Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath in Phoenix, AZ last night 8-30-13 picture from www.azcentral.com

   Black Sabbath's latest album entitled, "13" debuted at number one on I Tunes proving that rock is far from dead. I went to see them in concert last night and that's what I want to blog and share some pictures of the show that I did not take. 

Guitarist Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013.

picture from www.azcentral.com

  I was excited about seeing Black Sabbath for several reasons. I've seen Ozzy in concert three times since 1988 and he always puts on a good show, I've never seen Black Sabbath before. But mostly, I wanted to see one of my guitar heroes Tony Iommi play live, especially since he has cancer now, I figured this could be the last chance I get.

  After I bought my tickets, I looked at some Youtube videos of this tour and I gotta admit I was a little shocked. Ozzy hanging on to the microphone stand for dear life sounded tired and was having trouble hitting a lot of the higher notes. The guitar was detuned so much to presumably accommodate Ozzy's diminishing vocal range that it was hard to listen to the music and make out a lot of the songs like "War Pigs." And very importantly drummer Bill Ward was not present, apparently he said he would not be part of this reunion unless he was offered a, "signable contract." (source wikipedia,) and I'm not a big fan of messing with the rhythm section of a band. 

 I also found this blog on the Houston Press Website talking about their opening night on Houston. Calling Ozzy's performance, "struggling," "decidedly not in key," "off key mumbling," and, "painful to witness." The link to that blog is here:

 http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2013/07/ozzy_osbourne_cant_sing.php

 I was seriously doubting my decision to go to this concert. I wanted to see a rock and roll show not a funeral. 

Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013. If Jesus played drums this is what it would look like.
picture from www.azcentral.com

 But the show that I saw was not the show that the Houston Press blogged about. The crowd loved it and was going nuts the entire time, the band was tight, and Ozzy's voice was powerful and strong. He was in top form, jumping, and running around on stage for 17 songs. Not bad for being 64 years old. As much of a mess he is in real life, I swear something happens when he gets on stage and it's like he's a completely different person. Rock n Roll just keeps you young that way I guess. 

 The band also had great videos, lights and an insane 10+ minute drum solo. What ever happened to drum solos? I miss them at concerts.

  If anyone has a chance to go this show I highly recommend it. Kids were there with their parents and I sat next to a old lady who must've been at least 70 years old.

Set list

1. War Pigs
2. Into the Void
3. Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes
4. Snowblind
5. Age of Reason
6. Black Sabbath
7. Behind the Wall of Sleep
8. N.I.B.
9. End of the Beginning
10. Fairies Wear Boots
11. Rat Salad
    (Followed by Tommy Clufetos Drum Solo)
12. Iron Man
13. God Is Dead?
14. Dirty Women
15. Children of the Grave
16. Encore:
16. Paranoid
    (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Intro)
17. Zeitgeist
    
     Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013.
    picture from www.azcentral.com
    My only criticism is with Ozzy's usual stage antics and gimmicks.  He's been doing the same bits for years and if  you've never seen Ozzy here's what you can expect when you see him. 
    
    
    1. He can't fucking hear you!: he will say that over and over again, so make sure you yell really loud.
    2. He wants to see your fucking hands!: Even though Black Sabbath is not exactly a wave your hands in the air type of band, he will insist on seeing your hands.
    3. He loves you very much: and he's not afraid to say it.
    
    
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The Five Stages of Rock N Roll: Stage 1

Stage 1: 'F*CK YEAH MOTHERF*CKER!!'

   I was an angry, hateful teenager. I hated school, teachers, the students, their parents, my parents, organized religion...messy religion (haha) the good looking girls that shunned me, the ugly girls that thought they were good looking and who also shunned me as well as the jocks, preppies, math nerds, science nerds. art fags, drama fags, cowboys, rappers, goths, punk rockers, skin heads, cholos, and those guys that all they ever talked about were muscle cars, or guns. I was a stoner, metalhead, rocker, hessian (I never understood hessian, how are headbangers and german mercenaries from the 18th century alike?) and I even hated most of the other stoner-metalheads. 

