Heaven and Hell Review 9/22

Pate

Member
Feb 27, 2006
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First of all, the Sears Centre is a nice place.

First up was Queensryche. It seemed like at least 90% of those in attendance were going nuts for them. They played 7 songs, I think, including Speak, The Needle Lies, I'm American, Empire, and, of course, Eyes of a Stranger. They also did a cover of Welcome to the Machine that sucked ass. Geoff Tate played saxophone in between singing.

I did not expect them to be as good as they were. The O:M stuff was fantastic, which I did expect, but even the songs I didn't know were enjoyable. Their new DeGarmo replacement looks like he belongs in a nu-metal band, with his mohawk-mullet and overall appearance. He could play though, which is probably the reason he's not in a nu-metal band. Highlights were the O:M songs.

Next was Alice Cooper, and it went about as I expected: boring music with awesome stage show. Highlights were Billion Dollar Babies and No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Finally Heaven and Hell came on, and played a kickass set.

E5150
The Mob Rules
Children of the Sea
I
The Sign of the Southern Cross
Voodoo
Drum Solo
Computer God
Falling Off the Edge of the World
Die Young
Heaven and Hell
Neon Knights (Encore)

It was a fairly short set, but I'm not really missing the 3 new songs. I would have liked them to keep After All and Lady Evil in there, but I'd rather them ditch those and keep what they kept than get rid of something else. As expected, no one knew the Dehumanizer songs, which is a shame since it's my favorite Sabbath album. Lots of people groaned when Ronnie announced Falling Off the Edge of the World. Come on people, it's a great song.

As soon as they finished, Tony threw what had to be thousands of picks into the crowd, and then exited, but in the corner I saw some guy holding a coat. Tony walked over to him and turned around, and the guy put the coat on Tony, and Tony left. :lol: :lol: Only Tony would need a personal coat assistant. Highlights were The Mob Rules, Computer God, I, Heaven and Hell and Neon Knights.

One thing I need to address is the troubling number of preppy 13 year olds there, seemingly having a miserable time. And it wasn't like it was one group of them, they were all over. Tickets would have set them back about $65, so I don't know why they were even there. Other than that, it was a quality show.
 
Killer show indeed, my only disappointment was the lack of Lonely is the Word and Lady Evil
from Sabbath's set.....well, TV Crimes would have been cool but what can you do. Falling of
the Edge of the World f'ing rules, those people are clueless!! :kickass:

Queensryche sound surprisingly great although their setlist blew and Cooper was fucking amazing,
totally blew me away!! :headbang:

Not sure what's up with the young preppy kids, maybe they're brats of the corporate mo's financing
the joint....which by the way sounded great, I was pleasantly surprised.

All in all....I had a blast!! :headbang::kickass::headbang:
 
What??? QR did a Pink Floyd cover?????
Not that this is bizarre for them, as they did Comfortably Numb with Dream Theater a while back, but come on. They were the opening band!

It's a shame when bands like QR have that little faith in their own material.
 
It's a shame. My respect for QR drops every passing day.
Are they THAT out of steam that a cover album is necessary?

They also have a brand new, conceptual/themed record in the hopper:

Geoff also has some solo stuff, including the rumored Three Tremors record where apparently the music is written already. Jason Slater (Mindcrime II) producer has been working on this, and his initial quote was that Geoff will need to bring the A-game, since the other two singers are completely metal.

Unfortunately, that project is on the backburner as QR ramps up to finish the new album first.

I think the covers album was done just for fun and shouldn't be a red flag that signals the end of their creative career (most people feel that Degarmo's departure did anyways).
 
Heeeeeeellllllllo ladies!!!!!
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My review of the show is pretty much the exactly same as Pate's, since I stood right next to him (seats 5 & 6 in Row 19). Though my highlights of the night were The Sign of the Southern Cross, Computer God, I, and Heaven and Hell. I felt like Alice Cooper's band was covering up their boring guitar solos with too much effects-pedal action. Learn to play something that doesn't sound like ass before you start adding some wah or pitch shift or whatever pedals you had.

I could not believe how heavy Heaven and Hell were; all the classics were performed flawlessly and Ronnie's voice was better than it is on any DVD I have ever seen him on (and I think I have like 7 or more including bootlegs and official releases); on par with his studio vocals on the actual albums themselves.

Also, the 13 year old "emo" crowd... What the hell were they doing here? They weren't even enjoying themselves, they were just miserable. But I didn't let that ruin my experience, but it still makes me wonder why they'd drop $65 for tickets if all they were going to do is sit there and not do anything or not even apparently know the songs being played.

My left ear is still ringing something fierce today... I daresay I need to take earplugs with me to every show I go to; my tinnitus only gets worse with every show.
 
Also, the 13 year old "emo" crowd... What the hell were they doing here? They weren't even enjoying themselves, they were just miserable. But I didn't let that ruin my experience, but it still makes me wonder why they'd drop $65 for tickets if all they were going to do is sit there and not do anything or not even apparently know the songs being played.

I'd expect them at the first leg of the tour when Machine Head was on the bill.

My theory would be that since the Sears Centre is relatively new, maybe it's a bunch of NW Suburban teenage kids that wanted to go to a heavy metal concert in the area. Maybe their parents paid for the tickets - knowing the Barrington area, that's probably true.

Or someone said that it was Black Sabbath, and they expected Ozzy and War Pigs.
 
I'd expect them at the first leg of the tour when Machine Head was on the bill.

My theory would be that since the Sears Centre is relatively new, maybe it's a bunch of NW Suburban teenage kids that wanted to go to a heavy metal concert in the area. Maybe their parents paid for the tickets - knowing the Barrington area, that's probably true.

Or someone said that it was Black Sabbath, and they expected Ozzy and War Pigs.

Yeah, that makes sense. Or maybe they were there for Alice Cooper...

I wish my parents would fork out handfuls of money to send me to awesome concerts like that; at least I would appreciate it. :erk: