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You'll need to let us know how it goes. I got my ticket to see them in San Antonio on Nov 12th.
Looking forward to seeing and hearing Iommi, the riff master, live.

Great to hear Oz! Good luck with the interviews and seeing the 'last ever' Sabbath live performance.

Bruno! How was the show?

Sup?!

Not really ready. Thanksgiving weekend involved shelling out $500 to get one of our dogs sewn up after ripping his side open in our backyard. It didn't penetrate into the abdomen, but it ripped his skin open pretty good (>;20 stitches).
So that put the kibosh on going to Epica last Friday and will leave the bank account too drained to go to Sonata Arctica/Leaves Eyes next week. Silver lining, I was able to see Devin Townsend and BTBAM in September and was at the San Antonio date for Black Sabbath. Which brings me to a concert review of each.

DTP/BTBAM September 29th @ Gas Monkey Live Dallas, TX.

Awesome show! Gas Monkey Live is a pretty cool venue with a nice bar (shaped like a guitar) and good sound system. Fallujah opened up and got things off to a excellent start. I'm not familiar with their music, but they put on a show full of technicality and energy. The stage also had two screens up high on either side. On these were projected different camera views of the band. It had a quirk of a slight delay that even threw the singer off a bit, not that I could tell.
BTBAM played their Coma Ecliptic album in it's entirety and was a huge treat for me. That is my favorite album of theirs since Alaska. From the opening notes of Node through outro of Life in Velvet, I was enthralled and physically moved by the music. I don't mosh, nor do I headbang in the traditional stationary nodding sense. Depending on how the music grabs me, I will jump in place, windmill, sway side to side, throw my torso to and fro in a total body headbang, or some other physical reaction to the aural stimuli. This often leaves me with a decent amount of personal space in the crowd. BTBAM's performance took me on a journey that left me sweaty, breathless and calm in its catharsis.

If Fallujah was a tasty appetizer and BTBAM a sumptuous main course, then Devin Townsend Project was a sweet confection of perfection to cap off the night. This was more than a 'metal' show. DTP music really transcends (fitting that his new album is titled as such) genres and the setlist spanned HevyDevy's career - minus SYL material. Half the setlist was from the Ziltoid albums. The mood was truly uplifting, both with the joy he and the rest of the band exuded while playing, balanced by his characteristic banter between songs with dick and poop jokes included. His voice has such range from clean falsettos to the raging screams. The LED effects in his guitars are a neat touch also. Devin spoke often between songs of how thrilled he is to be able to make a living playing this music. He's one lucky animal.
One final anecdote for this show was a wheelchair bound young man whose family drove over 6 hours from Joplin, MO. The surrounding crowd had made room for him to get right up to the barricade stage right. The fellowship was infectious. After the encore, Devin walked the gap in front of the stage shaking hands and spent about 3-4 minutes talking with this young man whose name was coincidentally.. Devin. I'm sure it was a lifetime memory for this guy.
It was a show I won't soon forget.

BLACK SABBATH November 12th @ AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX.

