What's That Smell?: Ozzy & Rob Zombie

On Thursday night, my friend Liz & I went to see Ozzy Osbourne & Rob Zombie in concert as they kicked off the start of their most recent tour in Seattle.
I found out only just a couple of weeks ago that thay were coming to town, and I called to see if she wanted to go with me.
I told her I'd spring for the tickets, since it would be her birthday present from me.

We've been friends for more than 10 years now, and gone to quite a few concerts together.
Hmmm, let's see... we've been to; Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Metallica (2x), GWAR, Lollapalooza '96, and now the Ozzy & Zombie concert. I still haven't got her to join me for a Weird Al concert, but that's okay. Maybe one of these days....

So, back to the concert.
I was a little late in trying to get tickets so I was at the mercy of whatever was left available.... if at all.
Fortunately I was able to get two tickets with a full view of the stage..... w-a-y up in the nosebleed section.
I got 'em and then scheduled to take off early from work the day of the concert so I'd have plenty of time to get there.

On Thursday, I left work at 3:00 and drove to Bellevue to leave my car at the Park & Ride and take the bus into Seattle.
Here's my bus to the show:
(Ha ha! No, not really!)
Man, I am so glad I took the bus. The traffic was flippin' crazy that evening getting into town.

I got into downtown Seattle and then took the Monorail to Seattle Center.
Inside the Center House (the main building where they also have the food court) was Liz & G-rod waiting for me. G-rod wasn't going to the show, but since it was close to his work, he thought he'd stop by to say 'hi'.
We sat around and B.S.'d for a while until some other friends showed up.
About 7:15 p.m. we headed over to the arena for the show and G headed home.
We got inside and went to the T-shirt booth to get our swag before the show.

Ugh! I like concerts, but beer-impaired meatheads are really the dominant crowd at shows like this.
After standing in line for QUITE A WHILE to get our shirts, we finally made it to the front... about the same time as "Mr. I've-Already-Had-Too-Much-To-Drink". He had the advantage of seeing ALL the freaking merchandise before we got to it and he STILL didn't know what he wanted and had to ask the dumbest questions about everything.

Well, we got our shirts (I got an Ozzy shirt for me and picked up a couple for shirts for Hotness) while the opening band was playing, which was fine because what we could hear didn't sound all that good anyway.
They finished about the time we left the T-shirt booth, and by the time Liz & I got to our seats, we only had to wait 10 minutes for Rob Zombie to start playing.

Here's the view of the arena from our seats:

And here we are before the show (sorry about the crappy picture):

And here's the view with Rob Zombie on stage:

Wow! What a performance! He really put on a great show. My only complaint was that I wished he'd played longer.
He only did a one-hour set, but it was packed with great stuff!
I can't remember all the songs he did, but here a few that I do remember (in no particular order):
"Demon Speeding", "Superbeast", "Thunderkiss '65", "Living Dead Girl", "Dragula", "House of 1000 Corpses", "More Human Than Human"... and a few others. All the hits without letting up for a minute!
He had Go-Go dancers and flash-pots, and he even had some guy come out on stage with the big robot costume during "More Human Than Human".

Everything you could want from a Zombie show!

Then when he was done, they dropped a big white curtain down in front of the stage and got it ready for Ozzy's set.
It took about a half-hour to get it all switched out.

Then the lights dimmed again and they played "O Fortuna" over the speakers, followed by some videos of Ozzy spoofing various pop-culture topics.
Here's a couple:

(this one is NOT safe for work!)

Then the video stopped, the curtain dropped, and Ozzy and band broke out with a song from his lastest album, "Black Rain". After that it was hit after hit after hit! He just kept 'em coming!
The next song he did was "Crazy Train" and the place just erupted!
Ozzy's show went on for two-hours!
Here he is on stage:

Again, I can't remember all the songs he did, but here's a sampling (in no particular):
"Mr. Crowley", "Over The Mountain", "Suicide Solution", "Paranoid", "Iron Man", "Mama, I'm Coming Home", "Bark at the Moon", "Into The Void", "Sweet Leaf".... on and on. In fact, aside from his own list of songs he did 6 Black Sabbath tunes... four of which were during his encore!
I was a very happy-camper at this show!

Zakk Wylde did a guitar solo which also incorporated the famous "Star-Spangled Banner" that Jimi Hendrix made famous.

Between each song (and sometimes during them), Ozzy would rile the crowd up by saying "I can't F***ing hear you! Louder!!!".
I am STILL hoarse from yelling, screaming and singing along at the show!

Three-hours long (longer if you count the opening band) of greatest hits by two top-tier performers.
Definitely worth the money and I would certainly do it again!

After the show got out, around 11:30 p.m., Liz & I went to get her car so she could drop me off in Bellevue to pick mine up and go home.
Except.... we came out on the wrong side of the arena and ended up walking around in the rain for a half-hour. Well, I was able to walk off my contact high. (Yes, even in the arena there was plenty of pot-smoking going on!)