   So I listened to angry music. Metallica (until they put out the Black Album) Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, among many others. Grew my hair long and wore black, experimented with drugs, got into some trouble with the law, never got laid, never had a girlfriend, never had a date, never went to a dance, didn't go to prom, never showed up at school for picture day. 

Highlights of Stage 1

• Age 13: I had drank before but at 13 was the first time I got really drunk
•  
• Age 14: started smoking cigarettes
•  
• Age 14: Smoked weed
•  
• Age 14: First time I was allowed to go with my cousins to the bars in Mexico. 
• 
  
• Age 15: First concert, Metallica w/Queensryche
•  
• Age 15: Tried LSD, which became somewhat of a semi-regular habit.
• 
  
• Age 16: Was hanging out with a group of 20-something homeless drug addicts. I would often disappear for days at a time, sleeping under bridges or on church rooftops.
• 
  
•  Ran away from home at age 16/17 (can't remember now) to Santa Barbara , CA where I lived in a car with three people I didn't know.  While we were there we broke into a car, stole some dudes weed stash, went shopping while I watched the people I was with bounce an $800 check for groceries, and went to one of the dudes girlfriends house where, while he was talking to her in the house, I was "drafted" to sneak into the guest house to take the "money machine" - one of those big crystal water jugs full of change and bills. This financed our trip back to Phoenix.
•  

My first DUI at age 17


    I was a rotten kid. I hated myself, and everyone around me. I was impossible to keep control of. There was nothing you could do or say to me. You couldn't take away my shit, because I didn't have anything. You couldn't ground me, I would sneak out. 

   You could try knocking me around, but I would knock you right back. I never minded getting hurt or beat up a little, bruises and wounds heal. So the threat of physical punishment meant nothing to me. 
 
   The Way I saw it, everybody takes a beating sometime. - Henry Hill, from Goodfellas.


  Besides a certain amount of pain is good. It lets you know you're still alive. Sometimes you can be so helplessly depressed, that you'll believe that THE ONLY way to feel anything else is to experience pain. At least thats how I used to see it. I spent my fair share of time carving anarchy symbols and pentagrams on my forearms.
 _____________________________________________________


   By the time I was 21, I had long been using alcohol and drugs to self medicate myself. When I was in hyperactive mode, alcohol or weed helped calm me down. When I was depressed or having the usual racing thoughts then alcohol killed all thought in my brain, like 'liquid meditation,' if you know what I mean. And if you know what I mean, then congrats because that means you are f*cking cool as hell. You're the Kitties Titties!

   But the thing with weed was that I never had any money because I could never hold down a job. Besides, I hate always having to 'score' all the time, and in the days before cell phones scoring weed could be a major pain in the ass. I tried growing it on a few occassions but that never worked. So if it was around I would smoke it, if I had money and the opportunity came along, I would buy. If a friend had some and was busting out with everyone else, count me in, but I never went out of my way for it, and alcohol is so much easier to take.  


   And of course there is the music....

  Back in the 80's my world revolved around Metallica. 'I celebrated their entire catalog.' For my money there was just no other band that was as hard, and fast, while still managing to remain melodic. "Master of Puppets" is a masterpiece. I loved the progressive tone of the album, 8 minute+ songs with three main riffs and at least two guitar solos. This was all lost with the Black Album, but we'll get to that in stage 2. Metal, and headbanging, moshing, thrashing on my guitar was the only way I could let out all the anger I was feeling.

   But why the hell are you so angry in Stage 1, When the Music is so F*kkin Cool?

   I was angry for a lot of reasons but besides the fact that your hormones are in overdrive, most of my anger had to do with being ostracized, left out, hunted, despised...

Home, I have no home, hunted, despised, living like an Animal!

