Coolest rock concert ever!

It's official: I'm going to see Def Leppard or Kiss anytime they're in town!

As you probably know, on the 15th of July, I was planning on seeing Def Leppard and Kiss at the Riverbend Music Center here in Cincinnati, OH. I do apologize if I didn't do an immediate post. Didn't get a chance, I suppose. Well, that concert was awesome! I got plenty of killer pics. My seat was better than the Ticketmaster site suggested. I was less than 30 feet from the stage. And the sound nearly blew my mind; thankfully I brought ear plugs. That opening act was monstrously loud. Yeah, they had an opening act- some Canadian thrash metal band called Kobra and the Lotus, whose lead singer looked and sounded like Lita Ford

Any way, when Def Leppard took the stage, I was speechless. Especially when I got to see the guys really good from my seat. They played all their good stuff, ranging from "Photograph" "Animal" "Love Bites" "Hysteria" "Rock of Ages" "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" "Let's Get Rocked" "Rocket"

And then...KISS took the stage, but not before hearing their all mighty mantra "You wanted the best, you got the best! The hottest band in the world...KISS! And then the curtain bearing their name fell, revealing the costumed warriors of rock in all their mighty regalia! The noise level in that place when they took the stage, only one word- deafening! They played mostly old stuff, like "Firehouse" "Deuce" "Black Diamond", "War Machine" but they did play other stuff, like "Rock and Roll All Nite" "Lick It Up" "Hide Your Heart" "I Love It Loud" "Love Gun", which had Paul Stanley riding a zipline over the audience to a small stage to sing it. He was on his rotating stage less than 20 feet from me! I just about died! The stage rotated! So I could get a good pic of Paul from any angle. The concert ended with "God Gave Rock and Roll to You", at least it was Kiss' version, and not the original by Argent, a band Kiss toured with frequently in their early, hard working days. And man oh man, was this concert a blast! I'm going every time Def Leppard or Kiss is in town. But, when my parents picked me up, my mom just had to turn the mood sour. She said angrily "This is why I don't go to concerts here. The traffic is always a madhouse." And that kind of ruined the mood for me. I apologized and told her, yet again, "Now you know why I wanted to get a car." And then she comes back saying "We wanted to make sure you had a job first before we even remotely think about getting you a car." But, I did buy some cool souvenirs. I bought two keychains, one for Def Lep and the other for Kiss, a Kiss poster since I never really got to own one, and a Kiss tour shirt! And a whole bunch of confetti

Here are some of the pix I took
Here are some of the opening act- Kobra and the Lotus

 



She looks and sounds like Lita Ford!

The disco ball for Kiss

Def Leppard

None other than Vivian Campbell!

Phil Collen in all his sexy English beauty :D



The screen during "Love Bites"



During the song "Rocket". The stage looks just like their video for the song, with all the TVs



The Thunder God himself!

Rick Savage



Joe singing "Animal"



Joe Elliott belting out "Photograph"

Kiss



See the little red light at the right? They started flashing that and playing fire sirens as they launched into "Firehouse"



Eric Singer



The so-called "Kiss Swerve"

Man, I took some killer pics!



Witness the glory of one of rock music's most famous fire breathers!



Gene's torch



The New Spaceman- Tommy Thayer



The new Catman- Eric Singer

"The Demon" spitting blood during "God of Thunder"



Meant to take a pic of him from the front, but he turned around. I'll settle for that ;)



During "Rock and Roll All Nite"

This is the zipline that took Paul to a stage near me!

Singing "Love Gun" on his rotating stage



Paul getting ready to smash his guitar in mid swing

The final fireworks during "Rock and Roll All Nite"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random

Random guy sitting 5 seats away from me dressed as Paul, right down to the platform boots

20 facts you didn't know about Black Sabbath

Here are 20 unknown facts about Black Sabbath

 

 

 

 

1

Black Sabbath nearly broke up before recording a single song

-Tony Iommi left briefly to join Jethro Tull in 1969, but thankfully left

2
Black Sabbath supposedly took their name from a horror movie
-In reality, American psych rockers Coven wrote a song called "Black Sabbath" and even had a bass player named Oz Osbourne

3

No one knows the history of the mysterious woman on the debut album

-The woman is a complete mystery

4

The album Paranoid wasn't always known as that

-The neon image on the front shows a man holding a shield and sword- a "war pig". The album was renamed at the last moment because it was released in 1970, when Vietnam was still raging on

5
"Fairies Wear Boots" was inspired by true stories
-This song was inspired by one of Sabbath's early concerts, where combat boot-wearing skinheads interrupted a concert
6
Bill Ward is known for bashing his drums
-His main inspirations were big band-style people like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich

7
They called in a little help for an album
-When the band started working on 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the band called in Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman

8

Black Sabbath hired art designers at Hipgnosis to design their album covers

-The designers at Hipgnosis designed the cover art for the band's 1976 Technical Ecstasy album

9
Ozzy supposedly left in 1979, but records say otherwise
-He supposedly left that year after being both fired from the band for missing a concert and his desire to do some solo work. But in reality, he left in 1977, forcing the band to use Dave Walker, a singer with British blues-rock band Savoy Brown

10

Sharon Arden found the band's next singer

-Before she became known as Sharon Osborne, she was still known as Sharon Arden, daughter of Don Arden, Black Sabbath's manager. When Ozzy left, Tony came to her for help. She recommended Ronnie James Dio

11
Geoff Nicholls has been in and out of the band since 1979
-Since then, he has contributed keyboards and bass playing on 1980's "Heaven and Hell"

12

Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillen joins in 1983

-When he joined, there were plans to start a new band. 1986's Seventh Star was supposed to be a solo album by Tony Iommi but both were released under the Black Sabbath name

13
The Seventh Star-era lineup consisted of...everybody
-This 1986 lineup consisted of Tony Iommi, Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes, future Kiss drummer Eric Singer, bass player Dave "The Beast" Spitz, brother of Anthrax member Dan Spitz

14

Another musician joins on vocals

-Badlands member Ray Gillen, who was in the same band as Eric Singer, recorded all his vocals for 1987's The Eternal Idol, only to have his tracks redone by Tony Martin

Ray Gillen



Tony Martin

15

Tony Iommi was supposed to marry Lita Ford

-During the 1980s, Iommi and Ford were engaged to be married. But somehow, she got angry that he needed her drummer Eric Singer for his band and his unfortunate drug use didn't help. She broke off the engagement and later did the song "Close My Eyes Forever" with Ozzy Osbourne!

16

Brian May of Queen helps out

-He played guitar on "When Death Calls" from the 1989 album Headless Cross

17

Out with Ozzy, in with Rob

-When Ozzy was unavailable to sing with Black Sabbath in the 1990s, Rob Halford of Judas Priest filled in, singing "Iron Man" "Paranoid" and "War Pigs" among other songs

18
Geezer Butler and his friend both love football
-Terence "Geezer" Butler and his friend, actor Tom Hanks, both frequent games by Birmingham football team Aston Villa
19
The original members almost reunite
-In 2001, the original lineup almost reunited, but problems arose
20
Tony Iommi does stuff other than metal
-In 2013, he wrote a pop song for the Eurovision Song Contest, which ended up being covered by Armenian band Dorians