Tonight in San Jose, California in 1999: The first Black Sabbath reunion tour with Pantera and.. Incubus?? This was only the 5th show of the tour and they had just played L.A.; Ozzy said from the stage how lame the L.A. crowd had been compared to S.J..
As I was making my way to my seat I ran into Steve Von Till and Dave Ed of Neurosis who were sitting in the section next to me. Full circle. Thanks to a last minute ticket switch I ended up with a great seat only one row up from the main floor on the stage left side. It was my first time seeing the original lineup and I was completely geeked out... and a great 'board feed bootleg emerged from the show as well. The limited edition boot done by some friends:
It was only the 5th show of the tour and Bill Ward fucked up at the start of 'War Pigs' by coming in way too early. Awkward... but as I type this I'm listening to the show again after 16 years and for the most part Ward pulled it together for the rest of the set after that. The band were dialed in and Ozzy sounded great. Needless to say, Tony and Geezer were godlike.
Ozzy after the opening song 'War Pigs': "I gotta tell you guys.. We just played Los Angeles but you guys fucking kick their asses, man.. This is where it's at!!"
In hindsight it was a pretty emo show for Umlaut since Sabbath are one of my all-time favorite bands and are without a doubt the one band that influenced my head the most in my salad days. Seeing the original lineup in a packed arena was, like, special.... man.
Sabbath confetti from the show.. Never throw anything away.
"Faeries wear boots.. yeah.. you gotta believe.."
