January 9 2014 – In 17 days from now the iconic Guvernment is shutting down and its Kool Haus concert venue along with it. Although there is one last show left at the Kool Haus, we bid the venue goodbye tonight with its penultimate show – Black Label Society.
Black Label Society is Zakk Wylde’s band and in case you aren’t familiar with rock royalty – Wylde has been Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band guitarist on and off since 1987. Widely regarded as the heir to Randy Rhodes, not only can Wylde play a mean guitar he has vocals that rival Ozzy’s in it’s heavy metal delivery.
Riding the success of last year’s phenomenal album – Catacombs of the Black Vatican, Wylde and band delivered a riff fueled affair of excellent heavy metal on a night that the venue by the lake feel like it was somewhere above the arctic circle. While it was the coldest night in recent memory outside, inside the packed audience of primary very large white biker looking dudes was rocking hard and heavy.
BLS’s set was relatively short at 90 minutes and only consisted of 13 songs and a guitar solo that perhaps was a tad too long. As expected the most represented album on the night was Catacombs of the Black Vatican with 4 songs including the incredible My Dying Time (video taken on this night is below).
The show included a tribute to Pantera’s slain guitarist Dimebag Darrell who Wylde holds in high regard, two double neck guitarists, hard rockers, ballads, and a guitar solo bordering on a guitar practice session. Musically Black Label Society were tight, loud and energetic. The audience were huge fans of the band as evidenced by the large majority of people wearing Black Label Society merch – easily rock’s largest cult followers. The only complain we had was the flow of the setlist seemed uneven as the first half was full of insane high octane energy however things slowed down where the show was supposed to peak. The slow songs close to the end of the set could have been delivered earlier in the night. Minor flaw on an otherwise incredible show!
Butcher Babies and Hatebreed opened up the show but neither of them are our musical style so we offer no commentary on their sets.
Verdict: 4 out of 5 – Black Label Society warmed up the arctic like Toronto last night and we left as bigger fans of the band than ever. A nice rock and roll send off to the Kool Haus which has given us many good rock memories.
There’s no such thing as a solo that’s too long.