Heaven and Hell - Sears Center in Chicago on Sept 22, 2007

[Vegetaman]

First of all, the Sears Center is a nice place. Got to the venue early, got in the doors probably 20 people or so back from the front. Hit the merch table first; picked up the "Live Evil" style t-shirt, which I absolutely love to pieces.

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 was okay. Geoff Tate played saxophone in between singing; though he did it away from the microphone. His voice was good though and the band was fairly tight. I did not expect them to be as good as they were.

Next was Alice Cooper, and it went about as I expected: good music with awesome stage show. Highlights were Billion Dollar Babies and No More Mr. Nice Guy. Alice Himself (and his daughter) were great on stage together, but I felt like Alice Cooper's band was covering up their boring guitar solos with too much effects-pedal action (wah-wah and pitch shift). But they looked a little younger and inexperienced on stage, anyway, so maybe in a few years they'll have the groove.

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 even though I think they're all great. I would have liked them to keep After All, Lonely is the Word 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. Ronnie definitely shot the horns out my way when everybody in front of us sat down as me (and the guys with me) all threw up the horns and stood up as tall as we could and he shot us the evil eye. Best moment of the night for me, personally.

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. They sounded so doomy and they blew all the other bands off the stage, they had such a stage presence that no other band out there could've knocked them off their pedistal. And despite Tony Iommi unleashing what must've been easily a hundred guitar picks into the crowd, I couldn't manage to get up there to try and get one.

Highlights were The Sign of the Southern Cross, I, Neon Knights, Computer God, Children of the Sea, The Mob Rules... My god, the whole freakin' SET! Especially the "oooh" sing-along at the start of Heaven and Hell.

One thing that bothered me was 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. Also, the 13 year old "emo" crowd... What the hell were they doing here? They weren't even enjoying themselves, they were just miserable. They mostly just sat down and pouted the whole time.

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 mean, I was in the 19th row, and these kids were even several rows in front of me, and I jumped on tickets as fast as I could.

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.

Next up: I NEED TO SEE A DIO SOLO SHOW!
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Black Sabbath RULES! \m/

[Holymagica]

[Vegetaman]

[mrblitz]

sounds like it was a great show... and then there's the mystery of the emo kids...

thanks for the review...

[StargazerGeisha]

Ahhh...the lovely little emo brats....

I am kicking myself in the butt for missing this show. I'm about 4 hours from Chicago, and there were several places for me to crash after the show. I could have made the St. Louis show the following night, because I'm about 4 hours from there as well. But, life being what it is, mine is crazy...., I didn't make it.

[Vegetaman]

[Shiva_silver_water]

Hey, I was there too. Awesome concert! It rocked. I also would have liked to hear Lady Evil and the 2 others. Great show anyway. I couldnt believe the number of kids there that didnt want to be either. There were these kids in front of us making out the whole time, and I mean the WHOLE time, it was like get a room. There were a lot of people who could have been more into it, but it was still great. Can't wait to see Dio in concert again. The best was at COBO Arena in Detroit last spring. I was in the front row, and it rocked!
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What if black was really white? What color is a mirror? What is the one note which contains all sound? What turns diamonds into glass? How does time turn to stone?