5 Years Ago Today, I saw the last Black Sabbath concert in Vancouver, BC. I took a Bolt Bus up north (the Greyhound stops at Coquitlam), and was actually pulled over for looking nervous among the passengers. The Border Patrol officer informed me the SameSun Backpacker Lodge and Rogers Arena were in high-crime areas of Vancouver and also called my Mom to ensure she knew I was going; they didn’t want me hurt up there in a foreign country where Medicare probably wouldn’t cover your bills. However, nothing happened, I had actually done the same thing to both places almost three years prior on Black Sabbath’s 13 Tour and had no incidents. The most treacherous things I’ve found in Vancouver are my inability to get used to the exchange rate (why are Funko Pops $25? Oh, wait, I’m in Canada) and how confusing the city layout is, you can walk on a sidewalk for several blocks only to realize too late you went the wrong direction. The last time I was there (2017), I even got a map for future travels.
The show took place in Rogers Arena, which is also where the Vancouver Canucks Hockey Team plays. With the impending arrival of the Seattle Kraken, it occurs to me I may never see a Canucks home game. I sat on the far side of the arena from the stage, last time I was there, I sat on the sides of the arena and got surrounded by rowdy drunks, so I wanted to avoid that.
The opening act was Rival Sons. If you’ve not heard of them, don’t worry, I hadn’t either. The best way to describe them is they’re like Led Zeppelin if they borrowed Jon Lord, the keyboardist from Deep Purple. Their opening song, “Electric Man,” has some really catchy phrasing and guitar hooks and they had great drumming and keyboards, too. Rival Sons are from Los Angeles and are friends with Glenn Hughes, the former bassist/vocalist for Deep Purple who is friends with Tony Iommi (recording two full-length albums with him) and Ozzy Osbourne, so that’s probably the connection.
After they had performed and some time between acts to get us more hyped, Black Sabbath came on to their first song on their first album, “Black Sabbath.” There are two stories behind this song. One is that while putting the band together, bassist Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne saw the Mario Bava film “Black Sunday” (released as “Black Sabbath” in some places) was out and noted people like to go see horror movies. This got them on the idea of horror-themed music. The second story is around this time, Butler had an interest in the occult, painting his apartment black and putting inverted crosses everywhere. Then he had a dream where Satan was sitting at the foot of his bed, asking “What’s it gonna be, man? You gonna join me?” Terrified, Geezer Butler painted his apartment orange and put the crosses right side up, jotting down his fear as the basis for the lyrics. As such, I always feel it’s a song about a condemned man getting dragged to his eternal doom. He can’t run, he can’t hide and crying out to be saved has no effect. It may seem horrifying, but that’s kind of the point of a horror movie, also the point is to remind you the devil is real, so don’t go playing with his fire.
The next song was “Fairies Wear Boots,” which was apparently written to mock some skinheads who attacked the band. After that was “After Forever,” which is one of my favorite songs by the band, it is the first openly Christian Metal song. It asks the listener what they think of God and Christ and eternal life while Ozzy states that finding these things gives him peace and love. I actually listen to the studio version every Sunday to get ready for Church. And for those who think it’s actually mocking Christians, I remember the Ozzy quote where he said, in effect, “I believe in God, not the devil. I don’t worship the devil. My kids don’t sleep hanging upside down from the rafters.”
This was followed by “Into the Void,” which is about escaping humanity’s sin and pollution by flying to another planet. The lyrics include “leave the Earth to Satan and his slaves/leave them to their future in their graves.” Soundgarden also covered the instrumental part of this song, replacing the lyrics with parts of a well-known speech by Chief Sealth, the namesake of the city of Seattle. It is called “Into the Void (Sealth).” The next song, “Snowblind,” is about cocaine, but I can’t help but admit I like it anyway, the powerhouse riff, the enthusiastic delivery, the subtle strings added towards the end, it’s all great. This was followed by Ozzy introducing the members of the band, Tony, Geezer, Tommy Clufetos on drums (Bill Ward, the original drummer, wanted more money for a reunion) and Rick’s son Adam Wakeman on keyboards, under a large cloth sheet. Ozzy joked “we hide him ‘cause he’s real ugly.” (He actually wasn’t that bad looking)
Sabbath then performed a classic of theirs, War Pigs. Written to protest the Vietnam War, I would play this song a lot over the next four years, often referring to the President of the time as a War Pig. I used it to mean “glutton for war, one who believes there’s no such thing as too much war,” and I believe the song fits him to a T. The next two songs were a medley (as found on the original album) of “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” apparently a reference to the book of the same name, and “N.I.B.” There is no actual acronym, the name actual stems from thinking Bill Ward’s beard “looked like a pen nib.” The content of that song is the devil falls in love and tries to clean up his act, or as Ronnie James Dio and several other people interpret it, the devil seduces a woman and she doesn’t realize he’s stolen her soul until it’s too late. Either interpretation works, as Chris Cornell said, “There is no wrong in the ear of the listener.” Unless that listener is a crazed lunatic/cult leader in California, but the less said about that, the better.
Next was “Hand of Doom,” an eerie song from the “Paranoid” album about drug abuse slowly killing a Vietnam Veteran. Ironically, the band would fall into drug abuse and most of them probably used needles, which are prominent in this song. This led directly into the instrumental “Rat Salad,” which led into a blistering drum solo by Tommy Clufetos. He then began a familiar, slow, plodding drum beat. DYYYOOOOOOOOWWWWWW “I AM IRON MAN!” Iron Man was played, one of the all-time highlights of my life, hearing Ozzy belt out those classic lyrics, Geezer Butler do that bass groove and Tony Iommi’s powerhouse guitar sound. And towards the end, recently Ozzy had been saying “I AM IRON MAN!” again when Tony blared the guitar note again, but this time he said “HE IS THE IRON MAN!” Referencing Iommi’s amazing stamina, going onstage while battling lymphoma, the battle by which this was to be the last Sabbath tour solely so he could rest. He played on every Sabbath album, every Sabbath tour and here was his swan song for us live. He’s still around, don’t worry, but he doesn’t tour anymore, just hangs out with fellow rock stars in Birmingham, UK.
Black Sabbath then played “Dirty Women,” a song from their 1976 “Technical Ecstasy” album about prostitutes. The highlight was Iommi’s guitar work, he frequently changed tempos from slow and plodding to really fast solos. Then was the last song of the main set, “Children of the Grave.” This is one of my all-time favorites because of the thunderous guitar, the ending which sounds like it inspired the Friday the 13th Soundtrack and the message of standing up against what you fear and what oppresses you or you lose your life meaninglessly. You only get one life on this planet, let your voice be heard.
After going offstage, there was some vocal interplay from “football” (soccer for us Americans) audiences between Ozzy and the audience before Sabbath came back on to play the encore, “Paranoid.” After this concert, I heard this song in both “Suicide Squad” and “Kong; Skull Island,” and it is one of the best quick heavy metal songs I can think of. Every time I hear it, I just imagine Ozzy holding onto a mic stand, headbanging, hair flying around while Tony Iommi plays the licks. The best released versions I’ve heard are the original studio version, the Randy Rhoads version on the Ozzy Osbourne album Tribute, the Ian Gillan-sung version on the Deluxe Edition of the Black Sabbath “Born Again” album, and the one most like this one from Black Sabbath’s live “The End” album. It was a great show of classic rock and metal and five years on, it still holds up. GOD BLESS YOU ALL, MAN!
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