to be emitted.  Eddie was a little hokey up close, but he probably looked pretty cool from further back.  After a brief break, They came back for their encore which began with “Running Free". 

 Bruce then said that Maiden would put out a new album soon.  He then said Maiden “was not one of those bands that just kept doing reunions without putting out any new albums” which consequently made Maiden "real", "fiece" and "hard-working".  I wish I could say that I do not know to what band he could be comparing Maiden, but I do.  I wish I could say that he was not right, but I can’t.  I wonder if Tony and Geezer put him up to it, to put a fire under Ozzy.

They closed the night with an extended version of “Sanctuary".  During the song, Adrian Smith was his in the face by a flying bottle.  He flipped off the person he thought to be the thrower, but I am not sure he was right, slammed down his guitar on it’s face, and left the stage.  After the song was nearly over, he returned to the stage with a different guitar in hand.  He proceeded to go right to the front of the stage near his attacker and began flipping him off and inviting him to the stage for a
fight.  In doing this, he epitomized the worst in the stereotypes of fans of hard rock and looked foolish.  In the words of Frank Zappa: "Shut up and play yer guitar".

Aside from that incident and Bruce Dickinson's brief rant, Iron Maiden were typically excellent: generally tight, in good playing and singing form, energetic, and having a good time on stage.  As usual, Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Janick Gers, and Nicko McBrain all wore Iron Maiden tour shirts.  The three guitarists also still played most of the night with cabled (as opposed to wireless) guitars.  I know you're reviving your early years, but go wireless.

Black Sabbath's stage was set up behind a big orange curtain sporting the "Master of Reality" logo in black.  When the lights dimmed, Ozzy taunted from back stage that he could not f-in' hear us.  The tape began with the air raid siren from "War Pigs", had the rain from "Black Sabbath", and included excerpts from "Symptom of the Universe", "Fairies Wear Boots", and "Into the Void" among others.  The set was the same as the European dates. I will add some comments below:

"N.I.B." - No bass intro

"After Forever" - Tape intro.  Tony shot Ozzy a look when Ozzy started chanting one verse early for what he thought was going to be the middle section.

"War Pigs" - Bill missed the first two-note punch after the high hat taps.  Ozzy was off-time.  Tony and Geezer stood out of range of the vocal monitors so they would not be distracted by the echo that was added to the end of each vocal line.

After a brief contest run by Ozzy to see which side of the venue could scream the loudest, there were band member introductions: first Geezer, then Bill Ward, four or five times, then Tony to whom Ozzy bowed as reported at other shows. (Neither Adam Wakeman nor Sharon Osbourne were mentioned.)

"Dirty Women" - Ozzy couldn't find the key, so Tony asked the sound-man to turn up his guitar in Ozzy's monitors so he could find the key.  Ozzy turned to the sound man to have him turn down Tony's guitar in his monitor.  Ozzy never really found the key until the closing, rowdier sections of the song.  Tony was almost dancing during the up-beat parts of the song.  After a blistering (albeit shorter than I would have liked) solo, Bill eased back on the drums for a nice low-key even bluesy solo which then build up again.

"Fairies Wear Boots" - Geezer was perfect.  Bill was not.  There was some nice interplay between Tony and Bill here.

"Symptom Of The Universe", "Sweet Leaf", "Electric Funeral" - Both "Symptom of
the Universe" and "Sweet Leaf" were 'teasers'. "Electric Funeral" was played in
full.  Ozzy danced like a marionette for parts of the song.

"Iron Man" - Inevitable?  Anyway, Tony stood by Geezer for part of the song, which was nice to see.  Tony stayed fairly true to the original solo for most of it, but built it to a powerful close.

"Into The Void" - After messing up the second verse, Ozzy appeared to read the lyric to the last verse.  Bill got lost after the punches separated by the lone guitar which leads into the closing solo.

"Black Sabbath" - Bill's drum work was the worst so far in this song.  Since he was off, Tony, Geezer, and Ozzy were also off.  The first half of the song was a sloppy mess.  Ozzy was doing the "pogo" during the closing section of the song which was much tighter. Tony started the solo off with such intensity, that he had to take it down and then build it back up.

"The Wizard" - Ozzy played harp through the entire song as reported.  Bill redeemed himself here with some nice tight rolls, loose, relaxed fills and a general air of enjoyment.

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" / "Paranoid" - Ozzy seemed tired by this point.  After a few spontaneous false endings, Ozzy bowed to the crowd before leaving the stage.

During the required encore break, Ozzy again taunted from backstage that he
could not f-in' hear us.

"Sleeping Village" - Nicely done.

"Children Of The Grave" - This is a song that I was beginning to think should be retired with a much of this night's set.  But this was a solid and powerful version which saw Tony actually playing fills and which put a nice end to the night.

They played the VOLUME 4 version of "Changes" as we left the arena and changes are what I would like to see.  While Tony was relaxed, spontaneous, and laughing with the stage hands, he was also playing brilliantly and engaging his adoring fans.  Bill's performance could be explained only as either a bad night (since none of the other reviews I've read have mentioned his poor performance) or as needing a break after their short European tour.  I hope it is the former.  I think we'd all agree that we would like to see a singer (or singers) at a Sabbath show who would play a set that would surprise us and keep us guessing as to the next song because everyone in the band were as sharp as Tony and Geezer and could adeptly play songs from any era of the band's history.  I also hope they prove Bruce Dickinson wrong.

I did not take the opportunity to have met either Tony or Geezer earlier in the day at the FYE tent, but I did go there to check out the scene.  The young lady (I use the term loosely) who was working there tried to sell me a $100 version of Black Box.  When I told her that I already owned it and paid significantly less, she pointed out that my version was probably not signed.  When I pointed out that Tony and Geezer would only each be signing their own solo albums, she acknowledged that she knew that to be true.  Beware, and don't be fooled by clever salespeople who are trying to get your money.

All in all, I enjoyed the show and will most likely continue to see Black Sabbath every chance I get.

Live Pictures by Eric Goldberg

'Boston Herald' Ignores Ozzy Photo Ban, Incurs Wrath of Singer's Wife 

From Editor & Publisher - July 20, 2005

NEW YORK Ozzy Osbourne's wife Sharon is livid with Boston Herald editorial director Ken Chandler for ignoring her ban on photographs of her husband at the Ozzfest music event, according to a report in Wednesday's Boston Globe.

The former lead singer for Black Sabbath suffers from debilitating and potentially humiliating body tremors. After the Herald published his picture last year, Sharon Osbourne called Chandler to complain. The Globe reports that Chandler hung up on her.

This year, Ozzfest publicist Shazila Mohammed told the Globe that the Herald was denied photo access but published a picture of the "Crazy Train" singer in its Saturday issue anyway.

Chandler was unavailable for comment but Herald managing editor Kevin Convey told the Globe, “No one is going to tell us what pictures we're going to put in the paper.”

He added that Clear Channel has revoked the paper's Tweeter Center summer review tickets.

Metalhead heaven: Ozzfest bands show no signs of age

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 16, 2005

BY RICK MASSIMO
Journal Pop Music Writer

[from The Providence Journal]