Well, it has happened before - and it will happen again - another band has said goodbye. Since I last posted on this blog, two bands have said goodbye to me: Mötley Crüe and, most recently, Black Sabbath.
The thing about Mötley Crüe is that they are all still relatively young. It's hard to believe that in another ten years, they won't be missing their Mötley Crüe salary. Sure, most of the members of Mötley Crüe have had decent solo careers. But Mick Mars, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, and Nikki Sixx are all nothing - if not first and foremost - members of Mötley Crüe. How will they live without Mötley Crüe, and how are we going to live without Mötley Crüe? I've grown fond of seeing them live; they really bring it all with explosions, girls girls girls, and rock n' roll.
However, I'm not sure if the last tour was big enough. It didn't seem to be taken to that next level. They still were able to show the audience a very good time and put on a good show, but it was not really any different from seeing them before. Although this time, they did have explosions that were unlike anything I have ever heard in my life. This was my 103rd concert, and I had never been faced with such loud explosions. When I'm eighty years old and can't hear anymore, it won't be because of the loud guitar and pounding drums. No, it will be because of those god damn explosions.
You may wonder why I sound so doubtful that this is the end of Mötley Crüe. Let's just say that I have seen a handful of bands on their "Final Tour", only to see them again later. It's a money thing; it's profitable to allude to it being one's last show. I'm sure there are other factors, but I'd have to imagine it's mostly a financial game.
Black Sabbath is currently on their "The End" world tour. Black Sabbath has decided to power down after decades of heavy metal. It almost feels like they created heavy metal, and they are going to take it with them when they leave. I am far less skeptical of this being the end for Black Sabbath. This is mainly because Tony Iommi has been in questionable health for quite sometime. Also, after this tour Ozzy plans on recording a solo album and going on a solo world tour. If you add up the years that it will take Ozzy to do his solo thing, it's obvious that there will be no time for Sabbath to have the opportunity to ripple through this tiny world of ours again.
Let's throw out another number: five. Yes, this was my fifth time seeing Black Sabbath. The first two times were while the band was being fronted by the dearly missed Ronnie James Dio. If only I knew that that would be the last time I'd be in his audience before he passed. Anyways, I'm almost 100% certain that I will be seeing Sabbath again in a few months from now, when they play at the Hollywood Bowl. You may or may not know that Black Sabbath is a very important band in my life. I've written two posts that you should probably read, which might help you to understand the magnitude of my love for Black Sabbath, as well as the man who almost feels like my best friend, Ozzy Osbourne.
The show, which was on February 11th, 2016, was a part of their "The End" tour at The Forum in Inglewood. Accompanied by my friend, Shannon, we embarked on a journey to see the band that started it all and bring our memories to a satisfying end. Black Sabbath filled that venue with hit after hit, reminding us who they are and what they stand for. I felt like they were schooling us on music, and having a good time doing it. Tony, Geezer, and Ozzy all appeared to be having such a good time. I'll say it once and I'll say it a million times: Ozzy is one of the most captivating front men of all time. He's always having a good time, and he makes sure that the audience is having an even better time. He amped up the audience, yelling "I can't fucking year you, c'mon!" and they roared. When Ozzy tells you to do something, you had better fucking do it! Goodness, my amount of "fucks" have really soared in this paragraph. I'm serious about my Black Sabbath.
Again, I don't know if this tour truly felt like the end. I'll admit that it had a bit more to it than your average Sabbath concert. Black Sabbath is really all about the music, and their set is usually minimalistic - which is completely fine, because they absolutely murder the audience with their amazing sound. But this time around, they had a magnificent screen they were performing in front of. This screen gave the people in the nose bleed seats a brilliant close-up view of the action, with stunning visuals to go along with it.
To the real Black Sabbath fans reading this, yes, Bill Ward was very missed, as he was the last two times that I saw Ozzy front Sabbath. For the newer Sabbath fans: Bill Ward is their drummer, and is still very much alive. But for very complicated and unfair reasons, he did not participate in wrapping up with the band that he had helped to start. It may have been the end for Inglewood, but it's not the end for me and it's not the end for this blog. So here's to sometime in September.
Photos pulled from The OC Register and Billboard.