   Years before I entered high school and my teenage years, my social fate was sealed as the oddball, the weird dude, the one who doesn't say much. The, "yeah he's alright but he's just a little..off, you know" 

   Stage 1 is where you really begin to realize this, but you are in denial of it. You still haven't accepted your fate by removing yourself of all labels and "types"... and by types, I mean that you no longer feel the need to have to be either a rocker or a jock, or a preppy, or a theater geek, whatever... 

   All you know is that your situation sucks and you don't how to fix it. The anger is a byproduct of this resistance to the way things are. And since it seems that the harder you try to fit in, the more you just stand out, there is only one thing to do...Smoke cigarettes, get drunk on cheap beer, get stoned on bad weed, and turn the music up louder than you secretly admit is reasonable, just so you can get a kick out of telling whoever asks you to turn it down, to f*ck off.

   I got kicked out of many public buses for not turning my walkman down. And I'm talking about the old ass walkmans, the ones that used 4 AA batteries instead of two. Now those f*kkers were noisy.

________________________________________________________

Ok I've Covered A lot, So Let me Explain...

 

  The Five Stages of Rock

Stage 1: F*ck Yeah Motherf*cker!

• Raging Hormones
• Misplaced Aggression
• Realization that the teenage social status boundaries have already been drawn
• Accompanied by the realization that, that means you're pretty much screwed.
• Cheap beer, bad sex (if you're lucky) good drugs. (if you're real lucky)

• Kick ass tunes. 

Next Time: The Five Stages of Rock, Stage 2

 

 

 

 

Silvertone SS10 Guitar & Amp Package, Black - Guitars

 

Bands I've Seen Live

I'm not sure if this is a lot or not, but as far as I can remember this is it. I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

AC/DC
AEROSMITH
ALICE IN CHAINS [twice]
ALICE COOPER
ALLMAN BROTHERS
ANTHRAX [four times]
AUDIOSLAVE
BAD ENGLISH
BB KING
BILLY IDOL
BIOHAZZARD
BUDDY GUY
BUFFALO TOM
CHARLIE DANIELS
CHICAGO
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY
CROSBY STILLS AND NASH [twice]
DAMN YANKEES
DANZIG
DAVID BOWIE
DIO
DOKKEN
DREAD ZEPPELIN
DR. JOHN
EAGLES
EXODUS
FAITH NO MORE
FASTER PUSSYCAT
FIGHT
FIREHOUSE
GLEN FREY
GRATEFUL DEAD
GREAT WHITE
GUNS N ROSES
HELLOWEEN
HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS [twice]
ICE CUBE
INFECTIOUS GROOVES
IRON MAIDEN [three times I believe]
JACKYL
JANES ADDICTION [twice]
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
JOE SATRIANI
JOE WALSH
JOURNEY
JUDAS PRIEST
KANSAS
KENNY ROGERS
KING DIAMOND
KISS
KMFDM
LA GUNS
LITA FORD
MANHEIM STEAMROLLER
MAROON 5
MARILYN MANSON
MEATLOAF
MEGADETH [at least twice]
METALLICA [three times]
MINISTRY
MOTLEY CRUE [twice]
MR. BIG
MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL CULT
NINE INCH NAILS [three times]
NIRVANA
OVERKILL
OZZY OSBOURNE [three times]
PANTERA
PAUL MCCARTNEY
PEARL JAM
PETER PAUL AND MARY
PINK FLOYD
PORNO FOR PYROS
QUEENSRYCHE [twice]
RAMONES
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
REO SPEEDWAGON
ROGER WATERS [three times]
SANTANA
SEPULTURA
SKID ROW
SLAYER [twice]
STEPPENWOLF
SPINAL TAP
SOUL ASSYLUM
SOUNDGARDEN [three times]
STEVE MILLER BAND
STEELHEART
STYX
JAMES TAYLOR
TESLA
TESTAMENT
THE CULT
THREE DOG NIGHT
TOM PETTY
TRIXTER
TYPE O NEGATIVE
VAN HALEN
VIXEN
WARRANT
WHITE ZOMBIE
WHITESNAKE
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN