TOUR REVIEWS

July 21st - Darien Lake Performing Arts Center - Darien Lake, NY, U.S.

Jeff Spevak:

"OzzFest at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on Thursday was a 20-hour circus of energized humanity that concluded with proof positive that Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne are not floating in a giant glass jar of green-hued formaldehyde."  [from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle - 7/23/2005]

Dan Vega:

I attended the Darien Lake show last night.  I have to tell you I came from Toronto since they didn't come to Canada.  With Sabbath being only a 2 hour drive away, there was no way I was missing my favorite band.  I have only seen Sabbath with Ozzy one other time and that was the Reunion tour that came to Toronto a few years ago.

They were actually ahead of schedule.  The bands at the main stage started early, so I was hoping for the full set.  "The Wizard" was not played, so maybe they dropped the song for other reasons.  Would have loved to have seen Ozzy play the harmonica again.

The set list was pretty much the same as the previous shows, so I won't bore you with details about each song.  I can say that at this show Ozzy never "mooned" the crowd, but there were lots of buckets of water.  It was a hot and humid day.  I had 10th row center and you could see Iommi's sweat pouring down his face.

Ozzy's voice was cracking a lot in the first few songs, especially "Dirty Women", and he was off key also.  But hey, what the hell!  With all he's been through, a few off notes was fine by me.  After all it WAS Sabbath with ALL the boys there on stage, something I'd never imagined I'd ever get to see when I was just 19 years old and Dio was their singer.

By the time he started singing "Fairies Wear Boots", his voice found the range and from then on it was perfect.  Actually, I was quite amazed by his singing, very loud and clear like in the old days.  Ozzy even sang part of the medley in "Sweet Leaf", instead of being just instrumental, which was great.

"Electric Funeral" was slow and heavy like Sabbath is and I was also impressed with Ozzy's voice in the bridge of that song in sync with Tony's riffs.

"Into The Void" was one of my favorites at the show.  Tony cranked up the intro riffs that made the place tremble.  "Sleeping Village" was also a bonus that I'd never dreamed of hearing Sabbath do live.  They finished off with "Children Of The Grave". 

Now I agree with all that Geezer seemed distant from the other members and didn't seem to happy compared to the rest.  I've seen Ozzy like 15 times during his solo career and I have to say I have never seen him smiling so much and having such a good time up there.  He really seemed to be enjoying playing with his old mates and doing the old Sabbath tunes, which is a good sign for future tours.

Iommi was also smiling a lot and was his cool self.  I was impressed with Bill's drumming, very hard and heavy - especially on "Fairies" and "War Pigs".  The old man can still pound the skins.

All in all, it was a very loud and heavy set.  I lost my voice and Sabbath had the crowd on its feet the whole night.  It must have been sold out because the lawns were jam packed.

If you like Sabbath, especially if you never seen the "original" and only Sabbath, you need to check this out!!