My review for the Adelaide show I wrote elsewhere:
I was looking forward to this one for a long long time. Ticket bought by my parents for my birthday, cuz it was $128 and I was reluctant to pay that much even if there were a half a dozen metal legends on offer. I rocked up about 2 mins before doors opened, and the line which ran off into the distance didnt deter me from sliming my way in with the first 20 or so people, so sneaky am I. I get my ass in there and get a spot about three people back on what I knew would be Tony Iommi's side of the stage.
Support act was Down, which has Phil and Rex from Pantera, and I'd only had one song so I didnt know what to expect, but they did a good job of emulating some of the Pantera groove we've come to know from these guys. They played for an hour, and at least 10 minutes was devoted to one slower song in the vein of Suicide Note by Pantera, which really brought the crowd down and kinda sucked ass. Phil did the dick and cum jokes that I've known him for, and sported a pretty stupid looking jet black Kurt Cobain haircut. He also demanded that the lights be put on the crowd between songs, so he could see our ugly faces. He did get kinda annoyed that, as an older Sabbath craving crowd with average age of probably 35, noone was moving. Respect to guitarist Pepper J Keenan, he did some fantastic solo stuff.
After Down, they took apart all the shit on the stage including the raised stage the kit was on, and it took a pretty long time for them to sort their shit, but I caught a glimpse of the stuff behind the curtain, which looked like a graveyard's gates. I wasnt there with any mates, but I was chatting to a bunch of metal veterans' arguments over which is the better singer, guitarist, whatnot and I joined in, and I was standing on the slightly raised bit near the cattle fences, and the old guy behind me was whinging because I'm too tall, he asks "How tall are ya?" and I was being a prick so I answered " 6'8" ". I overheard him discussing with his mates muttering ".... no way is he that tall..." and a few minutes later he asks "You're not 6'8" are you..." and I say "nah" and give him my spot, which didnt affect my view anyway. Good times.
Lights went down, Heaven and Hell took stage, and kicked ass from the very start. Dio moved a lot for an old man, and his pipes were even more impressive in person. The cemetary gates sat in front of the bass and guitar amps, which looked awesome, and the drum kit was the best I'd seen since the Tenacious D concert
. It had you're normal stuff, and behind Appice was these three towers of toms, each topped with a china cymbol cut in the shape of a cross, with the tower behind him had a tom that was at least a metre across. He had about a 4 minute drum solo midway into the set, and used everything he had up there. He also pulled the toms toward him to play them, and they rocked and nearly fell each time he let go. They played only the Dio years stuff which was fine by me, and included a 20 minute rendition of Heaven & Hell with buckets of crowd participation, extended guitar solos, vocal solos, and whatnot. Highlights were Neon Knights (encore), The Mob Rules (opener), Die Young. They played for just under 2 hours. Well worth it.
And I got one of Tony Iommi's guitar picks \m/
Absolute tits.
