April 15 2014 – Roughly 8 months ago Black Sabbath played Toronto’s Air Canada Center in what we billed T-Mak World’s best concert of 2013 and they are back again in our neighbourhood on April 11 2014, this time in the cozier confines of Hamilton’s Copps Colliseum (actually now called FirstOntario Center). Did Ozzy and the boys deliver the goods a second time? Let’s go back to the beginning and find out.
This is the first time I have written a big concert review and put the opener in the title of the article, and that decision was deliberate and for good reason. Last year when Black Sabbath played the Air Canada Center this is what I wrote on that particular choice of the opening set: “The opening slot belonged to Andrew W.K. who was not playing any live music but doing a DJ set on top of a pedestal with his face etched on 3D on it. Songs included rock staples from bands such as Led Zeppelin, Motorhead and Quiet Riot. To me this was the lamest opening act I have ever seen at a rock show (and that includes Kool and The Gang opening up for Van Halen last year). I was stoked to hear live music not some guy trying to do a rock version of Pauly D.” It’s as if Black Sabbath heard our outcry at their choice of opener and over-compensated, not by just picking a decent opening act, but by choosing Reignwolf gave us the best opening act we have ever seen at a concert.
Reignwolf’s set starts off with guitarist/vocalist/head honcho Jordan Cook rocking some insane riffs, with on stage antics such as playing drums at the same song he is working guitar and singing, and using a drum stick to slide on his guitar neck in an ode to Jimmy Page’s violin bow. The man is part Page, part Hendrix, part The Black Keys, and the most exciting act we have seen come out of Canada in a very long time (and we have covered Canadian “pure rock” at festivals like CMW and NXNE more than anyone in the city). It is impossible to contain our excitement for the dude from Saskatoon (which our regular readers will know is also the home of our favorite “new” rock band One Bad Son). Something in the water? Or perhaps something in the beer? Fu*ng brilliant!
As the set progressed Cook is joined by drummer Texas Jo and bassist Stich to deliver a wall of sound that reminds everyone the electricity found in blues based in riff fueled adrenaline. The set lasted a brief 35 minutes but we could have easily spent 2 hours with this band in front of us. We have emailed the band asking for their setlist to include in this review so once we hear back from them we will update accordingly. While Toronto’s Q107 last week changed their slogan from Toronto’s Classic Rock to Toronto’s Rock Station and are in the midst of a social media fiasco trying to convince their listeners that Nickelback is good, they instead should be focusing on playing Reignwolf in very heavy rotation. {Ed. Note. – For the record our viewpoint is that Nickelback is absolutely shit.}
I have never given an opening band a rating but Reignwolf gets a 5 out of 5 and a best of T-Mak World award. Check out the video below!
Air raid sirens?!? Why there must be some War Pigs nearby, and with that Black Sabbath’s court is now in session. We had VIP packages that basically would entitle us to a seat between row 4-10 (not to be found out exactly where until the day of the show) – so with great anticipation we went to pick up our tickets and see how lucky we got. Open envelope, look, double look, yes it really does say Row 3. Cool! Upon taking our seats we see right in front of us Brenden Armstrong and Bryan Fontez from Toronto hard rock band Last Bullet! Man could this night get any better – Last Bullet is one of our favorite bands in the city and we knew these guys were gonna be great company. Needless to say we all moved up to the front row a few songs in, and took the rest of the show right in front of Geezer Butler!
The rest of the show was identical to what we wrote about in our review of Black Sabbath in Toronto on August 2013 so we will repeat our observations from last year’s review which you can read here.
Ozzy Osbourne was a perfect ring leader and master of ceremonies tonight. Throughout the show he would pace from each side of the stage in his odd zombie walk urging people to react and party with the band. He largely got the reaction he wanted from the audience and many songs were emphasized with loud sing alongs. Osbourne’s infectious energy spread like wildfire and left the audience fully entertained with his callback chant of “cuckoo”.