This was the final U.S. Concert for Black Sabbath. Rival Sons were chosen (by whom?) to be the opening band on this tour. They weren't bad, but I don't think they were the right fit for the mighty Sabbath to bring along on their final tour of the US. They were kind of a Led Zeppelin/Shinedown/Generic Rock band amalgam. The singer has a very good set of pipes, and the keyboardist was pretty animated despite standing behind a stationary instrument. Musically, the vocals and bass carried the band. The guitar tone was thin and abrasive - 180º from the thick Iommi tone to follow. Finally, it was time for Sabbath to play and the opening tritone strums of the eponymous song kicked off a set mostly comprised of the first 3 albums. The only exceptions were Dirty Women and Snowblind. While I wish it could have been Bill Ward behind the kit, I will give props to Tommy Clufetus for a pounding performance. His drumkit was modeled after Ward's 70's excess with toms galore, I think he left a few untouched even during his solo in Rat Salad. Maybe it was my adrenaline, but it seemed like Tommy dragged the tempo just a bit, possible to make the sounds sound that much more ominous and heavy. It worked. Ozzy was on point for most of the night, although his voice cracked a few times, but for a 68 year old man at the end of the tour, I couldn't fault him too much. Geezer was in the zone all night with his fingers dancing off the strings and totally crushing it on the low end. He is truly a master and his Bassically solo was a treat. Having seen Ozzy and Geezer live on previous occasions, the real draw for me was to finally see and hear Sir Iommi in person and the man did not dissapoint. With each song, his trusty SG let loose thunderous riff after thunderous riff. While I wish they played Symptom of the Universe, hearing After Forever, Children of the Grave and Into the Void made up for it. Besides, with Ozzy's voice the way it was, I doubt he could have pulled off the verses of SotU without crowd assistance. After Children of the Grave, they left the stage to take a quick breather for the encore. While hoping for a 2 or 3 song encore, the opening riff to Paranoid signaled that it would be there last song. Still, I enjoyed every moment even from my nosebleed seats on the far stage right. Interestingly, the guy (Nick) who sat in front of me traveled all the way from Dublin, Ireland. If Nick was pulling my chain, his brogue was pretty convincing. He also said his mother was at a Sabbath show while pregnant with him. Whether true or not, he and I both had a great time. Leaving and driving back to my brother's house west of Houston, a sense of closure slowly covered me like sinking under the water in a bath - a black sab...bath.

(This post was last edited on December 1, 2016 at 9:19 AM ET.)

It's like a ghost town in here...

Well if anyone reads this, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I know most of you don't believe, but I'll wish you God's blessings anyway and hope that all of you find your own sense of peace and joy during the holidays.

Cheers!

AP1, I live in Oklahoma about 45 minutes east of Tulsa. Being in Oklahoma means that I need to travel to Dallas (or further) for some of the smaller tours. The BOK arena in Tulsa has been good about pulling in bigger names.
Are you still in Abilene?

BG1, great to hear that BG2 is doing well. Hopefully her fiancé is worthy. Let us know when it's time to refer to you as Blindgrandpa1. My oldest girl will get a year of marriage under her belt tomorrow. My son-in-law is pretty good. They both still have some growing up to do, but she could have chosen much much worse. He's a good kid (21) and has been good for her.

Oh and Christmas was good. My wife got me the new Meshuggah, Temperance, and Serenity albums along with Paradise Losts' The Plague Within. (aside from Meshuggah, these choices were all based on MU reviews)

EDIT: for some reason, my posts on articles this morning are being flagged for moderation. strange....

(This post was last edited on December 29, 2016 at 12:32 PM ET.)

Just tried to post a comment again and was flagged for moderation. WTF?

Nader Sadek? Nice!! If I'm not mistaken, Dominic Lapointe is playing bass for them. Dom is a BAD A$$. He's a lefty usually playing fretless. You're in for a treat.

Not sure about BG, but I have been swinging my hammer. Literally. My upstairs bathroom is torn down to the wall studs and floor joists. Big renovation, but it will be worth it when I get it all complete.

and yes, tumbleweeds....

Hey Oz, did ya get to see Sabbath in Birmingham? If so, I'd love to read a concert review of your experience.

Glad to hear the show was great!

I did complete the bathroom just this weekend. Needless to say, I didn't finish early (giggity).
Refinished an old clawfoot tub, ran all new plumbing lines and new electric, new toilet, new sink, new floor and installed a vent fan. My wife is happy, so that is my seal of approval. We broke it in with a nice relaxing bath.

Next on the home improvement agenda is the hallway. Gonna patch up some spots in the walls and get rid of the gawd-awful wallpaper. I do have some previous projects that are 95% complete that I am using the momentum to push over the finish line - mainly some dry wall and painting. I will say that I hate dealing with old plumbing. Crawling underneath a house is a royal pain in the ass.