Black Sabbath, Lg Arena, 22/12/13 Live Review

After a quick trip to the loo (it actually took a good 20 minutes just to get up there and back) I managed to get back to see Black Sabbath start almost exactly on time. Those famous devil logos shone out through spotlights from a black stage as red lights flooded the arena. Without any real messing around they started with War Pigs, Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Tommy Clufetos were blown up big on the screens behind them as images of war flashed beside them. A trick they repeated throughout the gig, most notably with images of girls and tits for 'dirty girls'  and images of religion for another song (can't remember which one).
It  was pretty obvious that the old geezers seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot during this little gig, Ozzy repeatedly told the audience to jump and go crazy and that he loved us all as well as a few funny bits of stage banter. Tony threw a bucket of water over him and he also briefly wore a santa hat. Ozzy also played up a little bit to his other persona, pretending to bumble around the stage like the old fool many remember from the 'Osbournes' yet when not playing that persona, he was in full 'Prince of Darkness mode, leaning on the mic and letting out the same screeches and screams just like on all the old records, while his voice sounds very rusty on '13' tonight  it hadn't aged a bit.
speaking of '13' the new songs fit alongside the old favourites very nicely, with End of the Beginning, God is Dead' and Age of Reason being particular highlights.
but it was the oldies that people wanted to hear of course. We got 'Black Sabbath' performed complete with pyrotechnics, Iron man, Paranoid, and Fairies wear boots too, but it was 'Children of the Grave that stuck with me, of all the songs that Ozzy told me to jump to this one made me the most.
Tony seems to be doing alright too, while much has been made of his 'health issues' he played all the songs without any problem, and made it all look easy, needless to say the crowd hailed him as the guitar hero/rock god he is.
Bass solos get a bit of a bad rep, yet Geezers short little funky solo was a joy  to behold, yet it was the drum solo that really impressed, i don't know who that guy is but i'm amazed he could carry on afterwards.
The show ended with explosions of purple confetti (it smelled lovely, clearly they ordered purple but forgot to check that it might smell of violets, or other non metal smells) purple balloons filling the stadium like something from a Storm Thorgerson photoshoot. this gig had been a hell of a lot of fun, Ozzy shouted 'See you next year!' and by this performance they seem to have plenty more years in them.

3rd gig i've been to this year with confetti bombs, must be a Brummie thing.