gridlore: Photo: Rob Halford on stage from the 1982 "Screaming for Vengeance" tour (Music - Rob Halford)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2014-01-18 10:33 am
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As it turns out, we're not too old

Dear gods I needed last night.

[personal profile] kshandra and went up to the Oakland Metro Operahouse for the Robb Flynn and Friends tribute to Black Sabbath

The venue itself is fantastic. A converted warehouse in West Oakland between Jack London Square and the harbor, it has amazing parking, a well-lit street, and great staff. Due to our mobility and endurance issues we had contacted the venue about getting in early to get a place to sit. We ended up with another nice couple with similar issues in what we dubbed the "Mushpit" (we're too broken to mosh.) This was right at the stage edge which gave me a unique view of the action. I was close enough to see a lot of the on-stage mechanics you don't normally notice, like subtle looks and signals between band members and people on the crew. The place has two bars located kitty-corner, lots of bathrooms, and some of the best staff I've seen in ages.

The opening act was AC/DZ, an awesome Bon Scott era AC/DC tribute band. Then came Robb Flynn and pretty much the entire Bay Area thrash metal scene to do two hours of early Black Sabbath. This was all Ozzy era stuff; heavy, sludgy, and loud. The only glitch came when the bass player's pedals all went dead for some reason. Other than that, an incredible show.

There was one amazing moment. As I said, we were sitting right at the edge of the stage. At one point, I noticed there was a guy standing next to me playing bass. I looked at about half the performers who weren't on stage at the moment were standing around us watching the show and playing along. Another nice thing was when somebody passed a joint to the vocalist on stage, you took a toke and then held it so all the players could have a hit. In the middle of a song. That kind of show.

The few good photos I took are here.

Rob Flynn
nodrog: Rake Dog from Vintage Ad (brain)

[personal profile] nodrog 2014-01-20 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Deaf would be about right. I'd a' been wearing flightline / firing range earmuffs over industrial earplugs.

- Then again, I can hear a fly buzzing about in the next room, so it's not surprising. But a buddy of mine who's into thrash metal always wears earplugs. It's just common sense.