Jones Beach- 8/24/99
The LAST Black Sabbath concert in America EVER (no, REALLY this time, all kidding aside). After selling us on the Ozzfest 99 as 'the last NY area appearances of Black Sabbath ever,' it seemed a little cheap that about two weeks later tickets went on sale for this show (and several others elsewhere), purporting to be the REAL last American Sabbath concerts. I mean, don't get me wrong, as anyone who knows me (or who's read the Ozzfest 99 review) knows, I LOVE this band. To me, Sabbath might be the most important heavy rock band ever and made phenomenal music which has yet to be equaled or outdone. Knowing I'd never see this great band (and, might I add, the REAL line-up) ever again is more than a little bittersweet. So, news that they were just pulling our leg to pull some more money out of us was actually welcomed. I jumped at the chance of seeing the boys one LAST time.
And since this was the last date of the U.S. tour, that would make this show the last American show by Black Sabbath ever (if what they said was true). Sounds pretty historic to me, wouldn't you say? So, lets make history! Lets get all balls out go all the way with this! Bring out the fireworks and pyro! Bring out the strippers on the stage! Bring out the cameras and roll film on this, lets make a movie (or at least a concert video, since the last one sucked)! Bring out Ronnie James Dio! Lets have the prodigal Dio bury the hatchet with Ozzy, Tony, and Geezer live on stage to the sound of thundering applause with a big, sickeningly sentimental group-hug after swapping vocal lines with Ozzy on a "Neon Knights"/"Paranoid" medley. Lets play "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," and "Symptom of the Universe" and all the other shit they haven't had the balls to play heretofore. Lets go out with a fucking bang!
Well, there WERE fireworks and pyro. Not much else, though. It didn't feel much like history was being made. It felt more like Tuesday night. History isn't made on Tuesday nights! You don't fully enjoy a concert after coming from work and knowing you have to be up early Wednesday morning for three more days of work. I mean, for something as seemingly monumentous as the end of Black Sabbath in America as we know it, don't you think we could have booked a Saturday night so people could properly get the shit kicked out of them?
Then we think about the venue. I mean, the Jones Beach Theatre - while I have witnessed some amazing Van Halen, AC/DC, and (dare I say) Whitesnake concerts there through the years, and while it is a nice, clean, spacious, fun venue right on the water - doesn't really have the marks of 'rock n roll history' written all over it. Its got more the 'old foggie revivalist family showtime venue' written all over it. Its one of those sheds that plays host to the yearly tours by all the has-been usual suspects - expect Beach Boys, Steve Miller Band, Chicago, Foreigner, and REO Speedwagon every year without fail. Is this where Black Sabbath, the premiere heavy metal masters should end their American career? This is the best we could do in NY? The old folk's retirement stage? How about Madison Square fucking Garden???
Then, lets look at the opening acts - Drain S.T.H. and Godsmack. I mean, interesting bands, but lightweights, to be sure. How about somebody of some real noteworthiness to pay tribute to Sab by opening up for them for the last time? How about the reunited Iron Maiden? How about the yet un-reunited Judas Priest? How about Alice Cooper? How about Motorhead? Not these baby-bands!
I mean, the opening acts weren't terrible, but they weren't great, either. I really enjoy Drain S.T.H. and their Alice In Chains-as women records, but I don't think they're ready for the big stages. While musically they're on, they simply have no presence. They just kind of stand in place like trees, while the singer walks back and forth aimlessly like she doesn't know what the hell to do with all that space on the stage. And as for stage dialogue - I don't want to come off as racist or anything, because I'm absolutely not, but that REALLY THICK Sweedish accent...it just grates on ya! I don't see a spoken word album in this chick's future, that's all I got to say.
