Ozzy Osbourne
GM Place, Sunday, March 3rd, 2002
Review by D. Pope
This is my third Ozzy Show. I had a chance to see the madman the
first time in 1997 (Ozmosis Tour) and during the 99 Ozzfest with Black
Sabbath.
The openings acts were (not my cup of) Tea Party and Project Wyze. I
arrived late to the show and missed both.
Ozzy was joined by his touring band Zakk Wylde, Robert Trujillio
ex-Suicidal Tendencies on bass, Mike Bordin ex-Faith No more on drums
and John Sinclair, keyboards.
The show started with a mini movie. Several pop videos were edited to
include Ozzy as a key player including Madonna in "Music", A
whore in "Lady Marmalade" and as a psychic in "Madam
Cleo."
As the crowd chanted his namesake, Ozzy began with his classic number
"I Don't Know". This is a perfect set opener that really gets
the crowd going. This song was followed by "War Pigs." Hearing
this song live always gives me chills however Ozzy traded vocals with
the audience, opting only to sing every second verse. I feel that
audience participation is important but Karaoke has its time and place.
From his most recent CD, the band played "That I Never
Had". This was an odd choice for a live song and was not memorable.
Next was "I cant fucking hear you/ Mr Crowley/Let me see your
cigarette lighters". Ozzy encouraged the audience to light up.
There were lots of smokers in the house.
Zakk Wylde then did a lengthily guitar solo. He did the "Great
Kat" proud with his speed and virtuosity. For the audience, he
played this guitar behind his back and with his teeth. Zakk's
performance the entire night was amazing. He ended his solo with a
rendition of Star Spangled Banner.
The remainder of the set list included, Road To Nowhere, Gets Me
Through, Mama, I'm Coming Home, Paranoid, Iron Man, Suicide Solution, I
Don't Want To Change The World, Crazy Train and Bark At The Moon.
Ozzy did not perform any selections from Diary
of a Madman, Ultimate Sin,
No rest for the Wicked or
Ozmosis. Overlooking half
of the catalogue is kind of drastic in my opinion and pisses me off!
For special effects, Ozzy took 2 buckets of water and instead of
emptying them on the crowd, he dumped them on security who were leaning
against the stage. This was quite amusing to see. I kind of preferred
the water gun from the last tour.
The stage was bare and consisted of a lighting rig, a cloth backdrop
and 2 monitors. The sound was poor and distorted. GM place is not known
for having good acoustics.
I would rate Ozzy's performance as better than the 1997 show overall.
He seemed to be in relatively good shape and was not gasping for air as
per the 97 performance. Although his voice was solid enough, his range
has diminished over the years, which limits the numbers that he can
perform. He did manage to do some jumping jacks and leaps as per
tradition but no cartwheels much to my disappointment. He seems to like
saying "Go fucking crazy", "I cant fucking hear you"
and "Louder." His next action figure should come with a pull
string.
As I mentioned previously, Zakk Wylde was amazing.
The rhythm section of Trujillio and Bordin I could definitely do
without. Both of the guys looked ridiculous on stage. Trujillio squatted
and pranced around like a spider and played a stupid 11 string or
whatever bass that was barely audible. Bordin looked like a spider and
sounded like he was playing Faith No More tunes the entire night and
didn't seem to give a shit about performing the songs the way they were
intended!
Despite my criticism I must admit I did have a good time at the show.
Ozzy is now 53 years old and has been entertaining for over 33
years-Jesus! He was supposed to retire almost 10 years ago. At the end
of the show he warned the audience about smoking pot and driving and
said that he wanted to come back and kick our asses once again. Hmm..
Ozzy at 57……. "I Don't Know!"