Iommi clad in his usual black on black attire was looking as fit as a fiddle and was all smiles throughout the night. He would often lock eyes with his madman front singer and smile and even shake his head in disbelief at times. His playing was tight beyond belief and he really shined on his massive guitar solos particularly on Iron Man and Dirty Women. His black guitar strap had IOMMI written on it just in case anyone forgot who he was. In many ways Black Sabbath is Iommi’s band as he is the only member who has been there every day since day 1, and he should be proud of how incredible his band sounded this night. For a man who just dealt with cancer he surely understood the significance of what his life’s accomplishment has been as he often just looked up to the nosebleed sections and ever so slightly smiled in that direction.
Bassist Geezer Butler was also in fine form musically as the ever important bass sound drove the heavy and dark Sabbath sound. His fingers were flying and in many ways his contribution to the band is as significant as Osbourne and Iommi as he is the principal lyricist. Could Black Sabbath have ever been so ominous without lyrics such as “Out of the gloom I rise up from my tomb into impending doom, Now my body is my shrine“. Butler should be very proud of how his lyrics on 13 capture the spirit of the band – speaking of 13 only 3 songs from it were played “God Is Dead?“, “The End of The Beginning” and “Age of Reason“. This is one of the very few concerts where we wanted to hear even more of the new stuff (because it really is that good).
Ringer Tommy Clufetos was kick ass on the drums and was very deserving of the role. With the drama surrounding Bill Ward – (he claims he left because of contract disputes, Ozzy claims Ward was not good enough and out of shape to be part of Sabbath) the emphasis needed to be on the music and Clufetos was clearly enjoying the opportunity. His drum solo was insanely good and left people standing in disbelief.
Check out the power of Black Sabbath and Into The Void on video below:
Osbourne and Iommi’s on stage presence were as opposite as can be and that is really the beauty of Sabbath. The inventors of Heavy Metal, their sound ranged from the mellow slow burn of songs like Black Sabbath to the frantic pace of songs like Children of The Grave. Black Sabbath’s most successful and famous album Paranoid was well represented with War Pigs, Fairies Wear Boots, Iron Man, a too brief Rat Salad, and the night’s only encore Paranoid. Old gems like Into The Void, Snowblind and Behind The Wall of Sleep were both dark and beautiful at the same time. This is how heavy metal should sound not the garbled mess that it has become with thrash metal.
The stage featured 3 screens (one big one in the center with two smaller one on the sides) that alternated between video of the musicians and background video that really fit in perfectly – Ferries Wear Boots really stood out for its video accompaniment.
This, the 6th show of the second leg of the tour so far featured the exact same setlist we heard in Toronto last year. The setlist was derived from 1970-1976 with the exception of 3 songs from 2013’s album “13”.
Verdict: 5 out of 5 – Take our best concert of 2013 winner, put on the best opening act we have ever seen, and move us up to front row – what do you think we rate this night? Black Sabbath were tight and sounded amazing and Reignwolf served notice on who the next big Canadian rock act is going to be. Just as we said last time “Aural nirvana! A clear candidate for T-Mak World’s Best Concert of 2014.”
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Reignwolf is kind of the same thing every time. No great songs. One trick pony
… and that my friend is just your opinion and not a statement based on any fact. To each his own I always say, some people like Bieber, and heck some people actually like Nickelback. T-Mak World is firmly stating that Reignwolf was the absolute best opening act EVER, and we are in full support of Jordan and his music on his assured path to be the headliner at arena shows.
did you not hear the song Electric Love? .. the chorus “come on back electric love” is still stuck in my head, and it’s been a month and a half since the show .. which says a lot, because for an opener to make any impression at all at a BLACK SABBATH show, it means that they’re beyond exceptional!!!
Well you guys. I think you’re wrong. I’ve went on youtube and saw all the same songs, all the same schtick and no record. I even went and listened to his SoundCloud stuff. It’s terrible. It reminds me of Bon Jovi with more guitar. Face it, and I promise you…it’s never going to hit the radio and do anything. He’s a decent bar band, with the same songs every time. Boring.