Coming on like gangbusters was the seemingly more experience (and a lot more energy) was Godsmack. Now these guys now how to do the rock star thing, they had a lot of presence, and really had that attitude thing going with their James Hettfield-sounding singer (I don't know his name). But, they couldn't sustain it. After awhile, they lost me. Interest just faded (seemingly with the entire crowd). They just went on way too long, they totally wore out their welcome. It wasn't until the singer resorted to old arena rock cliche stunts ('lets see if you motherfuckers on this side are louder than those motherfuckers on that side') that he pulled any real response from the audience. That's probably because most of them were so young and hadn't seen that sort of thing before - I can remember Stephen Pearcey doing this at the Collesium in 1988 and I wasn't impressed then!
Finally, Black Sabbath took the stage for the last time this evening). After that short opening montage made up of video from the same three concerts and looping riffs from every song you're going to to hear tonight (plus all the ones you WANT to hear but they're not going to play) they took the stage playing "War Pigs." That was fine.
Next up was "N.I.B." and that's where it all came crashing down. During "N.I.B." Ozzy's voice WENT!!! He squeaked and whimpered through the rest of the song so that it sounded more like he was crying than singing. It was atrocious. Next up was "Fairies Wear Boots." Ozzy was spiraling down vocally, cracking and screeching like crazy. While a lot of people didn't seem to notice, clearly a lot did. There was some noticable silence from a lot of the audience. It was hard to ignore - I think this was about the twelfth time I've seen Ozzy sing live, and I have NEVER heard him this bad (and that speaks volumes).
At least he had company in ineptitude on "Fairies Wear Boots" - where were the fills, Bill? Bill was so lax in his playing, I got the sense that Tony and Geezer (who were the only credible members on stage tonight) were playing more off each other than Bill and just trying to ignore the singing.
At this point, it became funny. The people I was with and I began laughing and making quips. We listened as Ozzy held his own for awhile then busted out laughing when he inevitably would lose it (usually when the pace of a song picked up). But as I was laughing, it kind of hit me how sad this was. The two times I'd seen Sabbath before on this tour (at the Collesium in February and at the NJ Ozzfest in July) I'd been so impressed, and so thoroughly blown away by the real, true, original Black Sabbath on stage, and now, they were just a joke. It was really sad.
Saddest of all was Ozzy stalling for time the way he was. He obviously wanted to do as little singing as possible, so it was a given that they'd be yet again dropping "Dirty Women" from the set. But, the concert was running almost ahead of schedule, so before "Black Sabbath," Ozzy launched into a lengthy band introduction, and an even lengthier "You guys aint fucking loud enough, come on!!!" that went on at least four minutes and even saw Ozzy resorting to, "lets see who's louder, the people on the left or the people on the right". No thanks, Ozzy, we've already seen this bit earlier from a guy who's too young to know better. You, on the other hand...
And so Ozzy stalled, Tony Iommi and company extended the instrumental bit at the end of "Black Sabbath," Ozzy bought his time, got out of singing "Dirty Women," ran through sloppy versions of "Iron Man," "Children of the Grave," and then off the stage they were. Five seconds later, Ozzy was making announcements offstage that they were coming back, giving the full bum's rush feeling ("lets just get this over with and go home"). Of course, after once again that little tease of "Supernaut" (I mean, are we supposed to be grateful that they threw us a bone by riffing on it for thirty seconds? Sing the fucking song, you lazy bastard!) we inevitably ended up with a horribly uninspired "Paranoid". Then after a quick plea from Ozzy that we shouldn't drink and drive or smoke dope and drive(this coming from Ozzy Osbourne - Mr. "Sweet Leaf", Mr. "Snowblind"!) Black Sabbath was off the American stage forever. And I tell you, if that's the last we see of them, its a shame.
To me, they should have wound it up with the Ozzfests. I mean, they still had it in those shows. Amazing what two months can do. Maybe they had reached the point of exhaustion on the road, maybe they're just sick of doing it, I don't know, but in retrospect, I wish I wasn't at this gig. I prefer to remember them (and I will remember them) for the shows prior to this. Those shows were Black Sabbath concerts, this was just four old men, out of shape, past their prime, doubling back over their tracks one last time to see if there was any more money they forgot to pick up on the way out.
Get your own Free Home Page