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August 11th - White River Amphitheatre - Auburn, WA, U.S. |
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Paul Jarolimek:
I wanted to drop you a line concerning this show. Before I get to the show itself let me give you (and your viewers, if you do decide to post this) just a little background as to my perspective on what happened there. I have been listening to Black Sabbath since 1979 having been introduced to them by a well meaning Christian music teacher who during school lunch breaks in my sixth grade class showed videotapes of the 700 Club shows warning of the Devil's influence in rock music. Needless to say, it had the opposite effect on me since up until that time the hardest rock music I had listened to was Donnie Osmond...lol. As the show was droning on, I was furiously copying the names of these "evil" bands and as soon as I could I went out and bought as many albums as I could. I ended up with Judas Priest, Blue Oyster Cult and 'We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll' by Sabbath. While I enjoyed the rest of the bands and developed a fondness for others such as Deep Purple and Iron Maiden, Sabbath absolutely out-shined them by the proverbial country mile. My Father had the most difficult time with me listening to this horrible sound coming from our basement, but my Mother, bless her, decided that any band who could put out a song such as 'Laguna Sunrise' couldn't be all bad and I was allowed to continue listening. This led to a life long appreciation of the band to which all others were compared. A few years back, Rob and I met on-line and over the course of time I began assisting him in researching and digging to find out the true history of this band... I had thought I knew quite a bit, but the revelations discovered over the last few years astounded me and gave me a much deeper appreciation of the band than ever before. Amazingly, although I have over 500 recorded concerts, I have never seen the band, in any incarnation, play live. The closest I came was Ozzy solo with Geezer on bass in 1988... Because this research was so all consuming and took a great deal of time in front of the computer my eldest daughter (she is 10 now...) would spend time with me at the computer, watching and listening and apparently developed an appreciation of the band I had no knowledge of... I didn't find this out until we were watching a cartoon about 3 months ago where the father and daughter were at a concert together and my daughter turned to me and said, "You wouldn't take me to a concert would you?" I said "Sure I would, Honey. Who would you like to see?" Thinking how much I love my daughter since I was sure it would be Britney Spears or some other airhead bubblegum music like that...but she surprised me... "Black Sabbath" she said... There couldn't be a prouder Father in the world at that point - LOL. So we went to Ozzfest '05 and when I sat down to write this today my thoughts were to write a true critique of the show. But as I thought more about it I realized there can be no criticism. None. While the opening bands were great (Zombie and Iron Maiden were just plain fun to watch - Black Label Society's new album is a must buy) there was one reason we were there and it was to see Sabbath... For me, finally... For her, the first time a seeing live band. Being able to watch my daughter nearly in a trance, vibrating with awe at the spectacle and volume... Hearing the opening notes of "N.I.B." seeing Ozzy, Geezer, Bill and of course Tony, doing what they clearly love to do transcended anything I have ever experienced. I have read that they are only out touring because of the money. Rubbish, I say. Obviously those whose opinion is such do not realize just how hard 35 YEARS of touring would be (separately and together). In the early years, 2 or 3 shows a night. Later, huge stadium shows with tens of thousands of people (hundreds of thousands in the case of Live Aid) and now a constant schedule for nearly the last 10 years. You simply would not, nay, could not, do such a thing unless you purely loved what you do. And it showed. I felt it and my daughter felt it. Were there flaws musically? Sure. Most notably, Ozzy's voice did fail during the final verse of "Dirty Women" and he got frustrated, threw his mic down and went off the stage while the band played the outro of the song. However, he got a large cup of tea (yes - hot tea) and came back out and asked the crowd if they still wanted them to play despite his vocal problems. The crowd's reaction was enormous and it looked for all the world like it surprised Ozzy. I believe, like all artists, that they want to put on the best show possible and that is where the frustration shown by Ozzy came from, but when the crowd in their response showed him that despite the foibles of age and years of touring we appreciated what they set out to do and it really did not matter it was "perfect". The band relaxed and finished a truly amazing set. They played the song "Black Sabbath" with nearly 20,000 fans with lighters and Ozzy looking like a man possessed... The crowd singing ever other line of "War Pigs" back to Ozzy... The thunder of Bill's bass drum opening Iron Man... Geezer's amazing finger work on the light blue bass he switched to for "Children of the Grave"... Tony playing the opening notes to "Apache" and seamlessly moving into "Sleeping Village"... There really are not words to describe it all... I think it would serve all of us to take a bit of a reality check here and note that these guys are in their mid-50's and things don't work as well as they do when you are in your 20's. Besides, if your want perfect go buy the studio albums, all musicians - all - have errors, make changes, can't perform the same as the studio version when they play live. Since when did anyone want a band to perform exactly like they do on the album? That's not the point of the live show. It's the energy, the showmanship, the raw good feelings and excitement that comes from seeing a band like this so steeped in history - pioneers of an entire genre of music - that is why we are there... I know one 10 year old girl who will forever remember Ozzy, Geezer, Bill and Tony - not for the "faults" some are wont to point out, but for who they are... Black Sabbath - The Greatest Band Ever [Editor's note - I want to thank Paul for sharing his perspective on the show. When he told me about seeing this much maligned show in Auburn on the phone recently, I was very surprised at how differently the media has been portraying it. When Paul was able to, he dedicated himself to Sabbath research just as vigorously as I have been. Knowing this, I really wanted him to share his perspective on the Auburn show. Sabbath has never been about playing note-for-note renditions of their studio albums. Instead, it's the amazing vibe that these 4 men create when they step on stage together.] David Rostowsky: Well, my ears are still ringing this
morning. I had a blast at Ozzfest! [Editor's note: David sent me a video clip of this exact moment, but I decided it was way too sad and embarrassing to post. It was a very disheartening moment, both for Ozzy AND his fans. Considering the press release Ozzy made the following day about not performing any more Ozzfests, I do believe David unknowingly filmed a sad turning point in the bands history.] Fortunately, it was right before
Tony's solo. I was waiting for the lights to go down and the band to
follow at that point. The band was confused and clearly embarrassed,
but Tony went into an extended solo and they did their best to go
on. After a long solo, Tony finishes and Ozzy walks back on.
The band strikes up a slow melodic part again and Tony soloed a bit
more. Ozzy starts screaming and trying to get the crowd going.
They finish the song pretty sloppily. Ozzy says, "Guess what
I'm <crack> gonna do? My voice is fucked up again
tonight. So Ill continue croaking Live Pictures by David Rostowsky Powers of darkness fail Ozzy in Auburn (by Ernest A. Jasmin for The News Tribute - 8/12/05) Hell almost breaks out at Ozzfest after Ozzy's voice 'blows out'
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