2003-06-13 - 1:13

Live and loud

Since Miss Laurie was feeling better the other day, she came by and gave me my birthday package, including: Season 2 of The Simpsons on DVD, The Third Edition Scrabble dictionary, and the first New Pornographers CD, all of which I had been intending to buy for myself. How impressive is that? Of course, now I have to live up to those standards of gift-choosing, but at least I have until September to come up with something birthday-wise.

So, tonight was the Ozzy concert. Holy fuck, that was a long headlining set! Prior to that craziness, Voivod (including recent addition Jason Newsted) played a fun opening slot. It was cool seeing those guys. I remember listening to them when I was in elementary school; and they're still alive and kicking. I doubt that they have often played to stadium crowds in the meantime; and they seemed to be having a lot of fun making the most of this tour.

Vocalist Snake was particularly good. A lot of bands in that position might hold back with an opening slot for Ozzy (like The Tea Party did last year; not that I'm a fan, anyway). Snake seemed fearless, rocking out like he was the headliner and winning over the crowd. It was amusing to see him hauling out a camera during the instrumental stretch of the closer, "Astronomy Domine," running around and snapping pictures of the crowd.

Finger Eleven had the middle spot on the line-up. They were okay. The sound quality was solid and the band was reasonably energetic, although their songs didn't really connect. It seemed that the guitarists were more interested in posing and (for one of them) throwing guitars around than in playing; but I thought that the rhythm section kept the band on target.

As for Ozzy: wow. You may recall my previous consternation about incremental craziness upgrades. Ozzy himself seemingly does not follow that principle, though, as I found this concert far superior to last year's showing.

I felt that Ozzy was more energetic this time around, patrolling the stage more freely. However, the prime differentiator was scope: at two and a half hours, I do believe that this was the longest set that I've ever seen from a band. I just stopped to name off everything that I remember hearing tonight and the list covers twenty-five songs! Insane. (Not to mention Zakk's monster guitar solo, which was jaw-droppingly amazing, even by Zakk's standards.)

It's actually probably a bonus that I wasn't on the floor, since I doubt that I would have paced myself properly for that. Even staying standing for the whole performance and bopping around a bit was tiring enough. (Although I wouldn't have minded being on the floor for a chance to grab Ozzy's harmonica, which he tossed into the crowd at the end of "The Wizard"!)

When I rattle off a full concert review, I'll name some of the highlights; but for now, it's the sheer scale of the night that has left the greatest impression. Extra, extra crazy, indeed.

The Dears tomorrow night, then the trip to Boston. No complaints.

J.