I’ve only seen the real Black Sabbath once and that was in Las Vegas a little over 10 years ago. It was on the “End” tour, I think. We were in the upper level and with rows of empty seats in front of us. It was the first time I ever heard security say “Come on down! Move up! You can move closer!”. So, we moved down to the lower level. Great show, of course. I mean we’re watching LEGENDS. It doesn’t get more legendary than that. I mean the freakin’ inventors of HEAVY METAL as we know it! (Yeah, some say Blue Cheer and Led Zeppelin “invented” it first, but that’s simply not true. They’re not METAL. Sabbath IS).
I don’t have a problem with cover bands, if done right. You can see them up close and at intimate venues, playing the music you love. Not 200-300 feet away from you with echoey sound. And Black Sabbitch doesn’t do it just right. They do it PERFECTLY. They nailed it! Having never seen Sabbath in the ’70s (but having all the live recordings from the time period), these gals took me right there, making it seem like it was 1974. They did so many things right. First of all, the setlist. They opened with “War Pigs” (an anti-war song that seems appropriate nowadays, but really, when has it NOT been “appropriate”?), then went into “The Wizard” and then a bunch of more songs. They were originally supposed to do 2 sets but just ended up combining them into one full glorious set of Black Sabbath bliss. Mostly deep cuts. “Wheels Of Confusion”. “Hole In The Sky”. “Under The Sun”. They even did one so deep (“Shockwave”) that the drummer offered $20 to anyone who knew all the words. The most popular songs they played were “War Pigs”, “Children Of The Grave”, “Into The Void”, and “The Wizard”.
Can I say they are better than Black Sabbath? No. Sabbath wrote the songs. They are legendary. Anyone (including the band) will tell you that. But you know what? The setlist was genius. For pure fans. The sound was amazing. The atmosphere beautiful. And they played the songs perfectly. And by “perfectly”, they did them as Sabbath themselves would do them. Atmospheric intros, some cool jams, perfectly played with a solid “IT” factor. So I can honestly say I had a better time seeing Black Sabbitch than I did the real thing 11 years ago. Seriously. Again, I’ve only seen Sabbath once. And it was in an arena where I was sitting 100 feet away from the band, with echoey sound and a predictable setlist. Great show and I’m glad I saw them, but this was even better. So if you want to hear some pure Black Sabbath being played live, loud, and in your freakin’ face with some deep, raw cuts, go see Black Sabbitch. Highly recommended.
They will have a live album that is being mastered right now. It will be out later this year.
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