More than a year following their announcement of a reunion, British heavy metal masters Black Sabbath kicked-off their invasion in Houston, Texas. On July 27, 2013, the band made their second stop at Austin’s near sold-out Frank Erwin Center.
Opening act for this tour is party master Andrew W.K. (Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier), a singer, songwriter and performer from Stanford, CA. Surprisingly, his sole performance on this tour consists of him playing DJ atop a metal tower booth, playing tracks from likes of AC/DC, DIO, and Slayer. Regarding this opportunity to join the tour, Andrew W.K. has said ‘I’m just shocked. It’s just the most incredible dream come true! This is the greatest honor I could be given.’ Black Sabbath should consider taking full advantage of his performance repertoire of talents to entertain fans on upcoming tour stops.
After a brief set change, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, guitarist Tony Lommi and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne appeared onstage. Moving forward without original drummer Bill Ward, the band scored at obtaining Tommy Clufetos (associated with Ozzy Ozbourne, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, and Rob Zombie) to take stage on this tour. Black Sabbath opened with ‘War Pigs,’ followed by ‘Into the Void’ and fans cheered and head-banged, thrilled to be in the presence of such epic musicians. Not much after the second song, Ozzy Osbourne seemed to be having issues with is inner ear monitor and signaled to have it and the wires removed. Despite minor technical issues, there was no shortage of material from both classic Sabbath and the band’s new, first ever #1 album ’13,’ from which they played ‘Age Of Reason,’ ‘End Of The Beginning,’ ‘God Is Dead?’ and ‘Methademic.’
Fans didn’t seem to mind that Ozzy struggled throughout his performance. Much of his singing was either way off key or not on any key at all. He never strayed far from his teleprompter and yet still missed many of the lyrics. His vocals seem to sound best on ‘God is Dead?’ and his more recent tracks. ’13’ is Black Sabbath‘s first album to top the Billboard Top 200 and has been really well received worldwide. Tweets and chatter post concert seem to lean towards appreciating the opportunity to experience one of the all-time greatest rock and roll bands in history. Tickets were purchased to ‘experience’ Black Sabbath and see the Ozzman in person, regardless of his lackluster performance. It was meaningful that Ozzy Osbourne genuinely seemed to try his very best and gave it his all. Bidding adieu, he was clearly spent and left it all on the Austin stage.
Black Sabbath’s North American tour will go from July 25 through September 3, 2013. Following this leg, they will tour South and Central America until October 26, and then move to their European tour, which will go on through December 22.
Austin Set list:
- War Pigs
- Into the Void
- Under the Sun
- Snowblind
- Electric Funeral
- Black Sabbath
- Behind the Wall of Sleep
- N.I.B.
- End of the Beginning
- Fairies Wear Boots
- Symptom of the Universe
- Drum Solo
- Iron Man
- God Is Dead?
- Dirty Women
- Children of the Grave
- Encore: Paranoid
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